THE BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. AIS 
have been measured, and that in others the birds must have been 
missexed. 
The legs and feet are always dark coloured, but they 
vary in shade and are blackish plumbeous, blackish green, very 
dark olivaceous, dusky with a greenish tinge, deep leaden brown, 
sooty brown, dark greenish brown, dusky brown, dull greyish 
brown, etc., but the greenish tinge is the most common. The 
claws are black. Note that the mid-toe claw is long, much 
dilated on the inner side, more or less delicately serrated there, 
and when perfect (the tips are very commonly much worn 
away or broken) more or less distinctly recurved. 
The irides are dark brown. Normally the basal three-fifths 
of the bill are fleshy livid, or reddish pink, more or less brownish 
on the culmen, while the terminal two-fifths are brown to 
blackish brown, darkest, at times almost black, towards the 
tip. 
Sometimes the basal portions of the bill are more of a 
yellowish horny, though still with a faint fleshy tinge, or a fleshy 
cream colour, and at times there is but little of this lighter 
colour on the upper mandible, it being replaced by brown, 
though not nearly so dark as the brown of the terminal portion. 
Occasionally the basal portions might be best described as 
a mixture of dingy orange and pink. 
Asa rule, about the basal three-fifths of the bill are of these 
clearer and lighter tints, but sometimes these extend for two- 
thirds of its length, and at others for barely more than one- 
half. 
THE PLATE represents both the summer plumage (the figure 
in the foreground) and the winter plumage (the hind figure). 
Both are very fair, though the irides are wrongly coloured in both, 
and the bills of both should be darker towards the tips. As 
a rule, the brown of the winter plumageis of arather paler and 
of a greyer and more earthy tint than is depicted, and 
unfortunately the most characteristic features in that plumage, 
the pure white rump and upper tail-coverts (except the longest) 
and jet black, narrowly pale-tipped tail, are hidden in the 
drawing. 
We never, I think, or very seldom, see birds in guzte the full 
summer plumage here depicted ; but by the close of March they 
have assumed a good deal of the barring on the lower surface 
and of the rufous colouration that characterize this stage, and 
the commencement of the change (which is effected not by 
a moult, but by a change in the colour of the existing feathers) 
may be observed in some birds as early as the middle of 
February and in almost all (all in fact I think, except birds in 
their first year) by the middle of March. 
