420 THE BAR-TAILED GODWIT: 
brown, but all the rest are still grey, with only indications of 
coming darker bands. 
I have no specimen at hand in full summer plumage ; one 
killed (as above) late in March, has a reddish buffy tinge over 
the breast and front of the neck, and one or two red and black 
feathers on the head. It is only, therefore, just commencing to 
put on the summer plumage, which ts, I believe, fairly correctly 
depicted in the standing figure of the plate. 
THERE IS another closely allied species, (if indeed it merits 
specific rank)—the Eastern Bar-tailed Godwit, which we have 
shot in the Malay Peninsula, and which may hereafter appear 
in Burma and Eastern Assam on passage. This race (L. bauerz, 
Naumann; ZL. uropygialis, Gould; L. nove-zcalandie, Gray) is 
distinguished first, posszbly, by its slightly larger size and 
longer bill, (birds of the same age and sex being compared) ; 
secondly, by having the lower back and rump, which in the 
western bird are mostly white, much blotched or barred with 
brown ; indeed in many specimens the entire lower back (not 
rump) is brown, the feathers being only narrowly margined 
with white; thirdly, by the much more profuse markings and 
barrings of its wing lining and axillaries. 
I have, however, English specimens of /apponica making a 
considerable approach in the matter of rump and wing lining 
markings to some of my New Zealand, Malayan, and Japanese 
specimens of dauerz, and a very large series of both will require 
careful consideration, before the specific validity of the eastern 
race can be finally accepted. 
This species or race occurs in the Malay Peninsula and 
Sumatra to our knowledge, possibly in Borneo, certainly in 
Java, Celebes, Timor, and other islands of the Archipelago, 
Australia, including Van Diemen’s Land, New Zealand, New 
Hebrides, Norfolk Island, and other islands of Central Polynesia. 
It also occurs in the Philippines (P. Z. S., 1878, 711), Japan and 
along the entire Chinese Coast, including those of Hainan and 
Formosa. But in all these countries the bird is a winter, or 
at any rate non-breeding visitant, for some young and weakly 
birds may, in places, remain the whole year. 
It is said to have occurred in Mongolia, Eastern and South- 
Eastern Siberia, and Alaska.* To the latter it is extremely 
unlikely that it should extend, and as regards the others, though 
it doubtless must traverse them on passage, neither Radde, 
Schrenk, Dybowski or Prjevalski ever appear to have met with 
it. Butin the extreme north of Siberia, Middendorff found 
this species breeding in great numbers on the Taimyr River, 
in 74° North Latitude. This is in about 100° East Longitude, 
* Swinhoe says, P. Z S. 1871, 406: ‘*Breeds in Amoor land and Alaska,” but 
this appears to be entirely groundless, 
