GOD WIT. 201 



284. 6.— Ib. 8vo. 2. p. 282. — Totanus limosa, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. 4. p. 244. 

 Jadieka Snipe, Lath. Syn. 5. 146. — Mont. Orn. Diet. — Le grande Barge rousse, 



Buff. Ois. 7. p. 505.— Godwit, Lath. Syn. 5. p. 145. 14. A Albin, 2. t. 70. 



—Br. Zool. fol. t. B. B.— Walc. Syn. 2. t. 141 Scolopax Belgica, Gmel. Syst. 



1. p. 663. 39. — Scolopax leucophae, Ind. Orn. 2. p. 719. 17 1 — Limosa grisea 

 major, Briss. 5. p. 272. 3. t. 24. f. 2.— Ib. 8vo. 2. p. 279.— Common Godwit, 



Br. Zool. 2. No. 179 Ib. fol. 120. t. B Arct. Zool. 2. No. 373 Lath. Syn. 



5. p. 144. 15 Ib. Supp. p. 245 Grey Godwit, Lewins Br. Birds, 4. t. 161. 



—Don. Br. Birds. 4. t. 75 Lesser Godwit, Penn. Br. Zool. 2. p. 182 Red 



Godwit, Lath. Syn. 5. 142. 



Provincial. — Yarwhelp. Stone Plover. Sea Woodcock.* 

 This species is subject to very considerable variety, both in size 

 and plumage ; and we conceive authors have erred in making- more 

 than one species out of these varieties, which is only a difference 

 occasioned by age or sex. Dr. Latham had, in his Synopsis, given a 

 variety, which afterwards, in his Index Ornithologicus, he gave as a 

 distinct species, under the title of Leucophaea ; but we do not find any 

 sufficient character to make it distinct from the iEgocephala of Linnaeus. 

 In the many we have examined, the markings seem to run so much 

 into one another that we cannot find a permanent distinction. 



The weight of this bird is from seven to twelve ounces ; length 

 fifteen or sixteen inches ; bill from three inches and a quarter to up- 

 wards of four inches, a very little reflected, of a pale brown, dusky at 

 the point ;. irides hazel ; the head, neck, and upper parts are of a light 

 rusty brown, in some inclining to ash-colour ; the middle of each 

 feather dusky ; breast cinereous-brown ; belly and under tail coverts 

 white ; in some the throat and rump are white ; from the bill to the 

 eye a whitish stroke ; the prime quill-feathers are black ; the shaft 

 of the first white ; tail white, barred more or less with dusky brown ; 

 legs long and dusky, sometimes bluish grey ; in some the upper and 

 under tail coverts are barred or spotted with brown or dusky ; and 

 other trifling varieties. There is no doubt that the Red Godwit and 

 jadreka snipe are varieties of this species : one of the latter in Colonel 

 Montagu's possession is described as follows. " Cheeks and chin freckled 

 with pale ferruginous ; from the upper mandible a pale streak runs 

 over the eye, and beneath that a dusky one ; the neck and breast cine- 

 reous, mottled with pale ferruginous ; on the other, and along the sides, 

 the ferruginous markings become less frequent, but form distinct, 

 irregular, broad, transverse bars : these markings are occasioned by the 

 ends of some of the feathers being more or less ferruginous : the belly 

 is white, with only a few scattered spots ; the thighs pale rufous- 

 brown, mixed with white ; the feathers of the back, and coverts of the 

 wings brown, with pale margins ; quills dusky, at the base of most of 

 them more or less white, except the middle ones ; the exterior web of 

 the outer feathers white nearly to the tip ; the coverts immediately 



