SC0L0PACID2E — THE SNIPE FAMILY — LIMOSA. 
263 
in Newfoundland, but was informed by Mr. MacCullock that it breeds on Prince 
Edward’s Island, from which the pairs spread along the coast of Nova Scotia, and 
there remain until very severe weather drives them away. 
Mr. MacFarlane found this species breeding in the vicinity of Fort Anderson, on 
the 9th of June. The nest was on the ground, was composed of a few decayed leaves 
lying in a small hole scooped in the earth, and contained four eggs. Other nests 
were found and birds obtained on the Lower Anderson River. They were mere 
depressions in the ground, lined with withered leaves. 
Examples of this species were also taken at Fort Rae, on Great Slave Lake, by 
Mr. Kennicott ; at Moose Fort by Mr. I. McKenzie ; on the Anderson River by Mr. 
B. R. Ross ; on Big Island by Mr. Reid ; and at Fort Kenzie by Bischoff. 
Three of the eggs collected by Mr. MacFarlane are in the Smithsonian Collection. 
In two of these the ground is of a deep raw-umber color, or an olivaceous drab. 
There are no well-defined spots, but the apex of the larger end is deeply stained with 
a dark burnt-umber color. A few very indistinct spots of a paler shade of this tint 
are visible over the general surface of the eggs. The other egg has a ground-color of 
a paler umber-drab, and the markings are quite distinct. These are small irregular 
blotches, longitudinal in their direction, and of a deep burnt-umber tint. The apex 
of the larger end is covered by a broad patch, in which all the markings, of a very 
dark umber, almost black, run into each other. These eggs are pyriform in shape, 
and measure 2.15 by 1.41, 2.12 by 1.39, and 2.22 by 1.40 inches. 
Limosa aegocephala. 
BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 
Scolopax limosa, Linn. S. N. ed. 10, 1758, 147 ; ed. 12, 1766, 245. 
Scolopax cegocepliala, Linn. S. N. I. 1766, 246, no. 10. 
Limosa aegocephala, Leach, Syst. Cat. 1816, 34. — Keys. & Blas. Wirb. Eur. 1840, 74. — Bonap. 
Comp. List, 1838, 52 . — Gray. Gen. B. III. 1849, 570; Cat. Brit. B. 1863, 156 . — Reinh. 
Ibis, 1861, 11 (Greenland). — R idgw. Nom. N. Ain. B. 1881, no. 546 . — Coues, Check List, 
2d ed. 1882, no. 630. 
Totanus rufus, Beciist. Naturg. IY. 253. 
Limosa melanurus, Leisl. Naclit. zu Bechst. Naturg. 1811-1815, 150, 157. — Naum. Yog. Deutschl. 
VIII. 1836, 406, pis. 212, 213. — Macgill. Man. II. 81. 
Scolopax belgica, Gmel. S. N. I. 1788, 663. 
Limosa jadreca, Leach, Syst. Cat. 1816, 32. 
Limosa islandica, Brehm, Tog. Deutschl. 1831, 626. 
Black-tailed Goclwit, Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 2, II. 634, fig. ; ed. 3, II. 681, fig. ; et Auct. 
Hab. The Palaearctic Region ; accidental in Greenland. 
Sp. Char. Adult, in summer : Head, neck, and jngulfi.ni, cinnamon, streaked on the first and 
barred on the last with dusky ; remaining lower parts white, the breast and sides barred with 
dusky. Back and scapulars mixed black, cinnamon, and grayish ; wing-coverts, brownish gray ; 
greater coverts widely tipped with white, forming a conspicuous patch ; secondaries partly white ; 
primaries dusky, the fifth to the seventh white at the base, forming a second white patch on the 
wing. Rump, longer upper tail-coverts, and most of the tail dusky ; upper tail-coverts (except 
terminal half of the longer feathers) and base of the tail, immaculate white, this occupying the 
greater part of the outer rectrices. Axillars and lining of the wing immaculate white. Winter 
plumage : Wings, tail, rump, etc., as in summer ; head, neck, back, and scapulars dark brownish 
gray, the head and neck lighter ; jugulum pale gray, without bars ; other lower parts white. 
Young, first plumage : “ Head dull brown, the feathers edged with rufous-buff ; an indistinct light- 
buff line passing from the base of the bill above and beyond the eye ; neck dark buff ; back earthy 
brown, with here and there a dark blackish brown feather, all being edged with dull rufous . . . 
