GOD WIT. 
201 
284. 6. — Ib. 8vo. 2. p. 282. — ^Totanus limosa, Bechst. Naturg. Deut. 4. p. 244. 
Jadreka 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. — Alhin, 2. t. 70. 
— Br. Zool. fol. t. B. B. — Wale. 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. — lb. 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. — Bed 
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, g-iven a 
variety, which afterwards, in his Index Ornitholog-icus, he g-ave as a 
distinct species, under the title of Leucophsea ; but we do not find any 
sufficient character to make it distinct from the .Tig’ocephala 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 weig-ht 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 
