182 
BLACK-TAILED GOD WIT. 
olive brown colour, faintly blotted with spots of a darker 
shade. 
As soon as the young are able to flutter about, the old 
ones leave them to themselves. 
Male; weight, about twelve ounces; length, one foot four 
inches, to one foot four and a half; bill, fine orange at the 
base, in winter pale yellowish brown, the tip black—it is bent 
a little upwards, and is three inches and a quarter long; 
from it to the eye is a dark streak,, the effect of some small 
black spots on feathers of a reddish brown. Iris, dusky; 
over it is a white patch; forehead, pale reddish white; head 
on the sides, pale reddish brown; on the crown, reddish 
brown streaked with black; neck, pale reddish brown. Chin, 
reddish white; throat and breast above, pale reddish brown, 
in winter paler, transversely barred with brownish black; 
below white, barred at distant intervals with pale reddish 
brown and blackish brown. Back, almost black, each feather 
margined and barred with orange reddish brown tinted with 
purple; in winter it is pale brown, the feathers darker along 
the centres. 
The wings have the first quill feather the longest; greater 
and lesser wing coverts, deep brown, the edges paler, deeply 
margined with white, shewing at the tips, forming a bar 
crossing the wing; primaries, blackish brown on the outer 
webs and tips, shading nearly to white on the inner, the 
shafts strong, broad, and yellowish white, with some white 
also at the base of all except the second, forming a bar across 
the wing; tertiaries, long, and clear brown, darker along the 
centres, and sometimes more or less variegated with orange 
red, the edges being lighter-coloured. The tail, which is 
slightly forked, is black, the bases of the feathers for one 
third of their length white, increasing gradually on each from 
the centre ones to the outside, where the black scarcely 
covers more than half an inch of the end; upper tail coverts, 
white; under tail coverts, white. The legs, which are bare 
of feathers for a considerable space above the knee, are, as 
the toes, blackish grey; claws, black. 
The young, before the first moult, have the streak over 
the eye white; crown of the head, blackish brown, each feather 
margined with pale reddish brown; neck, greyish ash-colour, 
tinged with reddish brown; chin, white; breast above, greyish 
ash-colour, tinged with reddish brown; below it is white, 
clouded with greyish ash-colour; back, brownish black, each 
