186 
BAR-TAILED GODWIT. 
The egg is described as of a pale yellowish brown colour, 
speckled, blotted, and spotted with other darker shades of 
brown. 
Male; weight, about twelve ounces; length, not quite one 
foot four inches; bill, pale yellowish red, or reddish brown 
at the base, succeeded by brown, and the rest blackish brown ; 
it is curved upwards, and is not unfrequently as much as 
seven inches in length; the space between the bill and the 
eye is spotted with black. Iris, dusky brown; over it is a 
reddish white streak; the lower eyelid is white. Forehead, 
head on the crown, neck on the back, and nape, pale reddish 
orange brown streaked with blackish brown; in winter, 
greyish white streaked with pale brown. Chin, throat, and 
breast, reddish brown, the latter on the lower part with the 
feathers finely margined with white, the sides streaked with 
dark brown; in winter the chin and throat are greyish 
white, tinged with dull yellow, as also is the lower part of 
the breast. Back on the upper part, blackish brown with 
a tinge of purple, with oval-shaped spots of pale reddish 
orange, with which the feathers are also margined; on the 
lower part it is white with a few small dark feathers; in 
winter the upper half is fine grey, margined with a paler 
shade, the shafts and parts immediately adjoining greyish 
black. 
The wings have the axillary feathers white, cross-barred in 
summer; greater and lesser wing coverts have the feathers 
with dark brown centres, and edged with greyish white, in 
winter white with the centres brown; the primaries have the 
outer webs almost black, the inner ones dusky brown 
mottled with white on the outer edges, the shafts white. 
The tail is marked with alternate irregular bars of deep dusky 
brown and reddish white, in winter with dusky brown and 
greyish white; upper tail coverts, white, the centres of the 
feathers dark brown, some few of them margined with 
orange brown; sometimes the tail coverts are entirely rufous 
in summer—in the former state they are very conspicuous 
in flight; under tail coverts, partially streaked with dark 
brown. Legs and toes, blackish grey, or dark greyish green; 
they are bare of feathers a long way above the knee. Claws, 
nearly black. 
The female is larger than the male, her length reaching to 
one foot five inches, or five and a half. 
The young, before the first change, have the bill frequently 
