HUDSONIAN GODWIT. 481 
mount in the air with loud, piercing cries, hovering slowly around with labored flight 
in evident distress, and approaching sometimes within a few feet of the observer. 
The only perfect set of eggs of the Godwit I have seen were taken June 1, 1871, fifty 
miles northwest of Saint Paul, Minnesota; both parents were secured and deposited in 
the Saint Paul Academy, where I examined them ; so that the identification is unques- 
tionable. There are three eggs in this set, measuring 2.30 by 1.60, 2.28 by 1.56, and 2.25 
by 1.62. The color is a clear, light olivaceous drab; the markings are small and nam- 
erous, but not very strongly pronounced—there is nothing (in this set) of the heavy 
blotching and marking usually seen in waders’ eggs. The spots are pretty evenly dis- 
tributed, though rather larger in two instances, and more numerous in the other instance, 
about the batt than elsewhere. These markings are of various umber-brown shades, 
with the usual stone-gray shell spots.” 
LimosA H#mMASTICA (L.) Coues. 
Wiudsonian Godwit. 
Limosa hudsonica, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geo og. Surv., 1838, 165, 185.—- WHEATON, Ohio Agric. 
Rep. for 1860, 369, 378; Reprint, 1861 11, 20; Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. 
for 1874, 572; Reprint, 12.—LANGpDOoN, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 15. 
Limosa hemastica, LANGDON, Revised List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 183; Re- 
print, 17. 
Scolopax hemastica, LINNnUS, Syst. Nat., 1758, 147. 
Limosa hudsonica, SWAINSON and RICHARDSON, Fn. Bor.-Am., ii, 1831. 
Limosa hemastica, Couns, Birds, N. W., 1874, 760. 
Tail black, largely white at base, its coverts mostly white; rump blackish; lining of 
wings extensively blackish ; under-parts in the breeding season intense rufous (chiefly 
barred) with dusky ; head, neck and upper-parts brownish-black, variegated with gray, 
reddish and usually some whitish speckling; quills blackish, more or less white at the 
base. Young and apparently winter specimens much paler, tawny-whitish below, more 
gray above. Considerably smaller than the foregoing, about 15; wing, 8 or less; bill, 
34 or less; tarsus, 24 or less. 
Habitat, Northern and Eastern North America. WestIndies. South America. Breeds 
far northward. Not noted west of the Rocky Mountains. Rare along the Atlantic. 
Rare spring and fall migrant. Dr. Kirtland notes its capture in the 
vicinity of Cincinnati, and Mr. Winslow mentions its occurrence near 
Cleveland. I met with a flock of eight birds, in the spring of 1858, 
wading in a shallow pond in an old brick-yard within the city limits, 
but was not so fortunate as to secure specimens. In the spring of 1861, 
a fine specimen was taken below the State dam, near the city, by a sports- 
man and taxidermist, which was preserved until recently. 
' The eggs of the Hudsonian Godwit are of a very dark olive-drab color, 
with blotches of stilldarker drab. They measure about 2.18 by 1.40. 
GENUS TOTANUS. Bechstein. 
Bill nearly straight, about equal to or shorter than the tarsus, not grooved in its 
terminal fourth. Gape of mouth extending beyond base of culmen. Tarsi scutellate in 
front and behind. 
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