Scolopax limosa Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 147.
Limosa limosa Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 24, 381;
Hand-List (1899), 1, 159; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 40;
McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 25.
Limosa belgica Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 254,
fig. 59 (head).
Luzon (Celestino); Negros (Everett, Steere Exp.); Samar
(Whitehead). Central and northern Europe to valley of Ob River;
in winter Mediterranean countries and northeastern Africa.
"Adult male in winter plumage.--Above ashy brown, with slightly paler
edges to the feathers; lower back and rump blackish brown; upper
tail-coverts white, long ones tipped with black; lesser wing-coverts
darker brown than back; median coverts dusky brown, lighter brown
externally and fringed with white, forming a wing-band; alula blackish;
primary-coverts blackish, the inner ones broadly tipped with white;
primaries blackish, with white shafts, the greater part of the inner
webs white, and then subterminally brown, the white extending to the
base of the outer web on all but the first primary and increasing
in extent on the inner primaries and secondaries, the latter being
white with broad, blackish tips, which gradually diminish in size
on the inner secondaries; the innermost secondaries brown like the
back; tail white at the base, with a broad, black, terminal band,
gradually decreasing in size toward the outer feathers, which are
edged with white at the tip, the center feathers brownish at the tip;
head ashy brown, the forehead more hoary; an indistinct whitish eyebrow
extending from the base of the nostril to behind the eye; lores dusky
gray; below the eye a whitish spot; sides of face, sides of neck,
throat, and chest light ashy brown, a little darker on the sides
of the body; fore part of cheeks and upper throat white, as well as
the whole of the center of the breast, abdomen, under tail-coverts,
under wing-coverts, and axillars; edge of wing mottled with dark
brown bases to the feathers; quill-lining white. 'Bill pale fleshy,
blackish brown at the tip; feet olivaceous-green, toes blackish brown;
iris brown.' (Hume.) Length, 417; culmen, 112; wing, 223; tail, 76;
tarsus, 81.
"Adult female in winter plumage.--Similar to the male in color,
but rather larger. 'Bill livid pink, blackish horny at the tip; feet
blackish plumbeous, toes brownish; iris brown.' (Hume.) Length, 444;
culmen, 127; wing, 216; tail, 76; tarsus, 85.
"Adult male in summer plumage.--Differs in having the back more or
less mottled with rufous and black, crown rufous with short, broad
streaks of black, sides of face and entire neck all round rufous, fore
neck and breast overshaded with rufous and barred with dusky blackish,
these bars also developed on abdomen and on the sides of body.
"Adult female in summer plumage.--Similar to the male, but with less
rufous, and distinguished by the larger size.
"Young.--Distinguished from the adults by being darker brown above,
with broad, sandy-rufous edges to the feathers of the upper surface,
the innermost secondaries banded with blackish brown and sandy rufous;
the head rufous, streaked with dark brown, but indistinctly; sides
of face buffy white, with very fine streaks of brown; throat white;
lower throat, sides of neck, and chest reddish buff, slightly mottled
with dusky bases to the feathers of the side of breast; remainder of
under surface white, suffused with rufescent buff, and shaded with
ashy brown on the sides of the body.
"It is evident from the molting specimens in the collection that
the black markings are acquired first, and that the rufous-color
overspreads the plumage afterwards. Great variation in the amount
of the nuptial decoration is seen in the series, and sometimes very
old individuals have the abdomen, and even the under tail-coverts,
barred." (Sharpe.)
The black-tailed godwit is extremely rare in the Philippines,
the only specimens examined by me being two killed near Manila,
in February, 1908.
Genus TOTANUS Bechstein, 1803.
Culmen straight, equal to tarsus; secondaries and rump white.