Audubon's Birds/BIRDSVER1_3.BIN/dp/0059/00593.txt

Text File | 1992-08-27 | 9KB | 162 lines

$Unique_ID{BRD00593}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{The Hudsonian Godwit.}
$Subject{Scolopacinae; Limosa; hudsonica; haemastica; Hudsonian Godwit}
$Journal{Birds of America:  Volume V}
$Volume{Vol. 5:335-338}
$Family{Scolopacinae}
$Genus{Limosa}
$Species{hudsonica; haemastica}
$Common_Name{Hudsonian Godwit}
$Log{
Plate CCCXLIX*00593P1.scf
Family*00565.txt
Genus*00591.txt
}

       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       B I R D S   O F   A M E R I C A .

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. SS. L. & E.

                   ------------------------------------------
                                    VOL.  V.
                        --------------------------------


                             THE HUDSONIAN GODWIT.
                              [Hudsonian Godwit.]


                            LIMOSA HUDSONICA, Lath.
                              [Limosa haemastica.]


                  PLATE CCCXLIX.--ADULT MALE AND YOUNG FEMALE.


     This species, which is of rare occurrence in any part of the United States,
is scarcely ever found farther south along the coast than the State of Maryland.
I had never seen it in the flesh, until I went to Boston in 1832, when I found
specimens of it in the market late in September.  An old gunner in my employ
brought me eight or ten in the course of a month, but they were all young birds.
From one of them my son drew the figure in the plate.  While I was at Pictou
Professor MACCULLOCH presented me with a pair of adult birds in beautiful
plumage.  When we were on our way towards Labrador, the fishermen and
inhabitants of the Magdeleine Islands, who gave the name of Curlews to the
Godwits, assured me that this species breeds there in some marshes at the
extremity of the principle island, and that they were in the habit of killing
them as soon as they were able to fly, when they were considered excellent food.
We saw none, however, on our voyage farther north, and in Labrador and
Newfoundland nobody seemed to know them.
     My young friend THOMAS MACCULLOCH, who gave me, in London, several
well-mounted specimens of this species, in the spring of 1835, confirmed the
assertions of the people of the Magdeleine Islands, and informed me that these
birds breed at times on Prince Edward's Island, from which they spread along the
coast of Nova Scotia, where they remain until very severe weather comes on, when
they suddenly disappear.
     I have tried to give a good figure of the adult, and that made by my son
will, I hope, be considered faithful by those who are acquainted with the bird
in its autumnal plumage.  The adult has been represented as lying down, in order
to shew the difference between this species and the Limosa melanura of Europe,
to which it is allied, but from which it may readily be distinguished at all
periods by the black colour of the inner wing-coverts.  In the European bird
these feathers are white, and the species does not occur in the United States,
perhaps not in any part of North America.  The females are rather larger than
the males, but nothing is known respecting the nests or eggs.


     SCOLOPAX HUDSONICA, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. ii. p. 720.
     LIMOSA HUDSONICA, Hudsonian Godwit, Swains. and Rich. F. Bor. Amer.,
       vol. ii. p. 396.
     HUDSONIAN GODWIT, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 175.
     HUDSONIAN GODWIT, Limosa hudsonica, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 426;
       vol. v. p. 592.


     Male, 15 3/4, 28.  Female, 16 3/4, 29.
     Rather rare along the Atlantic Districts in spring and autumn.  Breeds in
the barren grounds of the Arctic seas in great numbers.  Migratory.
     Adult Male.
     Bill double the length of the head, sub-cylindrical, compressed at the
base, tapering to an obtuse point, which is a little enlarged, slightly
recurved.  Upper mandible with the dorsal line slightly curved upwards in its
whole extent, the ridge convex, the sides with a narrow groove extending almost
to the point, the edges rather obtuse, the tip slightly enlarged.  Nostrils
basal, lateral, near the edges, small, linear, pervious.  Lower mandible with
the angle very long and extremely narrow, the dorsal line slightly recurved, the
sides with a narrow groove extending almost to the end, the edges rather blunt,
the tip obtuse.
     Head small, oblong, compressed.  Neck rather long and slender.  Body
slender.  Feet long and slender; tibia bare for about a third, anteriorly
scutellate; tarsus long, slender, covered anteriorly and posteriorly with
numerous scutella, laterally for a very small space reticulate; toes small,
slender, scutellate above, flat beneath, broadly marginate, the anterior
connected at the base by webs, of which the outer is much larger; first toe very
small, second slightly shorter than fourth, third little longer.  Claws small,
compressed, slightly arched, obtuse, that of middle toe with the inner edge
curved outwards and thin.
     Plumage soft on the head, neck and lower parts blended, on the back
imbricated; all the feathers oblong and rounded.  Wings long, very acute,
narrow; primaries tapering, the first longest, the second little shorter, the
rest rapidly graduated; secondaries incurved, obliquely rounded, with a recurved
tip, the inner elongated and tapering.  Tail short, of twelve rounded feathers,
slightly forked, but with the two middle feathers a little longer than those
next them.
     Bill greyish-yellow, dark brown along the ridge of the upper mandible, and
blackish towards the tips of both.  Iris brown.  Feet light greyish-blue.  The
head and neck brownish-grey, with darker lines; a band from the bill over the
eye, and the throat greyish-white; the back deep grey; the scapulars
brownish-black, with small white markings on the edges of the feathers; the
smaller wing-coverts, alula, primary quills and their coverts brownish-black;
the secondaries lighter, and with their inner webs pale grey; tips of the
primary coverts and bases of the quills, white, as is a broad band over the
rump.  Tail feathers and upper tail-coverts brownish-black, their bases white,
and their tips narrowly edged with brownish-white.  The lower parts are bright
yellowish-red, the sides mottled with dark brown; the abdomen and lower
tail-coverts paler and variegated with dusky; the lower wing-coverts
blackish-brown, edged with whitish.
     Length to end of tail 15 3/4 inches, to end of wings 16 3/8, to end of
claws 19 3/4; wing from flexure 8 1/2; tail 3 1/4; extent of wings 28; bill
along the back 3 7/12; along the edge of lower mandible 3 6/12; bare part of
tibia 1 1/4; tarsus 2 1/2; middle toe 1 4/12, its claw (2 1/2)/12.  Weight 9 oz.
     Young Female in winter.
     The bill, iris and feet, as in the adult male.  Upper part of the head
dusky, with darker lines; sides of the head, and the neck, greyish-yellow; a
whitish band over the eye.  The lower parts are pale brownish-grey, the upper
brownish-grey; the fore part of the back and scapulars brownish-black, the
feathers edged with light brownish-red; the wing-coverts brownish-grey; the
quills as in the adult, as is the tail, anterior to which is also a broad white
band.
     In September 1835, I shot, near Edinburgh, a young individual of Limosa
rufa, which I had previously observed for some time.  It thrust its bill into
the wet sand in the same manner as the Woodcock; and I was much surprised, on
taking it up, to see that its bill was perfectly straight in its whole length.
When I opened it, however, in order to place a little cotton in its throat, a
sudden spring-like movement of the mandibles made them curve upwards.  Never
having kept birds of this genus alive, I am unable to say whether the bill be
naturally straight or not.
     The following are the dimensions of a very fine specimen selected from
among five presented by Dr. T. M. BREWER of Boston.  Length to end of tail
16 3/4 inches, to end of wings 17 3/4, to end of claws 18 1/2; extent of wings 2
feet 5 inches; bill along the ridge 3 1/2, along the edge of lower mandible also
3 1/2;