File:Indian sporting birds (1915) (14747422231).jpg

Identifier: indiansportingbi00finn (find matches)
Title: Indian sporting birds
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Finn, Frank, 1868-1932 Hume, Allan Octavian, 1829-1912 Marshall, Charles Henry Tilson, 1841-
Subjects: Birds -- India Game and game-birds -- India
Publisher: London : Francis Edwards
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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black and white intwo sections, but sunply marked with many transverse bandsof brown and white, while the body plumage is longitudinallymarked with dark stripes. Although the dimensions of this bird average smaller thanthose of the last, there is some overlapping, the smallest beingbarely lighter than small examples of the black-tailed, thoughthe largest do not reach twelve ounces ; these, as in the commonspecies, are hens, this sex averaging bigger in the bar-tailedgodwit also. The bar-tailed godwit, although more familiar at homenowadays than the black-tailed, is little known in India ; itis, however, common along the south coast, where specimenshave been got in Kurrachee harbour, one as early as Sep-tember 29. The bird is only a winter visitant, and the latestwas got on March 28. At Kurrachee, according to Hume,these godwits haunt the extensive mud-banks, mixed up withother waders, but flying off in flocks when alarmed. Theseflocks did not exceed twenty birds, and however many were
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5 3 Ll_CL cMin <i; z O Eo6 OT SNIPE-BILLED GODWIT 99 together when feeding, they did not go off in one big flock,but split up into smaller parties and each took its own line,fl5Mng less swiftly than the black-tailed species, though risingquicker. They were so wary that he only got six specimens,though as many as a hundred birds might be seen on onebank at a time, and they were even more silent than theother kind, very occasionally uttering their low pipe; their foodhad consisted of small sea animals, and they themselves had thepeculiar flavour which Hume calls froggy, reminding himof eels from mudd)^ water; this is curious, as even when nearthe sea the black-tailed godwit retains its excellent flavour.Like that bird, the bar-tailed godwit puts on a chestnutplumage in the breeding-season, though retaining its charac-teristic differences, and it also breeds all along the NorthernHemisphere. In winter a race of it even reaches New Zealandand is a favourite object of sport with gunners

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