The Pacific godwit chooses an elevated dry site for its domicile, preferring the ridges on the rolling tundra and nests even occur on the lower mountain slopes. The nest is well concealed, for it is usually placed between clumps of bunch grass and is thus well screened from view by the standing vegetation. The structure is usually a simple depression in the moss and lichens and lined haphazardly with fragments of the surrounding reindeer moss, but occasionally a real nest is carefully fashioned with considerable grass woven in a circular manner and is thus rather substantially constructed. In one instance the bird added to the nesting material while the eggs were being laid. The range of measurements of 12 nests is: Inside diameter, 6 to 7 inches; inside depth, 3 to 4 inches; and total depth, 3 to 5 inches. I observed the female Pacific godwit alone to incubate, but the male was always near by. She is perhaps the closest brooder of any incubating shore bird we encountered, so much so that she often literally had to be almost stepped on before she arose. The alert male lookout meets the intruder at a considerable distance from the nest and with a loud tongue acts as an escort to the discomfort of the interloper. Thus but little clue can be had from the bird's actions as to the whereabouts of the brooding female, and in consequence, in spite of the number of nests in the region, relatively few are found, and those mostly by chance. The peculiar contents of one nest were originally five eggs of the willow ptarmigan, on top of which four eggs of the Pacific godwit had been laid. Evidently the latter bird had driven the ptarmigan away from its nest, as there were but three godwit's eggs in it when first observed, the fourth egg having been deposited on the following day. The entire nestful was left to hatch in order to ascertain whether or not the ptarmigan would be reared by the incubating godwit, but this composite set was later deserted and then despoiled by jaegers.
Eggs.—Mr. Brandt was fortunate enough to collect 20 sets of eggs of this rare species, which he describes in his notes as follows:
The egg of the Pacific godwit is subpyriform to ovate pyriform in outline with the majority following the latter shape although one set is elongate ovate. The shell is strong, smooth, slightly granular with somewhat of a luster, yet an occasional surface is almost dull. There are two general types of ground color—the greenish, that is the rule, and the brownish type that we but rarely encountered. "Serpentine green," dull "citrine" to "yellowish glaucous" cover the range of greenish ground colors, while "snuff brown" matches the other type. The surface markings are not as numerous as on most shorebirds' eggs, and in consequence they are more scattered than usual. These spots are small in most instances, but in a few beautiful sets they are large and, more rarely, even convergent on the larger end so as to form a rich blotch. In a few rare instances there were no surface markings at all, the paler underlying spots being the only decoration. The primary markings are irregular to elongated without a spiral tendency. In color they are "cinnamon brown," "snuff brown," and "mummy brown" or "brownish olive," usually the latter if the ground color is decidedly greenish. The underlying spots are not very bold, although they are numerous and occasionally of considerable size. These neutral spots range from "light mouse gray" or "Quaker drab" to "deep olive gray" in color. Additional markings of grayish black slightly fleck some eggs while they are wanting on others. In a few cases these markings assume the form of pen scratches which usually encircle the larger end. The eggs, which were the rarest that we took on the trip, were always four in number, except for one set of three and one nest of five eggs, the only abnormally large set that I met with among the Alaska species of the entire shore-bird group.
The measurement of his 80 eggs average 55.3 by 38.2 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 60.5 by 37.7, 52.6 by 40.7, 50.5 by 38.2, and 54.8 by 36.1 millimeters.
Young.—The same observer says:
Both birds share in the duties of incubation and are very zealous in defense of their treasures, especially when their pretty tawny brown chicks are first bursting forth. We saw the first downy young on June 18 when we came upon two and one hatching egg at an altitude of about 300 feet on the side of the Askinuk Mountains. These sturdy babies have little to fear from their marine enemies for their parents dominate the chosen domain with a vigor that no feathered creature can withstand. It is very interesting to watch the agitated father or mother running rapidly about, scolding, or wading in a pool of snow water, every now and then raising its long wings to a vertical position above its back, thus exhibiting the delicate tints of the underside, and then deliberately folding them one at a time.
Plumages.—The nestling Pacific godwit is warmly covered with long, thick, soft down, the prevailing colors of which are warm buff and sepia, in indistinct patterns; none of the markings are clearly defined, as in the sandpipers, but are soft and blended. The large circular crown patch is clear "warm sepia," extending in a median stripe down to the bill; there is a narrow loral stripe from the bill to the eye and a broader one, though less distinct, from the eye to the occiput, both "warm sepia"; above these, broad stripes of grayish buff extend from the lores to the occiput, nearly encircling the dark crown, from which a median stripe of the sepia extends down the neck. The back, wings, and thighs are softly variegated with "warm sepia," "wood brown," and "cinnamon buff." The under parts are largely "pinkish buff," suffused with "cinnamon buff" on the breast and fading out to nearly white on the chin. The down is all dusky or dark sepia at the base.
In fresh juvenal plumage, as seen in Alaska in August, the crown is streaked with sepia, the feathers edged with light buff; the feathers of the mantle, scapulars, tertials, and wing coverts are sepia or dusky, edged or notched with light buff; the rump and upper tail coverts are white, but much more heavily spotted with dusky than in the European form; the remiges are all conspicuously barred with dusky and light buff; the buff edgings fade out almost to white later on; the under parts are dull buffy whitish, shaded on the chest with deeper grayish buff. A postjuvenal molt begins in September, at which the body plumage is renewed, but not the remiges and few, if any, of the rectrices; most of the wing coverts are retained and some of the tertials. The resulting first winter plumage is like that of the adult except for the wings and tail.
At the first prenuptial molt the next spring the sexes begin to differentiate, the males being more richly colored with more cinnamon feathers in the white under parts, and the females have the throat and breast more or less streaked with sepia. This molt is incomplete and irregular, with much individual variation in the advance toward maturity. Sometimes there is very little or no molt, the worn winter plumage being retained until summer; sometimes new winter feathers are acquired; but usually some or many of the body feathers, the tail, and some tertials and wing coverts are molted and replaced with feathers like the adult. The new tail feathers of the first nuptial plumage are plain gray, unbarred. Birds in this plumage are found on their breeding grounds and probably breed at this age.