178 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



and one specimen without sex, Funafuti, EUice Islands, 24 December, 

 1899; two males and one female, Tarawa, Gilbert Islands, 3 January, 

 1900; a male and a female, Taritari, Gilbert Islands, 6 January, 1900; 

 a male, Jaluit, Marshall Islands, 10 January, a male and an unsexed 

 specimen, Rongelab, Marshall Islands, 18 January, and a female at 

 Uala in the Middle Carolines on 16 February. All of these birds are 

 in full winter plumage. Comparison of a small series of European 

 birds shows that the Pacific turnstone when in breeding plumage 

 differs in having the chestnut areas of the back slightly darker. 



SCOLOPACIDAE. 



16. PiL\E0Pus phaeopus variegatus (Scopoh). 



Tantalus variegatus Scopoli, Deliciae florae et faunae Insubricae, 1786, pt. 2, 

 p. 92. (Luzon). 



A male was collected at Guam in the Ladrone Islands, 24 February, 

 1900. 



Mathews (Birds of Austraha, 1913, 3, pt. 2, p. 168-169, 175) states 

 that the species included in Phaeopus diflfer from the three species 

 allotted to true Numenius {N . arquata, cyanopns, and americamis) 

 in having the bill shorter than one half the wing, shorter than the tail, 

 shorter than the tarsus and middle toe together, the tail longer than 

 the tarsus and middle toe, and the middle toe more than half the tar- 

 sus. Careful comparison of all of the species involved shows that 

 Numenius differs structurally from Phaeopus only in ha\ing the bill 

 longer than the tarsus with middle toe, and longer than the tail. In 

 Phaeopus the bill is shorter than the tarsus with the middle toe, and 

 equal to or shorter than the tail. Though in most Numenius the bill 

 is longer than half the wing, in some of the adult specimens of all 

 three species included here the bill is less than one half the wing, as it 

 is in all the forms belonging under Phaeopus. Though the tail is 

 shorter than the tarsus with middle toe in all three species referred to 

 Numenius, it is also shorter in Phaeopus takitiensis, though longer 

 in all the other species of Phaeopus. The length of the middle toe 

 compared with the length of tarsus is found to be more in Phaeopus 

 but variable in Numenius, so that it has no value as a generic char- 

 acter. The valid structural differences between the two genera may 

 be summed up as follows: — 

 a. Bill longer than tarsus with middle toe, longer than tail. 



Numenius. 



