386 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



as middle toe, covered all around with small hexagonal scales; 

 lateral toes decidedly shorter than middle toe, the outer slightly 

 longer than the inner; hallux well developed, slender, about as long 

 as first phalanx of outer toe; interdigital spaces webbed basally, the 

 web between outer and middle toes connecting nearly whole of basal 

 phalanges, that between inner and middle toes smaller; all the an- 

 terior toes margined laterally- by a distinct though narrow tumid 

 membrane. 



Coloration. — General color grayish brown to light pmkish cinna- 

 mon, streaked and otherwise varigated with dusky, the under parts 

 of body mostly immaculate whitish or light pinkish cinnamon; some 

 species with rump white. 



Range.— ^ or i}\(^Y\i Hemisphere. (Three species.) 



KEY TO THE SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF NUMENIUS. 



a. Rump and lower back white; general tone of plumage grayish brown, the under 

 parts and axillars whitish. (Eurojje and western Asia, south in winter to Cape 

 of Good Hope, Madagascar, and India; accidental on Long Island, New York.) 



Numenius arquatusi'p. 386). 



aa. Rump and lower back pale cinnamon and dusky, like rest of upper parts; under 



parts pale pinkish buff, axillars light vinaceous-cinnamon. {Numenius ameri- 



canus.) 



. b. Larger (wing 268.2-308, averaging 279.3 in male, 2G8.5 in female; exposed culmen 



137-219.2, averaging 145.3 in male, 184 in female). (More southern United 



States, chiefly west of Mississippi River, north to Illinois, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, 



etc.) Numenius americanus americanus (p. 390). 



bb. Smaller (wing 251.5-287, averaging 265.6 in male, 268.5 in female; exposed 

 culmen 105.4-170.7, averaging 121.1 in male, 158.7 in female). (Saskatche- 

 wan to eastern British Columbia and south to South Dakota, Wyoming, and 

 eastern Oregon — to New Mexico, Texas, etc., in migration.) 



Numenius americanus occidentalis (p. 394). 



NUMENIUS ARQUATUS (Linnaeus). 



EUROPEAN CTTRLEW. 



Adults (sexes alike). — General color of upper parts hght grayish 

 brown or grayish buffy (nearly light drab to drab-gray), streaked 

 with dusky, the streaks broadest on back, scapulars, tertials, and wing- 

 coverts, on the tertials throwing off lateral projections; greater coverts 

 and secondaries deep brownish gray or grayish brown, transversely 

 spotted with pale grayish buffy, the bars thus produced (in the closed 

 wing) of the two colors about equal in width or with the pale ones 

 slightly wider than the darker ones; alula, primary coverts, and prima- 

 ries dusky, the two first margined terminally or narrowly tipped 

 with white (more broadly on proximal coverts), the primaries spotted 

 and terminally margined with white; lower back, rump, and upper 

 tail-coverts white, the first and second immaculate, or nearly so, 

 superficiallv, but with concealed mesial streaks of grayish dusky, 



