396 ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 



genus Scolopax we do not consider as approaching them within several 

 degrees. 



Cuvier had attempted to divide this genus into two independent sub- 

 genera, but unsuccessfully, and they must be relinquished even as sec- 

 tions, inasmuch as the characters on which they are based have no 

 existence in nature, as he has since virtually acknowledged by omitting 

 all mention of the group Phceopus in his new edition of the Regne 

 Animal. This is in fact one of those very natural small genera which 

 do not admit even of well based sections. If the species were numerous, 

 we might perhaps divide them into those with white rumps, and those 

 which have no white on that part, or into those showing the crown of 

 the head marked with a central line, and those without this line. There 

 being however but few species, we consider it to be more philosophical 

 to view them as an undivided genus, beginning with the larger and end- 

 ing with the smaller species : but at all events the marks we have indi- 

 cated (of the head and croupe), together with those of the under wing- 

 coverts and long axillary feathers, furnish us with what we have called 

 the clue of the genus. For example, the Numenius arquata of Europe 

 is distinguished by its head, not parted by the central line, its large 

 size, long arched bill, white rump, white under Aving-coverts and axillary 

 feathers : its American analogue, whose still longer bill has gained for 

 it the name of longirostris, has the croupe of the same dark color as 

 the body, with the under wing-coverts, &c., rust-colored. The jyhceopus 

 of Europe, and hudsonicus of North America, similar in color and 

 stature, and each ornamented with the medial coronal line, are in like 

 manner distinguishable, the former by the white, the other by the dark- 

 colored croupe ; and by the under coverts, in the European white 

 banded with black, whilst in the American they are banded with black 

 and rusty. 



The two smallest, the present American species, and the iV. tenuiros- 

 tris of Europe, though less completely analogous, are nevertheless both 

 destitute of the coronal line : the present has the rump dark, and the 

 under wing-coverts banded with black and rusty ; while the slender- 

 hilled has them pure white, as well as the rump, and ground of the tail- 

 feathers. The diminutive size of the Esquimaux Curlew will certainly 

 prevent its being confounded with the gigantic N. longirostris, especially 

 as its bill is remarkably short, and but little arcuated. 



The reader will here have already remarked, we are confident, the 

 curious fact, that all the European species of Numenius have white 

 rumps and white under wing-coverts ; whilst the American all have the 

 former uniform in color with the remainder of the plumage, and the 

 latter rust-colored. 



The true Esquimaux Curlew (we say the true, for it is neither the 

 Esquimaux Curlew of Wilson nor of the Arctic Zoology) is one of the 



