140 BULLETIN" 14 6;, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



at Gilgo Inlet, Great South Bay, Long Island, N. Y., on September 

 4, 1912. 



Eggs dates. — In Scotland, May 19 to June 11 (13 dates) ; Faroes, 

 June 4 to 24 (34 dates), May 25 (1 date) ; Iceland, June 4 to 23 

 (22 dates). ' 



NUMENIUS TAHITIENSIS (Gmelin) 

 BRISTLE-THIGHED CURLEW 



HABITS 



Although this species has been recognized for over 140 j^ears, 

 surprisingly little has been learned or iDublished about it. It 

 was discovered by Latham in 1785 from Tahiti, the largest of the 

 Society Islands, hence the specific name given by Gmelin in 1788, 

 Scolopax tahitiensls. But the credit is due to Peale for discovering 

 the most peculiar character of the species, the elongated shafts of 

 some of the flank feathers which are lacking in barbs and from 

 which we derive the name, " bristle-thighed." 



It was long supposed to be a bird of the South Pacific islands 

 and the first birds captured in Alaska were regarded as accidental 

 stragglers. During the last century there were only three published 

 North American records, all for Alaska ; the first specimen was taken 

 by Bischoff on May 18, 1869, on the Kenai Peninsula, the second by 

 Nelson on May 24, 1880, at St. Michael, and the third by Townsend 

 on August 28, 1885, on the Kowak Eiver. Since then it has been 

 found to be a fairly common fall migrant in Alaska and it probably 

 breeds somewhere in the interior of that territory. 



Spring. — Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) gives the following account of 

 the capture of his bird : 



On May 24, 1880, while I was shooting black brant, a pair of these birds 

 settled near by on a rising stretch of land covered with large tussocks. They 

 uttered a loud whistling call note very much like that of hudsonicus, but 

 something in their general appearance led me to stalk and secure one of the 

 birds. To my gratification it was a bristle-thighed curlew, and I made great 

 efforts to secure the mate, which had stopped a hundred yards or so beyond. 

 As she raised on my approach I fired at long range and the bird fell mortally 

 hurt on a distant hillside, where it was lost amid a host of large tussocks. 



Bischoff's bird was taken on May 18; and H. B. Conover (1926) 

 collected one at Hooper Bay on May 22, 1924. These three dates, 

 only six days apart, probably indicate the normal time of arrival of 

 birds of this species in Alaska after their long flight over the Pacific 

 Ocean from the Hawaiian Islands, the nearest of their winter resorts. 

 This is a really wonderful flight and it is surprising that we have 

 no evidence to indicate that they deviate from their direct course 

 at all, as we have no records of any specimens from any point to 



