322 ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 



gregate at the smaller end. Axis, 2*65-2-9 inches; diam., 

 I-8-2-0. 



11. THE WHIMRREL. NUMENIUS PH/EOPUS. 



Scolopax pJuwpus^ Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 243 (1766). 



Nunienius phceopus^ Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 253 (1852) ; Dresser, 

 B. Eur. viii. p. 227, pi. 576 (1873) ; B. O. U. List Brit. B. 

 p. 179 (1883) ; Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. B. iii. p. 507 

 (1883) ; Seebohm, Hist. B. iii. p. 100 (1885) ; Saunders^ 

 Man. Brit. B. p. 613 (1889); Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. 

 -^^iv. p. 355(1896). 



Adult Male in Breeding Plumage. — General colour above nearly 

 uniform dark brown, excepting for the broad ashy-brown mark- 

 ings on the feathers of the mantle and upper back ; the wing- 

 coverts like the back, but the margins paler and more whitish, 

 the greater series with whitish notches on both webs ; bastaid- 

 wing and primary-coverts dark brown, fringed with white at the 

 ends ; primaries blackish-brown, notched with white on the 

 inner webs, which have a barred appearance along the edge of 

 the latter, the inner piimaries notched with white, also on the 

 outer webs ; secondaries brown, notched on the outer web and 

 barred on the inner web with white, the innermost secondaries 

 nearly uniform brown like the back ; the shafts of the outer pri- 

 mary white, of the second whity-brown, and of the rest pale 

 brown; lower back and rump white, slightly mottled with longi- 

 tudinal spots of blackish-brown, more or less concealed on the 

 back, but larger and more distinct on the rump ; upper tail- 

 coverts barred with brown and whitish, the brown bars some- 

 what irregular and not coterminous; tail-feathers ashy-brown 

 and tipped with white, and crossed by regular bars of daik 

 brown, about nine in number; centre of crown whitish and 

 streaked with brown, the remainder of the crown dark brown, 

 forming two broad bands, and followed by a broad eyebrow of 

 dull white, and narrowly streaked with small lines of blackish ; 

 lores and upper margin of ear-coverts dark brown ; remainder 

 of sides of face and neck all round pale brown, streaked with 

 darker brown, the cheeks somewhat whiter ; chin and upper 

 throat white, with scarcely any brown spots ; lower throat, 

 breast, and sides of body pale rufescent-buff, thickly clouded 



