100 BRITISH BIRDS. 



NUMENIUS PHyEOPTTS. 

 WHIMBREL. 



(Plate 33.) 



Nunienius minor, Bn'.ss. Oi-n. \. p. 317 (1760). 



Scolopax phitopus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 243 (17(1G) ; et auctorum plurimorum— 



{Temminch), {Gray), (Schkyel), {Naumann), (Dresser), (Saunrlcrs), &c. 

 Numenius phaeopus (Linn.), Lath. Gen. Syn. Suppl. i. p. 2U1 (1787). 

 Pbreopus arquatus, Steph. Skate's Gen. Zool. xii. pt. i. p. 36, pi. 5 (1824). 

 Numenius bsesitatus, Hartl Orn. W.-Afr. p. 233 (1857). 

 Numenius melanorhynchns, Bonap. Compt. Rend, xliii. p. 1021 (1856). 



So far as is known, the only breeding-places of the Whimbrel in the 

 British Islands are in the Orkneys and Shetlands and in several parts of 

 the north of Sutherlandshire, though it is far from improbable that it may 

 breed on some of the wildest and most isolated of the islands oh the west 

 coast of Scotland. There is no reliable evidence of this bird ever having 

 bred in England or Ireland. At the seasons of migration it is generally 

 distributed on all the British coasts, being apparently more numerous in 

 spring than in autumn ; a few remain on the low-lying coasts all the 

 winter, and a few immature birds lag behind in spring. 



The Whimbrel breeds in the Arctic regions of Europe and Asia, from 



Scandinavia to Kamtschatka, but, like the Grey Plover, it appears to be 



very local. It is not uncommon during tlic breeding-season in the extreme 



north of Norway and on the southern fells. Hencke says that it is a rare 



summer visitor to Archangel ; Harvie-Brown and I found it rare in the 



valley of the Petchora ; Finsch did not meet with it in the valley of the 



Obb, neither did Dr. Theel nor I meet with it in the valley of the Yenesay. 



Middendorff did not meet with it in travelling from the Taimur peninsula 



to the sea of Ochotsk ; and the only authorities for its occurrence in 



Siberia appear to be Radde, Dybowsky, and Gmelin, who observed it 



passing through Dauria on migration, and Steller, who records it from 



Kamtschatka. It appears to be most common in Iceland and the Faroes. 



It passes through the rest of Europe and North Africa on migration, 



wintering throughout Africa. The eastern birds pass through Japan and 



China on migration, and winter throughout the Oriental and Australian 



Regions, except the most remote of the Pacific islands. Most ornithologists 



regard the eastern form of the "Whimbrel as distinguishable from the 



western form. Eastern birds have always longitiulinal streaks on the 



rump, a character which is only found in the young of the western race, 



and then never to the same extent as in the adult of the eastern birds. 



