188 Oberholser, Subspecies of Numenius americanus. L April 



NOTES ON THE SUBSPECIES OF NUMENIUS 

 AMERICANUS BECHSTEIN. 



BY HARRY C. OBERHOLSER. 



The description by Dr. Louis B. Bishop of a new race of Nu- 

 menius americanus 1 has drawn recent attention to this species. 

 The present writer's work on the identification of the examples of 

 this curlew from Texas and other localities in the collection of the 

 Biological Survey in the United States National Museum serves to 

 confirm Dr. Bishop's subspecific separation of the small race in- 

 habiting the northern United States and southern Canada. Fur- 

 thermore, this investigation has brought out some interesting points, 

 particularly in the geographic distribution of the two forms, which 

 did not appear in the original account of this new subspecies, and 

 which now seem worth while placing on record. 



In this connection we have examined a total of 279 specimens, 

 which represents the combined series of the United States National 

 Museum, including the Biological Survey, the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 

 the American Museum of Natural History, and the Brooklyn 

 Museum of Arts and Sciences ; together with the private collections 

 of Mr. John E. Thayer, Mr. William Brewster, Mr. A. C. Bent, 

 Dr. Jonathan Dwight, Dr. Louis B. Bishop, and Dr. L. C. San- 

 ford. To the authorities of the above mentioned museums and 

 to the other gentlemen who have kindly placed material at our 

 disposal we wish here to express our sincere thanks. We are also 

 indebted to Mr. Charles Chubb of the British Museum for measure- 

 ments of birds in the collection of that institution, which have made 

 possible the subspecific identification of important specimens at 

 present unavailable for our examination. 



Numenius americanus americanus Bechstein. 



N[umenius], americanus Bechstew, in Latham, Allgem. Uebers. Vogel,. 

 IV, ii, 1812, p. 432 (New York and Hudson Bay). 



1 Numenius americanus parvus Bishop, 'The Auk,' XXVII, No. 1, January, 1910, p. 59- 



