° 1918 ] Oberholser, Subspecies of Numenius americanus. 189 



Numenius longirostra Wilson, Amer. Ornith., VIII, 1814, p. 23, pi. 

 XLIV, fig. 4 (coast of New Jersey). 



Numenius melanopus Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., VIII, 1817, 

 p. 306 (New York and Hudson Bay) (description based on the specimen 

 described by Latham in Gen. Syn. Birds, III, part 1, 1785, p. 120, which 

 came from New York; the Hudson Bay reference belongs probably to 

 Numenius hudsonius) . 



Chars, subsp. — Size large, particularly the bill and wing. 



Measurements. 1 — Male: wing, 268-281 mm.; 2 tail, 109-128 (average, 

 121); exposed culmen, 139-155 (148); tarsus, 78-90.5 (86.5). 



Female: wing, 268.5-298 (average, 286) mm.; tail, 121-136 (126); ex- 

 posed culmen, 166-222 (196); tarsus, 83-92 (88). 



Type locality. — New York. 3 



Geographic distribution. — Western United States (excepting the 

 northernmost part) and Mexico to Guatemala. Breeds in the middle and 

 western United States, north to southern Michigan (once at Jackson), 

 southern Wisconsin (formerly), northern Iowa (formerly), southern South 

 Dakota, southern Wyoming, and southern Idaho; west to central southern 

 Idaho and northeastern Nevada; south to central Utah, central New 

 Mexico, northwestern Texas (casually to southeastern Texas), and north- 

 ern Oklahoma; east to southeastern Kansas (Neosho Falls, formerly), 

 southeastern Iowa (formerly), and northern Illinois (formerly). Winters 

 in the southern United States and Mexico, north to central California, 

 southern Arizona, southern Texas, and Georgia; and south to southern 

 Lower California, Oaxaca, Duefias in Guatemala, and Cozumel Island, 

 Yucatan. Migrates east to southern Ontario, southern Quebec, New 

 Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, and southward over the 

 eastern United States. No certain record for the West Indies. 



Remarks.- — This is one of the shore birds that have greatly 

 decreased during the last decade. It has disappeared entirely as a 

 breeder from Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, eastern Nebraska, 

 and at least eastern Kansas; and also has become very rare, 

 probably a mere straggler, as a migrant in the United States east 

 of the Mississippi River, whereas it was formerly a common 

 transient along the Atlantic Coast north at least to Massachusetts. 

 The above-mentioned breeding of this species in Michigan is based 

 on a set of eggs without date, now preserved in the United States 



1 Transposed into millimeters from the measurements given by Dr. Louis B. Bishop, in 

 'The Auk,' XXVII, No. 1, January, 1910, p. 60. 



2 The average given by Dr. Bishop for the wing measurements of the male of this form is 

 evidently an error. 



3 Designated by the American Ornithologists' Union Committee, Check-List of North 

 American Birds, edition III, 1910, p. 124. 



