OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 195 



Family CHARADRIID^. Genus NUMENIUS. 



Subfamily TOTANIN&. 



ESKIMO WHIMBREL. 



NUMENIUS BOREALIS (J. R. Forster). 



Scolopax borealis, Forst. Phil. Trans. Ixii. pp. 411, 431 (1772). 



Numenius borealis (Forst.), Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 712 (1790); Dresser, B. Eur. viii. 

 p. 221, pi. 575 (1873) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iii. p. 512 (1883) ; Seebohm, Hist. 

 Brit. B. iii. p. 104 (1885) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. xxi. (1892) ; Dixon, Nests 

 and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 241 (1894) ; Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 326 

 (1896) ; Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 133, pi. 45 (1896) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. 

 Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 368 (1896). 



Geographical distribution British : The Eskimo Whimbrel is a very 

 rare straggler to the British Islands, on autumn migration. The following occur- 

 rences are on record : England : Suffolk (two examples), November, 1852 ; Scilly 

 Isles (one example), September, 1887. Scotland : Kincardineshire (two examples), 

 September, 1855 and 1880 ; Aberdeenshire (one example) , September, 1879. Ireland : 

 Sligo (one example), October, 1870. Foreign: Northern Nearctic and Southern 

 Neotropical region in summer ; American portion of the Primogaean realm in 

 winter. It breeds on the tundras, above the limits of forest growth, from Alaska to 

 the shores of Hudson Bay and Davis Strait. On the west it is said occasionally 

 to wander across Behring Strait to the north-eastern coast of Asia, whilst in 

 the east it appears accidentally to stray to Greenland. Its remote southern 

 breeding grounds in Patagonia and the Falkland Islands are not yet discovered ; 

 but there can be no doubt, if the species visits the southern temperate latitudes 

 normally, that it nests in them. It crosses the United States, east of the Eockies, 

 on migration ; visits the Bermudas abnormally, and winters in South America. 



Allied forms. Mesoscolopax minutus, an inhabitant during summer of 

 Eastern Siberia, passing through Dauria, Japan, and China on migration, and 

 wintering in the Malay Archipelago and Australia ; but how far south normally 

 remains to be determined. It closely resembles the Eskimo Whimbrel in general 

 appearance, but is generically distinct, having the back of the metatarsus scutellated 

 like the front covered before and behind with narrow transverse plates instead 

 of hexagonal scales. 



Habits. Like its congener, the Common Whimbrel, the present species is 

 a migratory bird and a northern one. Its migrations are also performed about 



