412 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



752. NUMENIUS ARQUATUS. 



THE CURLEW. 



Scolopax arquata, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 242. Numenius lineatus, Guv. Regne 

 Anim. i. p. 521 ; Hume, S. F. i. p. 237 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 155 ; Armstrong, S. F. 

 iv. p. 341 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 457 ; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. vi. p. 460 ; 

 Hume, S. F. viii. p. 112; Scully, S. F. viii. p. 356; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 906 ; 

 Oates, S. F. x. p. 239. Numenius arquatus, Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 683 ; Dresser, 

 Birds Eur. viii. p. 243, pi. ; Hume, S. F. iii. p. 182. 



Description. Winter plumage. The whole head, neck and breast white, 

 tinged with grey, each feather with a long narrow dark -brown streak down 

 the centre ; remainder of the lower plumage white, the sides of the body 

 very broadly, the abdomen and under tail-coverts sparingly streaked with 

 dark brown back, wing-coverts, scapulars and tertiaries dark brown, each 

 feather edged with pale or whity brown; rump white, streaked with 

 brown ; upper tail-coverts white barred with brown ; tail light brown 

 barred with dark brown ; primaries dark brown, mottled with white on the 

 inner webs ; secondaries brown, notched with white on the edges of both 

 webs ; shaft of first primary white, the others gradually turning to 

 brown. 



In summer the lower breast and flanks are marked with roundish brown 

 marks. 



Iris dark brown ; bill leaden brown, darker near the tip ; legs and toes 

 leaden brown. 



Length 23 inches, tail 4'5 ; wing 11*5 to 12'3, tarsus 3'4, bill from gape 

 5 '8 to 6'4. These are the measurements of several birds shot in Burmah. 

 The female is on the whole larger than the male ; but both sexes vary 

 much in size. 



On inquiring of Mr. Harting whether in his opinion N. lineatus was 

 distinct from N. arquatus of Europe, he has kindly informed me that the 

 former is merely the winter and the latter the summer plumage of the 

 same species. A point which has afforded much matter for discussion for 

 many years past is thus satisfactorily settled by our greatest authority on 

 the Limicolse. Although many writers have refused to accord specific rank 

 to N. lineatus, not one of them I believe has given any reason for it, except 

 that the two species graded into each other ; and the question that the 

 differences between the two supposed species were seasonal has never 

 before, I think, been raised. 



The Curlew is generally distributed over the Province, being found 

 chiefly on the sea-coast and in those rivers which are tidal. Capt. Feilden 

 procured it at Thayetmyo ; but I have never seen it away from the neigh- 

 bourhood of the sea. Mr. Davison found it along the whole Tenasserim 



