100 BRITISH BIRDS. 



NUMENIUS PHvEOPUS. 

 WHIMBREL. 



(PLATE 33.) 



Numenius minor, Briss. Orn. v. p. 317 (1760). 



Scolopax phseopus, Linn. Syst. Rat. i. p. 243 (17C6); et auctomm plurimorum 



(Temminck), (Gray), (Schleyel), (Naumann), (Dresser), (Saunders), &c. 

 Numenius phseopus (Linn.), Lath. Gen. Syn. Suppl. i. p. 291 (1787). 

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

 Numenius hsesitatus, Hartl. Orn. W.-Afr. p. 233 (18.57). 

 Numenius melanorhynchus, 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 Sutherland shire, though it is far from improbable that it may 

 breed on some of the wildest and most isolated of the islands on 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 the 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 longitudinal 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. 



