SPECIES OF THE GENUS NUMENIUS. 145 
3. NUMENIUS TENUIROSTRIS. 
The Mediterranean Curlew is much smaller than its more 
southern ally, and has a bill relatively more slender. It com- 
bines the colours of the Common Curlew with the dimensions of 
the Hudsonian Whimbrel. A simple diagnosis of the Mediter- 
ranean Curlew is azillaries pure white, tarsus less than three 
inches long: no other species in the genus possesses both these 
characters. 
It is a resident in the basin of the Mediterranean, occasionally 
breeding as far north as latitude 50°, especially in South-east 
Russia, where it is a migratory bird. It has not been recorded 
from any locality east of the Ural Mountains. In Africa its 
numbers are increased in winter by migrants from Europe, but 
it is unknown in Tropical Africa. 
The second group comprises the Pale-rumped Whimbrels, 
which may be diagnosed as having the lower back and rump 
white, more or less streaked with brown, but always contrasting 
with the darker mantle, and the crown plain brown, with a pale 
mesial line. They represent the birds which left the Polar basin 
along the east coast of Greenland, and, finding the west coast 
already occupied, crossed over to Europe by Iceland and the 
Faroes. From their present arctic habits it seems probable that 
they never crossed the Mediterranean, but remained during the 
Glacial Period on the outskirts of the ice, which they followed 
on its retreat, until they finally spread over the Arctic Region of 
the Old World. Only one species is known neruag an eastern 
and a western form. 
4. NUMENIUS PH OPUS. 
5. NuMENIUS PHAOPUS VARIEGATUS. 
The Common Whimbrel breeds in the Arctic Regions of 
Kurope and Asia from Iceland to Kamtschatka, wintering in the 
Ethiopian, Oriental, and Australian Regions. Eastern birds 
have always longitudinal streaks on the white 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. 
In consequence of this peculiarity the eastern birds have been 
named N. variegatus. 
