NUMENIUS. 



329 



PLATKs.-Daub. PI. Enl. no. 842 j Gould, Birds Gt. Brit. iv. pi. 49; Dresser, Birds of Europe, Literature 

 viii. pi. 576. i^itcrature. 



Habits. — Seebohm, British Birds, iii. p. 100. 

 Eggs.— Seebohm, British Birds, pi. 33. figs, 4, 5. 



^ The Common Whimbrel is not a Curlew, because its crown is plain brown, with a pale Specific 

 mesial streak. It and its eastern form, the Oriental Whimbrel, are the only Whimbrels in characters, 

 which the lower hack is much paler than the mantle. 



The adult Common Whimbrel has a pure white lower back, but in immature birds 

 there are always dark streaks in the centre of many of the feathers. These dark centres 

 are even more conspicuous in the adult of the Oriental Whimbrel, and most so in immature 

 examples of the Eastern form i. 



Stejneger (Orn. Expl. Comm. Isl. and Kamtschatka, p. 135) remarks, "Were it not 

 that the occurrence of numerous intermediate specimens have been recorded, I should 

 consider the two forms good and distinct species." 



' It is very difficult to understand how Dresser ('Birds of Europe,' viii. p. 228) could arrive at the eon- 

 elusion that the Eastern form of the Whimbrel ■' does not differ from our European bird." He had a fine 

 series for examination, in which there were 10 examples of the Eastern form, and more than 20 of the Western. 

 He correctly describes the adult of the European form as having a white rump, but does not seem to have 

 noticed that the ten Eastern examples (nine of which are now in my collection) have the rump profusely 

 streaked with brown. Another most unaccountable omission on his part is the absence of any description or 

 even mention of the young in first plumage, or the bird of the year, which have streaked rumps, in both 

 forms. 



2u 



