332 



NUMENirS. 



Literature. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



Plates. — Wilson, Am. Orn. pi. 56. fig. 1 ; Audubon, Birds Am. vi. pi. 356. 

 Habits. — Baird, Brewer, & Ridgway, Water-Birds N. Amer. i. p. 315. 

 Eggs.— Newton, Proc. Zool. Soe. 1871, pi. iv. fig. 3. 



" The Hudsonian Whimbrel dififers from the Curlews in having the crown plain brown, 

 with a pale mesial streak ; from the Common and Oriental Whimbrels in having the lower 

 back nearly the same colour as the mantle ; from the Eskimo and Least Whimbrels by the 

 distinctness of the pale bars on the inner webs of the primaries ; and from the Pacific-Island 

 Whimbrel in having the lower breast and belly white instead of buff, and in having no long 

 hairs on the thighs. 



It is confined to the Arctic Regions of the American continent during the breeding- 

 season from Alaska to Greenland, and passes the Bermudas on migration (Reid, Zoologist, 

 1877, p. 478). In autumn it migrates southwards across the Line, where it has been seen 

 in the Galapagos Archipelago (Dr. Habel, Trans. Zool. Soc. ix. p. 504) and in South 

 America as far as Patagonia. 



Its nearest ally is unquestionably the Pacific-Island Whimbrel {Nunienius iahitiensis). 



NUMENIUS TAHITIENSIS. 



PACIFIC-ISLAND WHIMBREL. 



Diagnosis. NuMENius plumarum tibiae rbachidibiis valde prolongatis. 



Variations. No local races of this species are known. 



