NUMENIUS. 



Scolopax tahitiensis, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 656 (1788). 



Numenius femoralisj Peale, Zool. U.S. Expl. Exp. p. 383 (1818). 



Numenius tahitiensis [Gmel), Ridgway, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. iii. p. 231 (1880). 



Namenius tibialis, Peale fide Layard 3f Tristram, Ibis, 1882, pp. 533, 53 i<. 



333 



Synonymy. 



Plates.— Peale, Zool. U. States Exploring Exp. 1838-42, Birds, pi. Ixvi. fig. 1 ; Cassin, Zool. 



U. States Exploring Exp. 1838-42, Birds, ed. 2, pi. 37. 

 Habits. — Baird, Brewer, & Ridgway, Water-Birds N. Amer. i. p. 324. 

 Eggs. — Unknown. 



Literature. 



The Pacific-Island Whimbrel may be diagnosed by the Ion// hairs on the thighs lohich 

 project far beyond the feathers. A more complicated diagnosis is, crown plain brown with 

 a pale mesial streak ; lower back nearly the same colour as the mantle ; pale bars on inner 

 webs of primaries ; and general colour of nnderparts buff. 



The Pacific-Island Whimbrel has scarcely a right to its name, as it is only a winter 

 visitor to the southern hemisphere. It breeds in Alaska (Nelson, ' Cruise of the Corwin,' 

 p. 90), and has been recorded from Kamtschatka (Taczanowski, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 

 1882, p. 897) ; but Stejneger regards this record as relating to N. cyanotics (Orn. Expl. 

 Comm. Isl. and Kamtschatka, p. 317). 



It was originally described from Tahiti, the largest of the Society Islands (Latham, 

 General Synopsis of Birds, iii. p. 122); Peale redescribed it from the island of Vincennes, 

 one of the Paumota Archipelago, to the east ; and I have an example from the Samoa 

 Islands to the west. Further north it has occurred on the Marquesas Islands (Tristram, 

 Ibis, 1881, p. 251) ; Fanning Island (Tristram, Ibis, 1S83, p. 47); Gilbert Islands (Finsch, 

 Ibis, 1880, p. 432), where it is known only as a winter visitor; Marshall Islands (Finsch, 

 Ibis, 1880, p. 220), where it was found moulting in September; and the Sandwich Islands, 

 whence examples are in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution. 



It appears to be nearest allied to the Hudsonian Whimbrel {Numenius hudsonicus). 



Specific 

 characters. 



Summer 

 home. 



Winter 

 home. 



NUMENIUS BOREALIS. 



ESKIMO WHIMBREL. 

 Numenius primariis haud fasciatis : tarso postice reticulato. 



Diagnosis. 



It is not known that examples from Alaska differ in any way from those from Greenland. Variations. 



