NUMENIUS LINEATTS. 



THE EASTERN CURLEW.) 



Kummius lineatus, Cuv. Keg. An. 2nd ed. i. p. 52 (1829] ; Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 107 ; 



Swinhoe, P. Z. 8. 1871, p. 410 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 237 ; Adam, t. c. p. 39G ; 



Hume, ibid. 1874, p. 200 ; Butler & Hume, ibid. 187G, p. 16 ; Armstrong, t.c. p. 341 ; 



Hume, t. c. p. 464 ; David & Oustalet, Ois. de la Chine, p. 457 (1877) ; Hume, Str. 



Feath. 1878 (B. of Tenass.), p. 460 ; Davidson & Wender, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 89; 



Hume, ibid. 1879, viii. (List of Ind. B.), p. 112. 

 Nmnenius arquatus (Linn.), Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. 8. B. p. 208 (1849) ; Kelaart, Prodromus, 



Cat. p. 134 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 264 ; Jerdon, B. of 



Ind. iii. p. 683 (1864) ; Schlegel, Mus. P.-B. Scolopaces, p. 85 (1864, in part) ; Layard, 



B. South Afr. p. 322 (1807) ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 474 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 29 ; 



Salvadovi, Uccelli di Borneo, p. 332 (1874) ; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 402. 

 Numenius major, Temm. & Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, pi. 00 (1847) ; Blakiston & Pryer, 



Ibis, 1878, p. 222. 

 Courlis a fetches etroites de VInde, Cuv.; Grey Curlew, of some. Goar, Goungh, Hind. ; 



Clwppa, Bengal., also Sada Kastachura (Jerdon); O-shakushigi, Japan; Kuthcral Malle 



Kotan (lit. " Horsehill Sandpiper "), Ceylonese Tamils. 



Advlt males (Ceylon). Length22-5 to 22-9 inches ; wing 11*0 to 110 ; tail 4-5 to 4-7 ; tarsus 3'2 to 3-4 ; middle toe 

 and claw L - 9 to 2 - 05 : bill at front, along cnlmen, 5"6 to 6-0. Dimensions of respective parts vary much; in this 

 series the bird with the wing of 11*9 has the bill 5 - (i. 



Adult female. Wing 12 - inches ; tarsus 3-5 ; bill at front, along cnlmen, 7 - 3. 



As this species varies much in size, these limits are no doubt occasionally exceeded. 



Iris brown; bill dark brown or blackish on the upper mandible, basal half of lower mandible fleshy white, tip 

 generally paler brown than the upper ; legs and feet bluish grey or leaden blue. 



Head and hind neck with the feathers broadly centred with light sepia-brown, paling off at the edges, in some to 

 greyish white, and in others to pale tawny, the edgings on the centre of the hind neck being always lighter than 

 on the head, and passing round on the sides of the neck and fore neck, where the dark portions are reduced to 

 narrow mesial lines ; feathers of the upper back, scapulars, tertials, and wing-coverts centred with darker sepia- 

 brow n. paling at the edges to cinereous grey or greyish tawny on the back and scapulars, and to whitish on the 

 wing-coverts : the greater coverts with indentations or marginal bars of white ; quills dark brown, the inner webs 

 barred mostly towards the base with white, the 1st primary with a white shaft, and all but the first four with 

 w bite tips ; lower back and upper tail-coverts white : the rump and uppermost of the coverts with mesial blackish 

 stripes, the longer or underlying coverts with interrupted bars or central transverse spots ; tail white, crossed 

 with narrow wavy brown bands ; lores and lace brown-striped, a whitish band above the lores passing as a border 

 round tin' eye; chin, gorge, and under surface white, the mesial lines of the fore neck continued on the breast, 

 and widening into narrow drop-dashes towards the flanks; lower belly and vent unmarked; the under tail-coverts, 

 axillary plumes, and sides of rump with narrow blackish shaft -lines near the tips ; under wing-coverts white. 



In some specimens the axillaries are pure white : and examples shot in Ceylon in March and April are more tinged 

 with tawny on the back and flanks thau mid-winter birds. A partial, if not a complete, moult takes place at 

 this time. 



Obs. I follow Messrs. Blyth, Swinhoe, and Hume in considering the Indian Curlew distinct from the European ; 

 but 1 only regard it as a subspecies, or well-marked Eastern-Asiatic form of that bird. It cannot be separated 

 on account of the different or the variable curvature of its bill, for this is an utterly unreliable character in 

 these large Curlew s ; nor can dependence entirely be placed on the almost unspotted axillaries, though the 



