NUMENIUS PHiEOTUS. 



(THE WHIMBREL.) 



Scolopax phceopus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 243 (1766). 



Numenius phceopus (Linn.), Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 711 (1790); Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. 



p. 191 (1821); Gould, B. of Eur, iv. pi. 303 (1837); Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. 



p. 208 (1849) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 265 ; Schleg. Mus. P.-B. 



Scolopaces, p. 93 (1804) ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 684 (1864) ; Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, 



p. 410 ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 474 ; Dresser, B. of Eur. pt. 17 (1873) ; Gould, B. 



of Gt. Britain, iv. pi. 49 (1873); Von Heuglin, Orn. N.Ost-Afr. ii. p. 1150 (1873); 



Salvadori, Ucc. di Borneo, p. 333 (1874); Hume, Str. Feath. 1874, p. 297; Legge, 



Ibis, 1875, p. 402 ; Irby, B. of Gibraltar, p. 178(1875) ; Walden, Trans. Z. S. 1875, ix. 



p. 232 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 183 ; Butler & Hume, ibid. 1876, p. 16 ; Armstrong, 



t.c. p. 342; Hume, t.c. p. 464; id. ibid. 1878 (B. of Tenass.), p. 460; Butler, ibid. 



1878, vii. p. 187; Hume, ibid. 1879, viii. (List B. of Ind.) p. 112; Meyer, Ibis, 1879, 



p. 142. 

 Numenius uropygialis, Gould, B. Austr. vi. pi. 43 (1848). 

 Courlis tachete de Visle de Lugon, Sonnerat. 

 Le petit Courlis, Buffon ; Begenbrachvogel, German ; Zarapito, Spanish (Saunders) ; Maca- 



rico, Portuguese (Smith) ; Ko-shaku-sliigi, Japanese ; Corbijeu, Seychelles (Newton) ; 



Little Curleiv of some ; Half -Curlew , Jack Curlew, Whimbrel-Curlew, vulg. in England. 



C/iota goungle, Hind. (Jerdon) ; Matte kotan, Tamils in north of Ceylon. 



Adult male (Ceylon). Length 16-5 to 17 - 2 inches ; wing 9-0 to 9'4 ; tail 3-9 ; tarsus 2-3 ; middle toe and claw 1-55 

 to 1-6; bill at point, along culmeu, 3-1 to 35. 



Female. Length 17*0 to 17 - 5 inches ; wing 9-3 to 9'5, ext. 305; tarsus 2-8. 



Iris dark brown ; bill dark brown on the upper mandible, deepening at the tip : basal half of lower mandible fleshy, in 

 some fleshy red, darkening to brown at the tip ; legs and feet greyish blue or bluish leaden, the joints and toes 

 dusky. 



Head, interscapular region, tertials, and wing-coverts dark brown, paling slightly on the hind neck and its sides ; the 

 feathers of the neck and interscapular region pale-edged ; the scapulars and tertials with marginal pale spots, the 

 coverts with edges and broad marginal spots of white, and the head with a whitish mesial stripe and a smaller 

 patch above the lores ; greater secondary coverts barred with white, and the quills and winglet as in the last, the 

 ground-colour of the primaries darker and with a strong greenish gloss ; face more or less striped with brown ; 

 chin, gorge, breast, lower parts, axillary plume, under wing-coverts, lower back, and rump pure white ; upper tail- 

 coverts barred with pale brown ; tail light smoky, barred with brown ; fore neck and chest thickly lineated with 

 brown on a whitish ground, the markings being more open on the chest, and spreading down to the sides of the 

 breast and flanks in angular bars and terminal shaft-lines ; axillaries openly barred with brown ; lateral under 

 tail-covert feathers with dark mesial lines ; secondary under wing-coverts white, primary series white, with dark 

 shafts, the longer row brown, edged with white. 



Birds of the year have the base of the under mandible fleshy, and the bill shorter than in the adult, measuring less than 



3-0 inches from gape (straight). 

 The upper surface and head darker than in the adult, and the rump barred, but less so than the tail-coverts ; markings 



of the fore neck darker than in the adult, the axillaries with broader bars, and the under tail-coverts generally 



centred and spotted with brown, sometimes only with mesial lines of this colour. 



Obs. The bill varies in length in this species, but not so much so as the last. The measurements of a Burmese 



