limicoljE. 317 



upper back. It differs from the European form in having the lower 

 back much more profusely streaked with brown, but can only claim 

 subspecific rank under the name of Numenius phaopus variegatus. 



Figures : Gould, Birds o£ Australia, vi. pi. 43. 



The Eastern form of the Whimbrel is a migratory species which 

 passes along the Japanese coasts in some numbers both in spring 

 and in autumn. I have an example procured by Mr. Henson at 

 Hakodadi on the 5th of October, and there is an example in the 

 Swinhoe collection,also from Hakodadi, procured by Captain Blakiston 

 on the 24th of May (Swinhoe, Ibis, 1877, p. 146). The Perry 

 Expedition obtained two examples from the same locality in 1854 

 (Cassin, Exp. Am. Squad. China Seas and Japan, ii. p. 228). 

 There are three examples in the Pryer collection from Yokohama ; 

 and I have an example procured by Mr. Owston in the Yokohama 

 market on the 22nd of May. Mr. Ringer has obtained it at Naga- 

 saki (Blakiston, Amended List of the Birds of Japan, p. 40) . 



The Whimbrel breeds in the Arctic Regions of the Old World, and 

 visits the British Islands as well as Japan in spring and autumn, but 

 the partial isolation caused by these widely separated winter-quarters 

 appears to have given rise to a partial differentiation of the western 

 from the eastern birds. 



318. NUMENIUS MINUTUS. 

 (LEAST WHIMBREL.) 



Numenius minutua, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1840, p. 176. 



The Least Whimbrel has scarcely any trace of pale bars on the 

 inner webs of its primaries and secondaries, and the back of the 

 tarsus is scutellated as distinctly as the front. 



Figures : Temminck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves, pi. 67. 



The Least Whimbrel is a very rare visitor on migration to Japan. 

 Its sole claim to be regarded as a Japanese bird is the single example 

 figured in the ' Fauna Japonica/ and a second obtained on the 3rd 

 of October, 1883, at Giotoku, near Yokohama (Seebohm, Ibis, 1885, 

 p. 363). 



The Least Whimbrel breeds in Eastern Siberia. 



