The Whimbrel. 175 



Family—SCOL OP A CIDAi. 



Whimbrel. 



Numenius phceopus, LiNN. 



A BIRD of immense range, breeding sparsely in the northern islands of 

 Scotland, abundantly in Iceland and the Fseroes, Lapland, and the fells of 

 Norway and Sweden. In Northern Russia it is uncommon and local. Eastwards 

 its place is takfen by N. variegatns, which breeds in Eastern Siberia and Man- 

 tschuria, wintering in China, Indo-Malaya, and Australa-sia. I am of belief that 

 the two ought to be considered identical. Though the western, form has generally 

 an unstriped white rump and the eastern a thickly striped one in summer, this 

 is not always the case ; I have a breeding male from Iceland whose lower back 

 and rump are as thickly striped as any Chinese example. In the young and winter 

 plumages the two are admittedly indistinguishable. 



The birds which breed north of us pass our coasts in numbers in August, 

 and are found in winter on the coasts and islands of Africa, India, Ceylon, and 

 Burmah, where they meet the Eastern Asiatic Whimbrels. In America our bird 

 does not occur, but is replaced by a form, or two forms, with rusty red axillaries. 

 I should add, however, that our Whimbrel has occurred in Greenland. 



The adult in summer (^ ^ ? ? North Iceland, June and July, 1885) has a 

 decurved Curlew bill (3J to 3J inches long) nearly black at the tip, passing into 

 dirty yellow at the base ; iris umber ; upper parts dark brown, with poller margins . 

 to the feathers, on the hind neck, wing-coverts and tertiaries espec^lly; crown 

 sooty, with a central whitish line from bill to nape ; primaries with Whitish shafts 

 and a white saw-tooth pattern on the inner web ; secondaries similarly marked on 

 both webs ; lower back and rump white, with some longitudinal' dark brown 

 streaks, usually concealed under the feathers on the lower bftck, but plainly visible 

 on the rump ; tail and upper tail-coverts grey-brown, barred with darker brown ; 

 a white eye-brow from bill to nape, finely striated with brown ; a dark line below 

 it, passing through the eye ; throat and cheeks white, the latter finely striated 

 with brown; underparts white, the chest and sides of the body thickly spotted 

 with brown, the spots pointed at the lower end; axillaries white, barred with 

 dark brown; legs and feet plumbeous. Length 16-17 inches, closed wing pf. 

 The female a little the largest, especially in the bill. 



