334 



NUMENIUS. 



Synonymy. Scolopax borealis, Forster, Phil. Trans, lxii. pp. 411, 431 (1772). 



Numenius borealis (Forst.), Latham, Index Orn. ii. p. 712 (1790). 

 Numenius brevirostris, Lichtenstein, Vers. Doubl. Mus. Berlin, p. 75 (1823). 

 Numenius microrhynchus, Philippi Sf Landbeck, Wiegm. Arch. 1866, pt. i. p. 129. 



Literature. Plates. — Temminck, PI. Col. no. 381 ; Swainson & Richardson, Faun. Bor.-Amer. ii. pi. lxv. ; 



Audubon, Birds Am. vi. pi. 357; Dresser, Birds of Europe, viii. pi. 575. 

 Habits. — Baird, Brewer, & Ridgway, Water-Birds N. Amer. i. p. 318. 

 Eggs. — Newton, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1871, pi. iv. fig. 1 ; Seebohm, British Birds, pi. 33. fig. 3. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



The Eskimo Wliimbrel, often erroneously called the Eskimo Curlew, only requires two 

 characters to diagnose it from all its congeners : primaries with scarcely a trace of bars ; 

 bach of the tarsus covered with hexagonal reticulations. 



Numenius rninutus. 



Numenius borealis. 



The Eskimo Wliimbrel is an arctic species, breeding only on the tundras of North 

 America, above the limit of forest-growth, from Behring Straits to Greenland. It is said to 

 have occurred on the Siberian coast (Nelson, ' Cruise of the Corwin,' p. 90) and to be common 

 on the shores of Norton Sound, though it was only observed on migration by the Point Barrow 

 expedition (Seebohm, Trans. Norf. & Norw. Nat. Soc. iv. p. 307). It is recorded from 

 Greenland (Reinhardt, Ibis, 1861, p. 10), and has occurred several times in Scotland and 

 once in both England and Ireland. In the United States it occurs on migration both 

 inland, on the Atlantic coast, and on the Bermuda Islands (Reid, Zoologist, 1877, p. 478). 

 It appears to winter south of the Line ; and though it has not been found on migration on 

 the Pacific coast of North America, it has been recorded from the Galapagos (Salvin, Proc. 



