NUMENIUS. 



335 



Zool. Soc. 1883, p. 429) and the coast of Chili (Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 333). 

 It has occurred once on the Falkland Islands (Abbott, Ibis, 1861, p. 156), passes through 

 Central Patagonia on migration (Dura ford, Ibis, 1878, p. 404), and was procured by 

 Darwin, Captain Harrison, and others near Buenos Ayres. It is also found on migration 

 in various parts of Brazil and Paraguay. 



NUMENIUS MINUTUS. 



LEAST WHIMBREL. 



Numenius primariis haud fasciatis : tarso postice anticeque scutellato. 



Diagnosis. 



No local races of this species are known. 



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



Numenius minor, S. Mutter, Verh. Land- en Volkenk. p. 110 (1813, nee Leach, 1816). 



Variations. 



Synonymy. 



Plates. — Temm. & Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves, pi. lxvii. ; Gould, Birds of Australia, vi. Literature. 



pi. 44. 

 Habits. — Gould, Handb. Birds Austr. ii. p. 280. 

 Eggs. — Unknown. 



The Least Whimbrel differs from all the other species of the genus, except from the Specific 

 Eskimo Whimbrel, in having scarcely any trace of 'pale bars on the inner webs of its primaries 

 and secondaries. From the latter it differs in what has always been regarded as a very 

 important character : the back of the tarsus is scutellated as distinctly as the front, the 

 scales being arranged in transverse plates instead of in hexagonal reticulations. 



Its precise breeding-grounds are unknown, but they are doubtless near the Arctic Geographi- 

 Circle in Eastern Siberia, as it has been obtained on migration in Dauria and in Japan. It °j~ distnbu- 

 passes along the Chinese coast, and through the Malay Archipelago, and winters in 

 Australia. 



In spite of the difference in the arrangement of the scales at the back of the tarsus, it Nearest 

 is very closely related to the Eskimo Whimbrel, from which it principally differs in being 

 slightly smaller, though with a rather longer tarsus ; the underparts are somewhat paler 

 and less conspicuously barred. 



