502 ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 
ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. (Numenius borealis.) 
PLATE XXVIL—Fic. 3. 
Numenius borealis, Lath. Ind. ii. p. 712, sp. 9 (not of Ord, which is WV. Hud- 
sonicus).—Nob. Obs. Wils. Orn. notes.—Id. Cat. and Syn. Birds U.S. sp. 
244.—Id. Monogr. Num. in Osserv. Cuv. Regn. An.—Id. Sp. Comp. Rom. 
sp. Phil. 187.—Scolopax borealis, Forst. Phil. Trans. \xii. p. 481 (not of 
Gmel., &c., which is WV. Hudsonicus).—Numenius brevirostris, Licht. Cat. 
ii. Vog. p. 75, sp. 744.—Temm. Pl. Col. 381.—Numenius cinerius, Seaside 
Lesser Curlew, Bartr. Trav. p. 292.—Courlis Demi-bec, Temm. loc. cit.— 
Chorlito Champétre? D’Azara, iv. p. 275, sp. 307.—Esquimaux Curlew, 
Lath. Gen. Syn. v. p. 125.—Lath. Gen. Hist. ix. p. 180, sp. 10.—Forster, 
loc. cit. (not of Pennant, whichis WV. Hudsonicus).—American Museum at 
New York. 
In Wilson’s standard work are described but two species of 
curlew, and no more than this are given by ''emminck in his 
very complete-and excellent European Ornithology. We have 
brought forward three North American and three European 
species, which, contrary to the generally received opinion, are 
all distinct from each other, and different in both continents, 
not one being found in Europe that is also an inhabitant of 
America. ‘l'hese facts, independent of any reference to the 
almost interminable confusion pervading the works of preced- 
ing authors, will sufficiently justify us in repeating here, and 
stating with more details, what we have published in our 
Monography, in which, if no new species be introduced (and 
the list is already too long), we hope to have placed the old 
ones in a new and more advantageous light. 
Perhaps no genus of birds has been less accurately studied, 
and notwithstanding that it is exceedingly natural, it has but 
very recently been restricted within its appropriate limits. 
The appellation it bears was first given by Brisson, yet he was 
far from assigning its true boundaries. In addition to the 
curlews, he comprised in Numenius a few other birds (the 
Tantali of Linné), now forming the natural family of Zan- 
talide, and divided into the genera Tantalus and Ibis. The 
true Nument had been much more philosophically classed 
by Linné in his extensive genus Scolopax, which, though not 
well formed, was still, with very few exceptions, entirely com- 
