GRALLATORES. 



317 



another through and behind the eye, light buff-color ; throat, neck 

 before and behind, and entire under parts, dull yellowish-white (or 

 buff-color), lightest and nearly pure white on the throat, darker on 

 the abdomen, neck, and breast, with narrow longitudinal lines of 

 brown ; sides and flanks with some transverse bars of brown ; abdo- 

 men, tibiae, and under tail-coverts, unspotted. Back, rump, and wing- 

 coverts, dark umber-brown, nearly every feather edged and spotted, 

 especially on their inner webs, with dull fulvous. Quills brownish- 

 black, with their shafts white, and with transverse imperfect bars of 

 ashy white on their inner webs ; bill, with the upper mandible dark ; 

 lower mandible light; legs dark ("pale blue," Peale). 



Hab. — Vincennes Island, one of the Paumotu Group. Specimen 

 in Nat. Mus. Washington. 



The most remarkable character of the bird here described, is the 

 singular form of the feathers of the tibias, from which Mr. Peale has 

 given it the specific name, as above. The plumage of the upper por- 

 tion of the tibiae is rather profuse and dense, and the shaft of each 

 feather is continued beyond the end, forming a long, slender, and some- 

 what rigid hair or bristle. This character is constant in all the spe- 

 cimens in the collection, and is one which we have failed to detect in 

 any other species of which we have specimens or descriptions. 



The present bird appears to be a smaller species than Nmnenius 

 taliiticus (Gmelin). It belongs to the group or subgenus of the smaller 

 Curlews, of which Numenius hudsonicus and Numenius ijlioeopus are 

 the best-known species, and to them and others of the group, it bears 

 a general resemblance. It is quite different from the bird regarded by 

 us as N. taliiticus, in the collection made by the United States Expe- 

 dition to Japan, and figured in our article on Birds, in the Report, by 

 Commodore Perry, vol. II, PI. III. 



Mr. Peale observes of this species : 



" There does not appear to be any difference in the plumage of the 

 two sexes, unless it be a slightly stronger ferruginous tint in the males. 

 When flying, the pale buff tail-coverts, and light-colored tail, firm a 

 conspicuous distinguishing character, and when killed, the remarkable 

 form of the feathers on the thighs, which terminate in long bristles ; a 

 peculiarity which exists in all our specimens. 



" They were abundant on Vincennes Island, one of the Paumotu 



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