118 



PROSOBONIA LEUCOPTERA (G m.) 



(Plate 35.) 



White-winged Sandpiper Latham, Gen. Syn. Ill, pt. I, p. 172, pi. LXXXII (1785 — Otaheite 

 and Eimeo). 



Tringa leucoptera Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, p. 678 (1788 — ex Latham!); Westermann, Bijdr. 

 Dierk. I, p. 51, pi. 15 (1854 — Figure of the type). 



Totanus leucopterus Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. (Ed. II) VI, p. 396 (1817). 



Calidris leucopterus Cuvier, Regne Anim. I, p. 526 (1829). 



Tringa pyrrhetraea Lichtenstein, Forster's descr. anim. p. 174 (1844 — Otaheiti). 



Prosobonia leucoptera Bonaparte, Compt. Rend. XXXI, p. 562 (1850) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. 

 Brit. Mus. XXIV, p. 525 (1896). 



Tringoides leucopterus Gray, Handl. B. Ill, p. 46 (1871). 



Phegornis leucopterus Seebohm, Geogr. Distrib. Charad. p. 452 pi. 18 (1888). 



Prosobonia ellisi Sharpe, Bull. B.O.C. XVI, p. 86 (1906— " Eimeo "). 



DR. SHARPE'S description, made from the type in the Leyden Museum, 

 is as follows : " Adult. General colour of upper surface blackish 

 brown ; the lower back and rump ferruginous ; centre tail-feathers 

 blackish, the rest rufous, banded with black, less distinctly on the two next 

 the middle pair ; wing-coverts blackish, with a white spot near the carpal 

 bend of the wing, formed by some of the lesser coverts ; crown of head 

 blackish, the hind-neck browner, mixed with black ; sides of face brown, the 

 lores and ear-coverts slightly more reddish, behind the eye a little white 

 spot ; cheeks and under surface of body ferruginous red, the throat buffy 

 white. Length 6'7 inches, culmen 0-9, wing 4-45, tail 2-15, tarsus 1-3 (Mus. 

 Lugd.)" 



We know nothing of this bird, but the one specimen in the Leyden 

 Museum, which is the type, or at least one of the types. As no other 

 specimens have been obtained for nearly a century and a quarter, there is 

 every reason to fear that this bird is extinct. My plate has been made up 

 by Mr. Lodge from the unpublished drawings of Ellis and Forster in the 

 British Museum. 



Habitat : Tahiti, and the adjacent islet of Eimeo. 



