AVIFAUNA OF LAYSAN. 



17 



9. NUMENIUS TAHITIENSIS {Gm.). 



BRISTLE-TIIIGIIED CURLEW. 



Olahcitc Curlew, Lath. Gen. Syn. iii. 1, p. 122 (1785). 



Scolopax tahitiensis, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 656 (1788) (ex Latham). 



Numenius tahitiensis, Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 711 (1790); Vieill. Nouv. Diet. viii. p. 308 (1817); id. Enc. 

 Meth. p. 1157 (1823); Gray, Gen. B. iii. p. 569 (1847) ; Ridgw. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1880, p. 201; 

 Baird, Brew., & Ridgw. Water-B. N. Amer. i. p. 324 (Fort Kenai, Alaska— Paumotou Group) ; Ridgw. 

 Man. N.-Amer. B. p. 171 (1887) ; Sccb. Gcogr. Distr. Charadr. p. 333 (1887) ; Wiglesw. Aves Polynes. 

 (in Abh. u. Mitth. Mus. Dresd.) p. 60 (1891) j Lister, P. Z. S. 1891, p. 299; Wilson, Av. Hawaii, pt. iii. 

 (1892). 



Numenius femoralis, Peale, U.S. Expl. Exp., B. p. 233, pi. 64 (1848) (Vincennes Is., Paumoton Group) ; 

 Hartl. Arch. f. Naturg. 1852, i. p. 120 ; id. J. f. 0. 185 t,p. 170 (Paumotou) ; Cass. U.S. Expl. Exp., Orn. 

 p. 316, pi. xxxvii. (1858) ; Finsch & Hartl. Beitr. Fauna Polynes. p. 175 (1867) ; Ridgw. Am. Naturalist, 

 1874,'p. 436 (occurrence in N. America); Finsch, Ibis, 1880, p. 220 (Taluit, Marshall Is.); id. 

 torn. cit. p. 432 (Tarowa, Gilbert Is., where it is stated to he a winter visitor only!); Tristr. Ibis, 

 1881, p. 251 (Marquesas) ; id. op. cit. 1883, p. 47 (Fanning Is.) ; Stcjn. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1887, 

 p. 83 (Kauai). 



Numenius phaopus, partim !, Schleg. Mus. P.-B., Scolopaces, p. 93 (1864). 



Numenius aus traits, Dole, Proc. Bost. Soc. N. H. xii. p. 303, and Hawai. Almanac, 1879, p. 51 (nec 

 N. australis, Gould !) . 



Numenius taUensis, Coues, Check-list N.-A. B. 2nd ed. p. 105 (1882) ; id. Key N.-Am. 13. 2nd ed. p. 646 

 (1884). 



Stejneger (I. c.) thinks the name tahitiensis cannot stand, but, although Latham did not 

 mention the bristly thigh-feathers, his description seems to suit the present species so 

 well, and the name given by Gmelin, who never saw the bird and merely based his 

 description on Latham's, has been so generally accepted, that I do not think it 

 necessary to reject it. 



This rather rare species can be easily recognized by its thigh-feathers having their shafts 

 elongated into long, glossy, hair-like bristles ; often even longer than in the figure in 

 Seebohm's 4 Charadriida},' on p. 333. Top of head dark sooty brown, limited by broad 

 superciliary stripes and divided by a mesial line of buff ; some dusky streaks in front and 

 behind the eye ; chin and throat, neck, and all the lower parts pale buff; the cheeks, neck, 

 and jugulum streaked with brown; the sides of the body irregularly barred with the 

 same colour ; axillaries pale rufous buff, with a dark brown shaft and broad bars of dark- 

 brown. Upper parts sooty brown, all the feathers spotted or irregularly varied with buff; 



D 



