Birds of Celebes: Charadriidae. 
799 
compared with which they may be said to have a more saturated coloration. 
Much as with Limosa, N. variegatus may be distinguished from N. phaeopus by 
its axillaries in which the white bars are not more than twice the width of the 
brown (usually the bars are of about equal width), while in the adult N. phaeopus 
the white bars are three or four times the width of the brown; also the under 
wing-coverts of N. variegatus are thickly barred and spotted with brown, while 
in N. phaeopus they are much whiter, the second and third rows being almost 
pure white; the lower hack of N. variegatus is always white marked with large 
spots of brown, changing to bars on the rump and upper tail-coverts, whereas 
the lower back of N. phaeopus appears pure white and the spots only attain to 
the size of bars on the longer upper tail-coverts. Seebohm (f2) says the two 
forms completely intergrade, but this is certainly not the case in 26 specimens 
of variegatus and two of phaeopus before us, though the birds vary much in size 
and coloration, both individually and with age and with the wearing-away of 
the feathers. 
The Oriental Whimbrel apparently breeds in very high northern latitudes, 
for it is recorded only as a bird of passage by Dr. Stejneger from Bering 
Island and by Taczanowski as such from Kamtschatka and other parts of 
East Siberia. Its breeding grounds have not yet been discovered, though 
Nikolski believes that it nests in Sakhalien. As to Celebes it seems to be a 
plentiful winter visitor, and some individuals remain all the year. AVe have a 
specimen from Manado tua and another from Banka killed in May, one from 
Siao in June, one from Great Sangi in July, Others are noted by Meyer in 
Legge’s Birds of Ceylon (p. 912) as killed in May in Ternate and Waigiou, 
in June in New Guinea, in July in New Guinea, in August at Mactan in the 
Philippines. 
341. ? NUMENIUS ARQUATUS (L.). 
Common Curlew. 
a. Numenius lineatus (1) Cuv., Rfegne An. 1829, I, 521; (2) Hume, Str. P. 1873, I, 237; 
(3) Legge, B. Ceylon 1880, 906; (4) Everett, J. Str. Br. R. A. S. 1889, 209; 
(5) Steere, Philipp. List 1890, 26; (6) Whitehead, Ihis 1890, 59; (7) Salvadori, 
Om. Pap. Agg. 1891, 203. 
Numenius arquatus (1) Jerd., B. Ind. 1864, IH, 683; ">(2) Rosenh., Malay. Archip. 1878, 
278; (3) Oates, B. Brit. Burmah 1883, H, 412; (4) Seebohm, B. Japan 1890, 
314; (5) Sharpe, Cat. B. 1896, XXIV, 341, 753. 
b. Numenius arquatus lineatus (1) Seebohm, Brit. B. 1885, HI, 95; (2) id., Distr. Charadr. 
1887, 324; (3) Tacz., Faun. Om. Sib. Orient. 1893, H, 938. 
For further synonymy and references cf. Salvadori a 7; Legge a S; Sharpe 5. 
Descriptions. Legge a -3; Oates 3; Seebohm h 2 (diagn.); Salvad. a 7; Taczanowski h 3. 
Particulars of the skeleton have been figured by Giehel, Milne-Edwards 
and Garrod. 
Diagnosis. Differs from N. variegatus by its much larger size (wing ca. 310 mm; tarsus ca. 85; 
