NUMENIUS LINE ATUS. 
THE EASTERN CURLEW.) 
Numenius lineatus, Cuv. Eeg. An. 2nd ed. i. p. 52 (1829) ; Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 167 ; 
Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 410 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 237 ; Adam, t. c. p. 396 ; 
Hume, ibid. 1874, p. 296 ; Butler & Hume, ibid. 1876, p. 16 ; Armstrong, t. c. p. 341 ; 
Hume, t.c. p. 464; David & Oustalet, Ois. de la Chine, p. 457 (1877); Hume, Str. 
Feath. 1878 (B. of Tenass.), p. 460; Davidson & Wender, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 89; 
Hume, ibid. 1879, viii. (List of Ind. B.), p. 112. 
■Numenius arquatus (Linn.), Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 268 (1849); Kelaart, Prodromus, 
Cat. p. 134 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 264; Jerdon, B. of 
Ind. iii. p. 683 (1864) ; Schlegel, Mus. P.-B. Scolopaces, p. 85 (1864, in part) ; Layard, 
B. South Afr. p. 322 (1867) ; Iloldsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 474 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 29 ; 
Salvadori, Uccelli di Borneo, p. 332 (1874) ; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 402. 
Numenius major , Temm. & Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, pi. 66 (1847); Blakiston & Pryer, 
Ibis, 1878, p. 222. 
Courlis a taches etroites de VInde, Cuv.; Grey Curlew, of some. Goar, Goungh, Hind. ; 
Choppa, Bengal., also Sada Kastachura (Jerdon); 0-sliakushigi, Japan; Kutherai Malle 
Kotan (lit. “ Horsehiil Sandpiper”), Ceylonese Tamils. 
Adult males (Ceylon). Length 22-5 to 22-9 inches ; wing 11-0 to 11-9 ; tail 4-5 to 4-7 ; tarsus 3-2 to 3-4 ; middle toe 
and claw l - 9 to 2-05 ; bill at front, along culmeu, 5'6 to 6-0. Dimensions of respective parts vary much; in this 
series the bird with the wing of 11-9 has the bill 5-6. 
Adult female. Wing 12‘0 inches ; tarsus 3‘5 ; bill at front, along culmen, 7'3. 
As this species varies much in size, these limits are no doubt occasionally exceeded. 
Iris brown ; bill dark brown or blackish on the upper mandible, basal half of lower mandible fleshy white, tip 
generally paler brown than the upper ; legs and feet bluish grey or leaden blue. 
Head and hind neck with the feathers broadly centred with light sepia-brown, paling off at the edges, in some to 
greyish white, and in others to pale tawny, the edgings on the centre of the hind neck being always lighter than 
on the head, and passing round on the sides of the neck and fore neck, where the dark portions are reduced to 
narrow mesial lines ; feathers of the upper back, scapulars, tertials, and wing-coverts centred with darker sepia- 
brown, paling at the edges to cinereous grey or greyish tawny on the back and scapulars, and to whitish on the 
wing-coverts ; the greater coverts with indentations or marginal bars of white ; quills dark brown, the inner webs 
barred mostly towards the base with white, the 1st primary with a white shaft, and all but the first four with 
white tips ; lower back and upper tail-coverts white : the rump and uppermost of the coverts with mesial blackish 
stripes, the longer or underlying coverts with interrupted bars or central transverse spots ; tail white crossed 
with narrow wavy brown bands ; lores and face brown-striped, a whitish band above the lores passing as a border 
round the eye; chin, gorge, and under surface white, the mesial lines of the fore neck continued on the breast, 
and widening into narrow drop-dashes towards the flanks ; lower belly and vent unmarked ; the under tail-coverts 
axillary plumes, and sides of rump with narrow blackish shaft-lines near the tips; under wing-coverts white. 
In some specimens the axillaries are pure white ; and examples shot in Ceylon in March and April are more tinged 
with tawny on the back and flanks thau mid-winter birds. A partial, if not a complete, moult takes place at 
this time. 
Obs. 1 follow Messrs. Blyth, Swinhoe, and Hume in considering the Indian Curlew distinct from the European ; 
but 1 only regard it as a subspecies, or well-marked Eastern-Asiatic form of that bird. It cannot be separated 
on account of the different or the variable curvature of its bill, for this is an utterly unreliable character in 
these large Curlews ; nor can dependence entirely be placed on the almost unspotted axillaries, though the 
