A STUDY OF THE GENUS MACRORHAMPHUS. 
BY REGINALD HEBER HOWE, JR. 
Ever since Thomas Bell and George N. Lawrence in 1852, in 
the ‘ Annals ’ of the New York Lyceum of Natural History (Vol. V, 
pp x— , recognized that long- and short-billed forms of this genus 
existed, ornithologists have either been loath (Coues, Birds of the 
Northwest, p. 477) to accept the two forms, or have been puzzled 
to identify many specimens in the collections. 
A month or two ago while examining some fifteen specimens of 
this genus in search of a male Long-billed Dowitclier, the fact of 
r—i — x 
maculata) (see Auk, Yol. XVI, p. 179, and Vol. XVIII, p. 107), the 
males exceed the females in size, while in the present genus the 
reverse is true. The Wilson’s Snipe (■ Gallinago delicata), American 
Woodcock (. Philohela minor), the genera Limosa and Numenius , all 
show this latter type of sexual variation to a greater or less degree. 
Macrorhamphus griseus Gmelin. 
Geographical Breeding Range. — The breeding range of this 
species is given as “within the Arctic Circle” in Chapman’s 
‘ Hand-book’ (p. 155), based on what data, other than hypotheti- 
cal, I am ignorant. We know, however, from various sources 1 
that it breeds in Ungava. Its breeding range I think can be 
safely said to be to the north and northeast of Hudson Bay, from 
the 55th parallel northward to Greenland, 2 probably also a little 
1 Turner, Birds of Labrador, 1885, p. 246; Stearns, Bird Life in Labrador, 
1886, p. 53. 
2 Arctic Manual and Instructions, 1875. 
