| OCR Text |
Show 410 MR. R. SWINHOE ON THE BIRDS OF CHINA. [May 2, p. 280). Leaving Australia a few days later, there is no reason why these birds should not pass by the Moluccas, and onwards along the China coast in time to nidificate in Amoorland in June. 571. NUMENIUS PH^EOPUS (L.) ; P. Z. S. 1863, p. 317. Pekin to Shanghai in winter. 572. NUMENIUS LUZONIENSIS (Gmel.), Syst. Nat. 1788, i. p. 656. Numenius atricapillus, Vieill. Numenius uropygialis, Gould, P. Z. S. 1840, p. 175 ; Ibis, 1863, p. 409, 1866, p. 137. Formosa; South China coast. Throughout the islands to Australia. Breeds in southern latitudes. 573. NUMENIUS LINEATUS, CUV. Regn. An. 2nd ed. i. p. 52, note 2; Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 167. Numenius major,T. & S. Faun. Jap. pl. lxvi.; Ibis, 1860, p. 66, 1863, p. 410, 1867, p. 391, 1870, p. 363 ; P. Z. S. 1863, p. 318. Numenius arcuatus, T. & S. Faun. Jap. ; Swinh. Ibis, 1863, p. 410; P.Z.S. 1863, p. 318. Numenius cassinii, Swinh. Ibis, 1867, p. 398; P. Z. S. 1863, p. 317. The long-billed N. major is the female, and the shorter-billed so-called N. arcuatus is the male ; and N. cassinii is a small variety of the same species, at once distinguishable from N. arcuatus of Europe by its white unspotted axillaries. On the China coast the long-billed birds often associate with the short bills, and, as Prof. Schlegel observes (Mus. des Pays-Bas), are of similar plumage. I have examined a number of both, and in every case I have found the long-bills females and the short-bills males. I am therefore convinced that they are mere sexes of the same species. Prof. Schlegel points out the same birds occurring on the coast of South Africa, where they have been also set apart as distinct species. I have compared a specimen from South Africa, kindly given me by Mr. R. B. Sharpe ; and it tallies completely with our male birds from China. It follows, then, that the winter Curlew of India will be the same, and that this migration is another instance of that exemplified in the case of Erythropus amurensis, Radde, of a North-east-Asian bird passing through India to Africa in winter. It spreads down the Chinese and Formosan coasts, during the cold season, as far south as Hainan, extending, according to Schlegel (Mus. des Pays-Bas), to Borneo and Java. 574. NUMENIUS TAHITIENSIS (Gmel.) ; Swinh. P. Z. S. 1863, p. 318. Numenius cyanopus, Vieill. 2nd ed. du Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. viii. p. 306. Numenius major, Faun. Jap. (in part); Ibis, 1861, p. 343. Numenius australis, Ibis, 1863, p. 97; P. Z.S. 1863, p. 318. |
