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Show 1891.] BIRDS OF THE PH03NIX ISLANDS. 299 Four species of Charadriidse were seen on the island. NUMENIUS TAHITIENSIS (Gmel.). This curious species of Curlew, which is rare in collections, was abundant at Canton Island, and probably the birds I had previously seen at Sydney and Phcenix Islands belonged to this species. The character which distinguishes this bird from all others is the peculiar development of the tibial plumes. Their shafts are produced into long shining bristles, which, projecting far beyond the general investment of feathers, produce a curious appearance. The Curlews were very tame. They went about in parties of six or eight on the open shingly places and sandy shores of the lagoon, or flew round one's head uttering their notes like the words " turree-turree." The species was first obtained at Tahiti on Captain Cook's second visit and described by Gmelin1; since this it has been obtained at Vincennes Island in the Paumotus, and at Samoa, the Marquesas, Fanning, Gilbert, Phcenix2, and Sandwich Islands. Its breeding-haunts appear to be in the far north of the American continent. It has twice been obtained in Alaska3 in the month of May, where the birds were going about in pairs and were evidently iu their nesting-haunts. CHARADRIUS FULVUS, Gmel. There were small squads of this widely-distributed bird both here and at Phcenix Island. Several of the males had assumed the fine black front of breeding plumage. I failed, however, to find the eggs or any indication of pairing. The two forms of this species-Old World and New World-are only distinguished by slight differences of size. The measurements of my Phoenix Island specimens are intermediate, so they cannot be referred to one form or the other. The only localities in which this bird is certainly known to breed are the tundras of Eastern Siberia on the one hand, and on the other the extreme north of the American continent, beyond the region of forest-growth. Thence they wander down to China, India, the Malay Islands, Australia, and the islands of the Pacific Ocean from the western part of their range and to South America from the eastern4. It is remarkable that so many birds should remain in their southern haunts in the height of the breeding-season. The wedding-plumage of the males shows that the birds were not immature. STREPSILAS I N T E R P R E S (Linn.). These were also abundant, in flocks of 6 to 20 or so, working along the outer reef platform, or settling close together on the stretches of sand exposed at low tide on the shore of the lagoon. There was no indication of nesting. The bird, as is well known, is cosmopolitan in its range. 1 Syst. Nat. i. p. 656 (1788). s Obtained by Graffe at M'Kean Island, Finsch and Hartlaub, I. c. p. 177. ' Ridgway, Am. Nat. 1874, p. 435. Nelson, Cruise of the ' Corwin,' p. 90. 4 Seebohm's ' Charadriidas.' |