Volume Ii Part 37 (1/2)
(HUDSONIAN G.o.dWIT.)
+Limosa hudsonica+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 146; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 43 (Chupat) et p. 200 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1883, p. 42 (Buenos Ayres); _Seebohm, Plovers_, p. 392. +Limosa haemastica+, _Baird, Brew., et Ridgw. Water-B. N. A._ i. p. 260.
_Description._--(_In summer._) Above dark brownish black, mixed on the head with longitudinal streaks of whitish, on the neck with pale chestnut, and with many of the feathers of the back spotted or edged with pale chestnut; wings and tail blackish, the upper half of the inner webs of the primaries and secondaries, the basal part of the outer rectrices, and a broad band across the upper tail-coverts pure white: beneath, cheeks and throat whitish, becoming pale chestnut on the neck, longitudinally striped with blackish; rest of under surface deeper chestnut, transversely barred with blackish. (_In winter._) Above uniform dull brownish; head, neck, and under surface dirty white or pale buff: whole length 143 inches, wing 85, tail 37.
_Hab._ Arctic America, descending south to Central Patagonia in winter.
The Hudsonian G.o.dwit, Mr. Seebohm tells us, ”breeds on the tundras of North America north of the forest-growth, from Alaska to Baffin's Bay, but is rare at the western extremity of its range.” In winter it goes far south, like most of the other Grallae.
Durnford found it ”common from April to September about the lagoons and arroyos to the south of Buenos Ayres;” and states that in habits it much resembles the Bar-tailed G.o.dwit of Europe (_Limosa lapponica_). He also met with it in Chupat, and obtained two specimens there on the 13th of November, 1876.
I have met with it in flocks during the summer of the Southern Hemisphere, and these birds, as well as those obtained at Chupat in November by Durnford, were undoubtedly visitors from the north; but invariably small flocks of half a dozen to thirty birds begin to appear on the pampas in April, and remain there, as Durnford says, until September, when the northern migrants are nearly due. These individuals must therefore breed near the extremity, or beyond the extremity, of South America. It is very curious, to say the least of it, that the Arctic and Antarctic regions of America should possess the same species, and that, at opposite seasons of the year, it should winter in the same district, so far from the breeding-place of one set of individuals, and so near to that of the other! Captain Abbott observed the Hudsonian G.o.dwit in the Falkland Islands in flocks in the month of May (see Ibis, 1861, p. 156). These could not have been Alaskan birds, but were no doubt southern breeders on their way north, for that they could winter so far south seems incredible.
409. NUMENIUS BOREALIS (Forst.).
(ESQUIMO WHIMBREL.)
+Numenius borealis+, _Scl. et Salv. Nomencl._ p. 146; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1878, p. 404 (Centr. Patagonia); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p.
316 (Entrerios); _Seebohm, Plovers_, p. 333; _Baird, Brew., et Ridgw. Water-B. N. A._ i. p. 318.
_Description._--Above dark brown, each feather edged or spotted with pale buff or dirty white, becoming most strongly marked on the rump and upper tail-coverts; wings uniform dusky brownish, narrowly edged with white; tail buffy brown, transversely barred with dusky: beneath, throat white; rest of under surface pale buff, with more or less V-shaped dusky markings on the breast, flanks, and under tail-coverts; axillaries and under wing-coverts pale chestnut, transversely barred with dusky: whole length 116 inches, wing 814, tail 33. _Female_ similar.
_Hab._ Arctic America, extending south to Patagonia in winter.
The Esquimo Whimbrel, which, as Mr. Seebohm tells us, may be distinguished from all its congeners by having scarcely any traces of bars on its primaries and by the back of the tarsus being covered with hexagonal reticulations, migrates from the tundras of North America, where it breeds, to the southern extremity of South America.
Mr. Barrows noted its first arrival at Concepcion in Entrerios on September 9th, 1880, ”in large flocks.” After the middle of October none were seen there.
The same excellent observer saw it almost daily on the pampas between Azul and Bahia Blanca, ”in company with the Golden Plover and Bartram's Sandpiper, until late in February.”
From the 8th to the 10th of October, 1877, Durnford saw large flocks of this Whimbrel in the Chupat Valley flying south, and obtained two specimens. Capt. Packe and Capt. Abbott both procured examples in the Falkland Islands.
Order XVI. GAVIae.
Fam. L. LARIDae, or GULLS.
The Gulls and Terns of the Rio de la Plata require more attention, and it is probable that several additions will have to be made to the list.
At present we can enumerate only nine species as certainly found within our limits. The number of known Neotropical Laridae is about thirty-three.
410. RHYNCHOPS MELANURA, Sw.
(BLACK-TAILED SKIMMER.)
+Rhynchops nigra+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 520 (Rio Parana); _Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S._ 1869, p. 634 (Buenos Ayres); _iid.
Nomencl._ p. 147; _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 209 (Buenos Ayres); _White, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 628 (Buenos Ayres). +Rhynchops melanura+, _Saunders, P. Z. S._ 1882, p. 522.
_Description._--Above brownish black; forehead and wing-band white; tail black: beneath white; bill, apical half black, basal half orange; feet red: whole length 190 inches, wing 150, tail 50.