_Scolopax tahitiensis_ Gmelin, Syst. Nat., 1, pt. 2, 1789, p. 656.
(Type locality, Tahiti, Society Islands, based on the Otaheiti
Curlew of Latham, Gen. Syn., 3, pt. 1, 1785, p. 122, no. 4.)
_Numenius femoralis_ Finsch, Ibis, 1880, pp. 220, 331, 332
(Jaluit, Arno).
_Numenius tahitiensis_ Seebohm, Geogr. Dist. Charadriidae, 1887,
p. 332 (Marshalls); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus.
Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 66 (Marianne?, Marshalls);
Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 24, 1896, p. 367 (Marianas,
Marshalls); Schnee, Zool. Jahrbücher, 20, 1904, p. 390
(Marschall-Inseln); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 62
(Marianas, Pelews); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922,
p. 49 (Marianas, Marshalls); Bent, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 146,
1929, p. 143 (Jaluit); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p.
192 (Saipan, Marshalls); Peters, Check-list Birds World, 2, 1934,
p. 261 (Marshalls); Yamashina, Tori, 10, 1940, p. 677 (Jarchi);
Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 215 (Saipan, Jaluit,
Arhno, Maloelab, Wotze, Ailuk, Ringelab, Larchi); Stickney, Amer.
Mus. Novit., no. 1248, 1943, p. 4 (Ponapé, Marshalls); Mayr, Birds
Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 39 (Marshalls, straggler to Carolines
and Marianas).
_Phaeopus tahitiensis_ Wetmore, in Townsend and Wetmore, Bull.
Mus. Comp. Zoöl., 63, 1919, p. 179 (Rongelab); Ridgway, Bull. U.
S. Nat. Mus., 50, pt. 8, 1919, p. 407 (Marianas, Marshalls).
_Geographic range._--Breeds in western Alaska. Winters in eastern
and central Polynesia. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands--Saipan;
Caroline Islands--Ponapé; Marshall Islands--Jaluit, Arhno,
Moloelab, Wotze, Ailuk, Rongelab, Larchi, Bikini.
_Specimens examined._--Total number, 6 (3 males, 3 females), as
follows: Caroline Islands, AMNH--Ponapé, 2 (Dec. 15); Marshall
Islands, USNM--Bikini, 4 (Mar. 10, 14, April 2, 30).
_Remarks._--The Bristle-thighed Curlew is a regular migrant through the
Marshall Islands of eastern Micronesia. It is recorded as a straggler to
the Caroline and Mariana islands. Stickney (1943:4, fig. 1) shows a map
and discusses the breeding and wintering ranges of this curlew. As can
be observed from her map, the principal wintering areas are east and
south of Micronesia. She records the species from the Bonin Islands,
which is the westernmost record.
It is difficult to offer plausible reasons for the present migratory
habits of the Bristle-thighed Curlew. It is related to both the Asiatic
form, _N. phaeopus_, and to the American species, _N. hudsonicus_, but
its origin is not understood. The characteristics of its route of
migration resemble that of some continental migrants and might have come
about by a slow adjustment of the species to its environment, probably
through an expansion of range from the west.
=Numenius madagascariensis= (Linnaeus)