(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 11·6 inches, wing 8·14,
tail 3·3. _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. GAVIÆ.
Fam. L. LARIDÆ, 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 Laridæ is about thirty-three.