Tantalus variegatus Scopoli, Del. Flor. et Faun. Insubr. (1786),
2, 92.
Numenius variegatus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 24,
361; Hand-List (1899), 1, 158; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List
(1906), 24.
Ta-ling'-ting, Cagayancillo.
Bantayan (McGregor); Bohol (McGregor); Cagayancillo (McGregor);
Cebu (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Cuyo (Meyer);
Lubang (McGregor); Luzon (Heriot); Malanipa (Murray); Mindanao
(Platen, Goodfellow); Negros (Steere Exp., Keay); Palawan
(Whitehead); Panay (Steere Exp.); Samar (Sanchez); Siquijor
(Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Ticao (McGregor) [14]. Japan
and eastern Siberia, in winter southern China to Australia.
"Adult male in breeding plumage.--Above nearly uniform dark brown,
excepting for the broad, ashy brown markings on mantle and upper back;
wing-coverts like back, but margins paler and more whitish, greater
series with whitish notches on both webs; alula and primary-coverts
dark brown, fringed with white at the ends; primaries blackish brown,
notched with white on inner webs, which have a barred appearance along
the edge; inner primaries notched with white on both webs; secondaries
brown, notched on outer webs and barred on inner; innermost secondaries
nearly uniform with the back; shaft of outer primary white, of second
whity brown, and of the rest pale brown; lower back and rump white,
very thickly mottled with spots and bars of brown; upper tail-coverts
barred with brown and whitish, the brown bars somewhat irregular and
not coterminous; tail ashy brown, tipped with white, and crossed by
regular bars of dark brown, about nine in number; center of crown
whitish and streaked with brown, remainder of crown dark brown,
forming two broad bands and followed by a broad eyebrow of dull white
and narrowly streaked with small lines of blackish; lores and upper
margins of ear-coverts dark brown; remainder of sides of face and neck
pale brown, streaked with darker brown, cheeks somewhat whiter; chin
and upper throat white, with scarcely any brown spots; lower throat,
breast, and sides of body pale, rufescent buff, thickly clouded with
longitudinal streaks of dark brown on throat and breast; dark brown
bars of a more or less sagittate shape on sides of body and flanks;
abdomen and under tail-coverts white, the latter with streaks and
bars of dark brown; under wing-coverts and axillars white with broad
dusky brown bars, very distinct on the latter. 'Bill blackish, dark
brown at base of lower mandible; feet dark lead-color; claws black;
iris very dark brown.' (Taczanowski.) Length, 380; culmen, 76; wing,
223; tail, 96; tarsus, 55.
"Adult female in breeding plumage.--Similar to the male.
"Young birds may always be distinguished by the more mottled appearance
of upper surface, most of the feathers being spotted on both webs
with whitish or pale, rufescent buff; lower back and rump plentifully
mottled with spots of dusky brown, and innermost secondaries very
distinctly notched with rufescent buff; streaks on throat and breast
and bars on flanks almost as plentifully developed as in the adult;
bars on axillars often very incomplete, and, in rare instances, absent.
"The differences between this race and the whimbrel (N. phæopus)
of Europe are not so strongly pronounced in all cases as to render
the determination of specimens always a matter of certainty. Some
of the Philippine specimens, for instance, are very difficult to
separate from European examples, and many others also appear to be
intermediate between the two forms." (Sharpe.)
The above descriptions of the adult male and of the young are slightly
modified from Sharpe's descriptions of Numenius phæopus of which the
eastern whimbrel is but a subspecies.
The eastern whimbrel is much smaller than either of the two preceding
species and usually it may be killed with little trouble. In the
vicinity of tide-flats at high water it often congregates in flocks,
but as the feeding grounds become exposed the individuals scatter
to various parts following the receding tide. In length the male is
about 420; wing, 205; tail, 100; exposed culmen, 82; tarsus, 53;
middle toe with claw, 41. Wing of female, 240; tail, 110; exposed
culmen, 79; tarsus, 60.
Genus MESOSCOLOPAX Sharpe, 1896.
In structure this genus is similar to Numenius but the tarsus is
transversely scutellated both in front and behind.