Читать книгу A Manual of Philippine Birds - Richard C. McGregor - Страница 232

 Scolopax arquata Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 145.

 Numenius arquatus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 24, 341; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1902), 2, 36.

 Numenius arquata Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 157; Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 252, fig. 58 (head); McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 24.

Masbate (Bourns & Worcester); Negros (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Palawan (Whitehead, Bourns & Worcester); Samar (Whitehead). India and Africa; Europe east to Lake Baikal, in winter to southern China and Malay Peninsula.

“Adult male in breeding plumage.—Above brown, with longitudinal black centers to the feathers imparting a broadly striped appearance; feathers of upper surface notched with ashy or rufous, giving to many of the scapulars a somewhat barred appearance; wing-coverts dark brown, edged with whity brown, median and greater series also checkered with whity brown, imparting a somewhat barred appearance to this part of the wing; alula, primary-coverts, and primaries blackish, externally glossed with bottle-green; primary-coverts slightly tipped with white, shafts of outer primaries white, those of inner ones brown, primaries notched or barred, on inner web only, with sandy buff or whitish, inner primaries thus marked on both webs; secondaries distinctly barred with brown and white, both webs being deeply notched with ashy whitish; innermost secondaries ashy brown with dusky brown cross-bars, the center of the feathers being also dusky brown; lower back and rump pure white with black longitudinal spots or streaks, a little more distinct on the rump; upper tail-coverts barred with black and white or with sagittate subterminal spots, the longer ones tinged with sandy buff, giving a streaked appearance; neck more ashy, streaked with brown; over the eye a white streak, narrowly lined with black; sides of face and sides of neck, throat, and chest pale sandy buff streaked with blackish brown, more narrowly on the sides of face; chin and upper throat white; breast, abdomen, sides of body, thighs, and under tail-coverts white, streaked with dark brown on breast, and very narrowly on abdomen and under tail-coverts; thighs unstreaked; sides of body with distinct bars or sagittate markings of dark brown; under wing-coverts and axillars pure white, mottled with blackish centers to the feathers; axillars more or less regularly barred with blackish or with subterminal, heart-shaped spots; lower primary-coverts and quills below ashy gray with white notches to the inner webs. ‘Bill fleshy brown, shading into dark brown toward the tip; feet dusky; iris brown.’ (Shelley.) Length, 533; culmen, 121; wing, 279; tail, 108; tarsus, 74.

“Adult female in breeding plumage.—Similar to the male, but larger, and with a longer bill. Length, 610; culmen, 155; wing, 305; tail, 145; tarsus, 81.

“Adults in winter plumage.—Very similar to the breeding plumage, but paler, and much less heavily striped, especially on the under surface of the body; the black spots and streaks on the rump scarcely apparent, and concealed by the white plumage; upper tail-coverts white, with very few brown cross-bars; tail white, barred with brown. ‘Feet pale leaden gray, claws blackish; bill blackish brown, flesh-color at the base of the lower mandible.’ (Hume.)

“There is evidently a spring molt, but whether partial or entire I have not been able to determine. The breeding plumage is gained by a widening of the longitudinal centers to the feathers, of which the pattern changes on several portions of the body. Such parts as the rump and the abdomen and under tail-coverts have scarcely any visible streaks, but these appear with the summer plumage and are gained by a change of the feather. The sides of the body change from a streaked to a barred appearance, this being effected by a preliminary widening of the brown centers to the feathers which develop into bars without any direct molt. The innermost secondaries, at the autumn molt, seem to be entirely uniform, and the bars make their appearance gradually.

“Young.—Differs from the adult in being much more tawny, and, as Seebohm has pointed out, young birds may always be distinguished from the old ones by the much lighter patterns of the notches and bars in the innermost secondaries, these markings being tawny buff, and the black centers to the feathers being much broader.” (Sharpe.)

This large curlew is extremely wary and although individuals are occasionally seen on tide-flats, they are difficult to kill.