A Manual of Philippine Birds. Richard C. McGregor
as long as middle toe with claw; toes webbed at base; hind toe wanting.
98. HIMANTOPUS LEUCOCEPHALUS Gould.
AUSTRALIAN STILT.
Himantopus leucocephalus Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1837), 26; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 24, 317; Hand-List (1899), 1, 156; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1902), 2, 34; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 24.
Basilan (McGregor); Mindanao (Cuming, Everett, Steere Exp., Celestino). Greater Sunda Islands, Moluccas, Australia, New Guinea.
Male.—A narrow black collar on hind neck; entire wings, their coverts, and scapulars glossy black; rest of the plumage white. Bill and nails black; legs and feet bright red, said to be pink in life. Length, about 350; wing, 220; tail, 77; exposed culmen, 59; tarsus, 126.
Female.—Smaller and the scapulars dark brown. Wing, 210; tail, 75; exposed culmen, 58; tarsus, 110.
“Young.—Brown on the upper back and inner secondaries; the hind neck, from the nape to the mantle, ashy gray, mottled with dusky subterminal bars to the feathers; crown dull ashy gray; lores and fore part of face white like the under surface of the body.” (Sharpe.)
The stilt, even at a considerable distance, is easily recognized by its very long, slender, red legs. I observed a solitary individual in Malamaui Island near Basilan and Celestino collected a number of specimens in northern Mindanao.
Subfamily TOTANINÆ.
Bill long, slender, usually straight, in some species gently curved; tarsus scutellate both in front and behind except in Numenius which has the back of tarsus reticulate and the bill very long and decurved; toes slightly webbed at base.
Genera.
a1. Tarsus transversely scaled in front, reticulated behind; culmen more than 65 mm.; bill decurved. Numenius (p. 114)
a2. Tarsus transversely scaled both in front and behind.b1. Bill decurved; culmen less than 50 mm. Mesoscolopax (p. 119)b2. Bill straight or slightly upturned.c1. Much larger; culmen more than 70 mm.; bill recurved and slightly exceeding tail. Limosa (p. 119)c2. Much smaller; culmen less than 65 mm.d1. Culmen equal to, and usually greater than, middle toe with claw.e1. Tarsus longer than middle toe with claw.f1. Tarsus about one and one-half times the length of middle toe with claw.g1. Culmen not recurved. Totanus (p. 122)g2. Culmen slightly recurved. Glottis (p. 129)f2. Tarsus but little greater than middle toe with claw.g1. Culmen slightly recurved. Terekia (p. 127)g2. Culmen not recurved.h1. Axillars not uniform white.i1. Axillars gray. Heteractitis (p. 124)i2. Axillars brown barred with white. Helodromas (p. 123)h2. Axillars pure white. Actitis (p. 126)d2. Culmen shorter than middle toe with claw, about equal to toe without claw. Rhyacophilus (p. 130)
Genus NUMENIUS Brisson, 1760.
Back of tarsus covered with small hexagonal scales. Large wading birds with long legs; bill very long and decurved, tip of upper mandible blunt and projecting beyond the lower mandible.
Species.
a1. Culmen, 115 mm. or more; crown uniform in color with the back.b1. Lower back and rump white or with streaks and spots of black; axillars pure white or with traces of dusky lines. arquatus (p. 115)b2. Lower back and rump brown; axillars white, broadly barred with blackish. cyanopus (p. 116)
a2. Culmen, 90 mm. or less; crown blackish with a pale or whitish central vertical band. variegatus (p. 117)
99. NUMENIUS ARQUATUS (Linnæus).
COMMON CURLEW.
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