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Art. LIII.—Notes on the occurrence of a Curlew, probably Numenius cyanopus, * Vieillot, in New Zealand.
[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, May 4th, 1876.]
For years past I have repeatedly been informed by several sportsmen in this Province, that they had observed specimens of a large Curlew in the estuaries of some of our rivers, and although every attempt was made to secure a specimen for the Canterbury Museum, for a long time it proved unsuccessful. Thus Mr. Alexander Barnes, of Saltwater Creek, told me that he had seen about six years ago as many as five together, which were so shy that he could never get near enough to fire at them. In the last four years he has seen, however, only one solitary bird, the others having disappeared. Similar accounts have reached me from the South.
[Footnote] * See ante, p. 333,
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Mr. Robert Day at last obtained one on the Kaiapoi Bar on the 2nd of April of this year, where it was found by him together with a mob of Limosa uropygialis, the Godwit, usually called the New Zealand Snipe.
On examination it proved to be a very fine male bird, which as to size agrees more with the Australian than the European species. Mr. Gould has already pointed out * that the Australian Curlew, although in many respects resembling the common Curlew of Europe, is distinguished from it, amongst several differences in the plumage, by a much longer bill. As it will be seen by the following measurements, taken from a specimen in the Canterbury Museum, the New Zealand bird is the largest of the whole series:—
| —– | From Gape to point of Bill, in a straight Line. Inches. | Lenght of Metatarsus. Inches. |
|---|---|---|
| Numenius arquatus, Silesia, North Germany, male, (1870, no further date) | 4.82 | 3.11 |
| Numenius arquatus, Silesia, North Germany, female, (1870, no further date) | 4.65 | 3.32 |
| Numenius arquatus, Bremen, Germany, female (April 13th, 1875). | 5.96 | 3.19 |
| Numenius cyanopus, Australia, no sex, no date | 7.0 | 3.20 |
| Numenius cyanopus, (?), Canterbury, N.Z., male, (April 2nd, 1876) | 7.62 | 3.48 |
From these measurements it will be seen that, whilst the bill of the only Australian specimen in the Canterbury Museum is considerably longer than those of the three European specimens, the New Zealand bird exceeds the former by more than half an inch in length. The length of the metatarsus is, however, no criterion, the European specimen with the shortest bill having the longest metatarsus of the whole series, except the New Zealand specimen. I am not aware how far variations may occur in the plumage of these Curlews in different seasons or during different ages, which might be important, but I find that the Australian specimen in the Canterbury Museum agrees entirely with Gould's description, so that if the New Zealand bird belongs to the same species the latter is in a different state of plumage, as it is usually found in Australia.
Thus I find what is pale buff in the Australian specimen is nearly white in the New Zealand bird, which is very striking on the side of the face, on the throat, and the lower part of the breast, also the greater wing covers and the first primary quill feathers are nearly black in the New Zealand specimen, in which both features it resembles the European species. The New Zealand specimen has, however, the rump and tail covers also barred with brown, instead of being uniform white as N. arquatus exhibits, so that
[Footnote] *“Birds of Australia,” Vol. II., p. 278,
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in this peculiarity of plumage, as well as in the length of the bill, the New Zealand bird agrees with N. cyanopus of Vieillot.
The back of the Australian specimen is described as blackish-brown, each feather irregularly blotched with reddish buff on the margin, whilst in the New Zealand specimen the feathers do not exhibit these reddish buff blotches.
In the two specimens, male and female, from Silesia (1870), but no date when they were obtained, there is also no sign of reddish buff on the back, the feathers being here more irregularly blotched with dark brown all over than in the New Zealand bird, where this tint is more confined to the central line of the feathers, and from which the brown bars run more regularly towards the edges than in the former. On the other hand the female bird, shot April 13th, 1875, near Bremen in Germany, exhibits the reddish buff blotches well, but in all other respects agrees with the two other European specimens. If it were not too hasty to draw a conclusion from two single specimens, of which the data of one of them are not known, we might infer that the reddish buff blotches on the back appear in both the European and Australian species before and at the breeding season. It is also impossible to say at present, if this specimen (like those before observed in New Zealand) is only a straggler from Australia, or if it is a distinct species which breeds in New Zealand and has some constant characteristic features of its own, and we have therefore to wait until more material is collected before we can settle that question.
P.S.—Since these notes were written, another male specimen of the Curlew was obtained on the estuary of the Ashley River by Mr. Robert Haylett, who shot it on June 27th, when flying past alone. My informant believes that it was the specimen which had been seen at Saltwater Creek and the neighbourhood for some years past, and to which I have alluded in my first paper. The bill of this specimen is only 5.71 inches, and the metatarsus 3.35 inches long, it being thus of smaller dimensions than the first one obtained on the Kaiapoi Bar.
With this latter it also agrees in the plumage, with the exception that its back is also irregularly blotched with reddish buff.
As this bird was shot at the end of June, when the Curlew would already assume the vernal dress in New Zealand, my former inference in that respect might prove correct. At the same time it appears that the Curlew, of which two specimens were obtained in New Zealand, is intermediate in plumage between the European and Australian species, and might thus rank as a variety, although I think it would be premature to designate it by a new specific term, until we shall know something more about it.