Art. XV.—On the Occurrence of the Curlew-Sandpiper (An-cylochilus sub-arquatus) in New Zealand.

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 36, 1903, Page 155

Art. XV.—On the Occurrence of the Curlew-Sandpiper (An-cylochilus sub-arquatus) in New Zealand. By Captain F. W. Hutton, F.R.S. [Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 4th November, 1903.] The Curlew-Sandpiper is one of those birds which breed in the Arctic regions and pass the winter in Africa, India, and Australia. We do not know it as a regular visitor to New Zealand, but two specimens were shot at Lake Ellesmere by Mr. Edgar Stead on the 5th of last April, one of which went to the British Museum and the other to the Canterbury Museum. The British Museum specimen is in the winter plumage, but the one in our Museum is just commencing to change into the breeding-plumage, having rufous feathers on its breast and rusty ones on the neck and back. The length of the bill is 1.4 in.; of the wing, 5.3 in.; of the tarsus, 1.15 in.; and of the middle toe and claw, 1.15 in. The bird is easily recognised from any of the other Sandpipers by its long slender bill, which is slightly curved down-wards, and by the white upper tail-coverts.

The winter plumage is as follows: Above ashy-brown, the centres of the feathers darker; rump and upper tail-coverts white; tail ashy-brown, with a subterminal bar of dusky, the feathers with white shafts and fringed with white. Under-surface pure-white, with tiny lines of dusky-brown on the sides of the face, sides of the neck, and lower throat and fore-neck.