"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. 102. MESOSCOLOPAX MINUTUS (Gould). PYGMY CURLEW. Numenius minutus Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1840), 176. Mesoscolopax minutus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 24, 371; Hand-List (1899), 1, 159; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 25. Marinduque (Steere Exp.); Mindanao (Mearns). China, eastern Siberia, Korea, and Mongolia; in winter Japan to Australia.