Eskimo Curlew - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The Eskimo Curlew is one of eight species of curlew, and is classed with them in the genus Numenius. It was formerly placed in the separate genus Mesoscolopax. Numenius is classed in the family Scolopacidae. Other species in that family include woodcocks, phalaropes, snipes, and sandpipers. Scolopacidae is a Charadriiform lineage.

The species was described by Johann Reinhold Forster in 1772. The generic name has three possible etymologies. One is that it comes from the Greek "noumenios". "Noumenios" means "of the new moon", the curlews' thin beak being compared to a thin crescent moon. A second possibility is that the genus name comes from the word numen, meaning "nod", and referring to this species head being bent forwards and down. The final possibility is that Numenius is a Latinized form of the Greek noumenios, which was the word Diogenes Laertius used to refer to a species of curlew. The specific name "borealis" is Latin for "northern".

This species has many common names. It has been named the Prairie Pigeon, Fute, Little Curlew, Doe-bird, and Doughbird. These last two names come from its fatness during early migration south.