Numenius

The curlews () are a group of nine species of birds in the genus Numenius, characterised by their long, slender, downcurved bills and mottled brown plumage. The English name is imitative of the Eurasian curlew's call, but may have been influenced by the Old French , "messenger", from , "to run". It was first recorded in 1377 in Langland's Piers Plowman "". In Europe, "curlew" usually refers to one species, the Eurasian curlew (Numenius arquata).

==Taxonomy== The genus Numenius was erected by the French scientist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in his Ornithologie published in 1760. The type species is the Eurasian curlew (Numenius arquata). The Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus had introduced the genus Numenius in the 6th edition of his Systema Naturae published in 1748, but Linnaeus dropped the genus in the important tenth edition of 1758 and put the curlews together with the woodcocks in the genus Scolopax. As the publication date of Linnaeus's sixth edition was before the 1758 starting point of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, Brisson and not Linnaeus is considered as the authority for the genus. The name Numenius is from Ancient Greek , a bird mentioned by Hesychius. It is associated with the curlews because it appears to be derived from neos, "new" and mene, "moon", referring to the crescent-shaped bill. The genus now contains nine species: