HUDSONIAN CURLEW 261 



especially if one hired a gunner (without his gun) and oc- 

 cupied a blind. 



HuDSONiAN Curlew ; Jack Curlew. Numenius hud- 



sonicus 



17.00. Bill 3.75 



Ad. — Top of head blackish, with a central whitish stripe; line 

 over eye white; line through eye brown; rest of upper parts and 

 tail brown, speckled with white; throat and belly white; neck 

 and breast thickly streaked with dusky. Bill long and curved. 



The Hudsonian Curlew is a rather uncommon migrant 

 along the coast in May, and again in August and Septem- 

 ber. It occurs on mud-flats and on sandy beaches, either 

 at the edge of the water or walking in the shallow pools, 

 picking up food from the water with the head apparently 

 held sidewise. It often stands when undisturbed, with 

 one leg uplifted and crooked, or squats with its breast on 

 the sand. It also frequents grassy hills near the sea. In 

 spring the curlew utters a sweet mournful cry, like the 

 syllables kur-leiu ; its ordinary call-note and cry when 

 startled sounds like pip-pip-xjip-pip. The general broivn 

 tone of the plumage and the long curved hill make it 

 impossible to mistake the Jack Curlew for anything except 

 a smaller species, the Eskimo Curlew, Avhich was formerly 

 common, but is now extremely rare. 



Spotted Saxd piper. Actitis macularia 

 7.50. Bill .95 



Ad. — Upper parts light brown; under parts white; every- 

 where marked with roundish spots of blackish ; a row of white 

 spots on the wings show in flight as a white stripe ; the outer 

 tail-feathers barred with white. Im. — The under parts white, 

 unspotted, washed on the breast with grayish. 



Nest, on the ground, of dried grasses and straw, in a field or 

 pasture, often at some distance from water. Eggs, buffy, thickly 

 speckled with dark brown and black. 



