SMALL ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 101 



SMALL ESaUIMAUX CURLEW. 



(Numenius borealis, Latham. Bonap. Syn. No. 244. Am. Orn. iv. 

 p. 118. pi. 26. fig. 3. Richard. North. Zool. ii. p. 378. t. 65. Scolopaz 

 borealis, Forster. Phil. Trans. 62, pp. 411, — 431. vY. breviros- 

 tris, Temm. pi. color. 381.) 



Sp. Charact. — Crown dusky, with an obscure medial line towards 

 the hind head ; rump dusky and spotted ; axillaries banded with 

 dusky and rufous ; bill short and slender, but little arched. 



The Small Curlew, in the course of its vast migrations, 

 occasionally visits almost every part of the American con- 

 tinent ; penetrating even into the remote territories of the 

 west, coursing along the great valley of the Mississippi, and 

 extending its wanderings into the southern hemisphere as 

 far as Brazil and Paraguay. They arrive at Hudson's Bay 

 in April, or early in May, but breed to the north of Albany 

 Fort, returning to the marshes with their young in August, 

 and retire from that country early in September. Indeed 

 the species, accompanied probably by the preceding, fre 

 quents in summer, the wide extent of barren lands within 

 the Arctic circle, feeding usually on aquatic insects, their 

 larvae, and when ripe, the fruit of the crow-berry, (Empt- 

 trum nigrum.) On the 13th of June, (1822) Dr. Richardson 

 discovered one of these Curlews, sitting on three eggs, on 

 the shore of Point Lake. When approached, she ran a short 

 distance from the nest, crouching near to the ground, and 

 then stopped to watch the motions of her encroaching 

 visitor. The eggs, sometimes as many as 4, have a pyri- 

 form shape, and a siskin-green color, clouded with a few 

 large irregular spots of bright umber brown. 



About the close of August or beginning of September, 



these birds, accompanied by the preceding, arrive on the 



shores of Massachusetts Bay, and frequenting the marshes 



and adjoining pastures, feed at this time much upon grass- 

 9# 



