102 



WADING BIRDS. 



hoppers, coleoptera, and earth worms, which they collect 

 principally towards evening, or early in the morning. In 

 their way to the south they also visit Nova Scotia and New- 

 foundland, where they remain till the approach of winter ; and 

 in New Jersey, these birds linger on till the month of No- 

 vember, when they apparently, without further delay, pass 

 on to the south of the United States, for in other parts of the 

 Union they appear to be wholly unknown. Like the other 

 species, they are remarkably gregarious, each company 

 seeming to follow some temporary leader, and on starting to 

 wing, a sort of watch cry is heard, resembling the whistling 

 pronunciation of the word bee-bee. On their arrival from 

 the north, they are very fat, plump, and well flavored, and 

 included like both the preceding, and the Marbled Godwit, 

 under the general name of Doebirds, they are sought out 

 by epicures, and enhance the value of a table entertainment. 

 Pennant remarks, on the authority of Hutchins, that from 

 the 9th of August, to the 6th of September, they were seen 

 in flocks innumerable on the hills about Chatteux Bay, on 

 the coast of Labrador, soon after which they all departed 

 for the south : at this time, they kept chiefly on the open 

 grounds, and feeding on Crow-berries, were very fat and well 

 flavored. 



Length of the Small Curlew, from 14 to 15 inches ; the female 

 more than an inch longer. Bill slender, brownish-black ; slightly 

 flesh-red at the base, its length from above about 2;^ inches. The 

 upper plumage blackish-brown, with many pale yellowish-brown 

 marginal spots, these colors forming handsome bars on the lesser 

 quills and tail coverts. The whole of the primaries and their coverts 

 are unspotted, only the posterior ones are edged at the tip with 

 white ; the shaft of the first quill very broad and white. An imper- 

 fect medial line is visible on the nape. Tail dusky brown, with 9 

 blackish bars, the exterior web of the outermost feather elegantly 

 barred with light buff and black. Chin, and band over the eye 

 brownish- white, the latter faintly streaked with dusky. Under plu- 



