330 



GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



HUDSONIAN CURLEW (Xumenius hudsonicus) . 

 Common or local names: Jack Curlew; Jack. 



Length. — About 17 inches, variable; bill about 4, twice length of head. 



Adult. — Top of head blackish, with a sharply defined central whitish stripe; 

 line over eye whitish; line through eye blackish brown; rest of upper 

 parts and tail brown, varied with blackish and grayish white; inner 

 wehs of flight feathers or primaries barred ivith bnffy; throat and belly 

 white; neck and breast thickly streaked with dusky; iris dark brown; 

 bill flesh colored toward base and black toward tip; legs grayish blue. 



Field Marks. — General tone of plumage more grayish and less reddish than 

 that of the Sicklebilled Curlew; long curved bill sometimes longer than 

 that of the young SicJdebill; a light central crown stripe, bordered by 

 blackish stripes, distinguishes it from the other American species, but 

 this can l)e seen only at close range. 



Notes. — Call note jnp-pijy-jnp-pij^; in spring a sweet Kur-leir (Hoffmann). 



Season. — Usually a rare migrant, but irregularly and locally common 

 coastwise; early July to late Septeml)er. 



Range. — North and South America. Breeds on coast of Alaska from 

 mouth of Yukon to Kotzebue Sound, and on coast of northern Macken- 

 zie; winters from Lower California to southern Honduras, from Ecuador 

 to southern Chile, and from British Guiana to mouth of Amazon ; migrates 

 mainly along Pacific and Atlantic coasts; rare in the interior; casual on 

 Pribilof Islands and in Greenland and Bernmda; accidental in Spain. 



