WATER BIRDS. 203 



The Spotted Sandpiper feeds until late in the evening, and possibly is 

 more or less nocturnal, since its notes are frequently heard at night when 

 it cannot be migrating. Its food consists largely, if not entirely, of animal 

 matter, including small aquatic forms of every kind, but it also eats insects 

 of various sorts, and according to S. E. White, at Mackinac Island, it was 

 observed to feed on "stone spiders." Aughey found it feeding freely on 

 locusts in Nebraska in May, 1895, six stomachs containing an aggregate 

 of 91 of these injurious insects. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Bill about as long as head, stout, sliglitly deciu-ved, largely yellow toward the base, tlie 

 tip and culmen blackish; legs and feet greenish brown. Adult in summer: Entire upper 

 parts grayish or greenish brown, usually with a brassy luster, the head and neck more or 

 less streaked and the back and scapulars spotted and barred with black; a dusky loral 

 streak (continued back of the eye) bordered above by a whitish stripe; imder parts nearly 

 pure white, rather thickly dotted with rounded black or dark brown spots, smallest on 

 chin and throat, largest on breast and sides; middle tail-feathers olive brown like the back, 

 sometimes barred with black, lateral feathers barred with black and white, and with broad 

 white tips; wing with two conspicuous white bands, one formed by the white tips of the 

 secondaries, the other by the inner webs of most of the primaries and the basal half of all 

 the secondaries. Adult in autumn: Without any spots below, and with few or no black 

 bars above, but sides of breast shaded with gray. Young: Similar to autumn adult, 

 and unspotted below, but with narrow bars of buff and dusky on tips of many upper tail- 

 coverts, scapulars and wing-coverts. Length 7 to 8 inches; wing 4.05 to 4.60; culmen .90 

 to 1.0.5; tarsus .90 to 1.05. 



ill. Sickle-billed Curlew. Numenius americanus 5ec/is/. (264) 



Synonyms: Sickle-bill, Long-billed Curlew. Big Curlew, Hen Curlew. — Numenius 

 longirostris, Wils., 1814, and authors generally. — Numenius rufus, Vieill. — Nimienius 

 occidentalis, Woodh. 



Known at a glance by its strongly down-curved bill, from five to eight 

 inches long, and its mottled brown and gray plumage. The only other bird 

 with a similarly curved bill of this length is the Glossy Ibis, which is readily 

 separable by its metallic green, bronze, and chestnut plumage. 



Distribution. — Temperate North America, migrating south to Guatemala, 

 Cuba and Jamacia. Breeds in the South Atlantic States, and in the interior 

 through most of its north American range. 



Doubtless this species was once fairly common in the prairie regions 

 of southern Michigan before the country was thoroughly cultivated. 

 Recent records for the Great Lake region are few and far between, and 

 I am unable to find a single instance of its nesting within our limits, although 

 we find the statement in Baird, Brewer and Ridgway's "Water Birds"' 

 (Vol. I, 1884, 314). "It is now known that they probably breed in all 

 or nearly all the western states north of Ohio and west of Lake P^rie." 



A. B. Covert records the capture of a male in Washtenaw county, Septem- 

 ber 12, 1872, and another specimen taken near Ann Arbor "about "September 

 15, 1877." According to Norman A. Wood this last specimen is mounted 

 and now in the collection of the University of Michigan. A mounted 

 specimen, without any label, in the collection of the St. Clary's Academy, 

 Monroe, iMichigan, is said to have been collected in that vicinity, and to have 

 come from the collection of Father Kilroy. :\Ir. Ed. Van Winkle, of Van's 

 Harbor, Delta county, says that he has taken specimens there but that 

 they are rare. 



The above constitute our only records for the species, although ac- 

 cording to Dr. Gibbs one instance of its capture was cited by D. D. 



