204 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



Hughes in his manuscript Ornithology of Michigan, but without exact 

 time or place. It is also mentioned by Stockwell (Forest and Stream, 

 VIII, 22, 361). 



According to Butler "It is a rare migrant (in Indiana), formerly more 

 numerous, and perhaps occasionally breeding in the northern part of the 

 state" (Birds of Indiana, 1897, 732). It was formerly abundant in Illinois, 

 and in Wisconsin, but has become rare of late years in both states. Nelson 

 says that a few nested on the Calumet marshes in northern IlUnois in 

 the spring of 1873 (Bull. Essex Inst., VIII, 1876, 130). Mcllwraith calls 

 it an irregular visitor in western Ontario. 



It nests on the ground, laying three or four eggs, which are grayish buff 

 or buffy brown, spotted with darker brown, and averaging 2.59 by 1.81 

 inches. The nests are sometimes placed along the shore, sometimes on 

 dry ground at a considerable distance from water; in the interior usually 

 on the dryer parts of the prairies. The nest is a mere hollow in the ground, 

 scantily lined with grasses. 



The food is varied, but includes a large proportion of insects, as well as 

 berries, seeds, and various crustaceans and other aquatic animals. In 

 Nebraska Professor Aughey examined ten stomachs between 1868 and 

 1876, and eight of them contained Rocky Mountain locusts, the number 

 varying from 51 to 70 in a stomach (1st Rep. U. S. Entom. Com., Appendix 

 2, 55). 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult: Bill five to eight inches long, strongly decurved; top of head streaked with buffy 

 and black without any median light stripe; back cinnamon or grayish barred transversely 

 with blackish; secondaries and inner vanes of primaries rufous or cinnamon; under parts 

 varying from buffy brown to reddish brown or cinnamon; the neck and sides of breast 

 more or less streaked or barred with blackish, the axillaries plain ciimamon or rufous with 

 few or no black bars. Bill blackish, the base of the lower mandible flesh-color; legs bluish 

 gray. Length 20 to 26 inches; wing 10 to 12; culmen 5 to 8.50; tarsus 2.25 to 3.50. Sexes 

 alike and little seasonal change in plumage. The bill varies immensely with age, being 

 only 2.50 to 3 inches long in young of the year and reaching a length of 5 or 6 inches the 

 following season. 



112. Hudsonian Curlew. Numenius hudsonicus Lath. (265) 



Synonyms: Jack Curlew, Jack, Short-billed Curlew, Striped-head. — Numenius hudson- 

 icus. Lath., 1790, and authors generally. 



Plate XII. 



Known by the strongly decurved bill, which, however, is only from three 

 to four inches in length, together with the buffy and brown striped and 

 spotted plumage which is similar in all the curlews. 



Distribution. — All of North and South America, including the West 

 Indies; breeds in the high north, and winters chiefly south of the United 

 States. 



This is the least rare of our curlews, yet it is by no means a common 

 bird at present. W^hen it occurs at all it is likely to be found in flocks of 

 considerable size, but it also associates freely with the Golden and Black- 

 bellied plovers, and a single curlew is not infrequently seen in a large flock 

 of plover. B. H. Swales says "One record. On May 25, 1902, I met with 

 a flock of fully 200 birds at St. Clair Flats. My companion, C. H. AHce, 

 secured one male, which is mounted and in his possession. This flock was 

 commented on by several of the resident gunners as the only curlews they 

 had ever seen" (MS. List, Birds of S. E. Michigan, 1904). There is a 



