on back and tertials, and so variously mottled throughout, onl\- the outer webs of 

 outer primaries being of solid color, — dusky ; below sharply streaked on breast 

 and sides, sometimes sparingly barred with blackish, the ground color reaching 

 its greatest purity and intensity on axillars ; bill very long, considerably decurved 

 toward tip ; the culmen brownish dusky, the lower mandible yellow at base and 

 darkening toward tip; feet and legs stout, dark; claws short and broad. Length 

 20.00-26.00 (508.-660.4) ; wing 10.75 (273.1) ; tail 4.10 (.104.1) ; bill up to 8.50 

 (215.9) ; av. about 6.50 (165.1) ; tarsus 3.15 (80.). 



Recognition Marks.- — About crow size, — making some allowance for bill ; 

 pale cinnamon coloration ; long decurved bill distinctive. Has a quavering cry 

 somewhat like that of the Bartramian sandpiper. 



Eggs: Four, ashy brown or clay-color, spotted and blotched with chocolate. 

 Av. size, 2.58 x 1.82 (65.5 x 46.2) . 



A bird of such extraordinary appearance as the sickle-bill would attract 

 attention anywhere, but especially in our section of the country, where it is no 

 longer common. Its peculiarly developed mandibles are well calculated to reap a 

 harvest not only of slugs and aquatic molecules, but of insects and berries as well. 

 Though once not uncommon throughout the United States, the bird is ill-adapted 

 to the devious ways of our shotgun civilization, and is not to be found in any 

 considerable numbers only on the prairies and barren foothills of the West. 

 Whenever found on the Atlantic Coast, the curlew frequents marshes or sandy 

 shores, much after the fashion of its kind, but in the West it is by no means 

 attached to the vicinity of water. 



During migration the curlews move in small wedge-shaped companies with 

 leisurely flapping wings. A quavering whistle from the leader proclaims their 

 progress, and a ready hunter may call them down to decoys by a skillful imitation 

 of their cry. If successfully diverted from their course, the birds approach the 

 ground with a majestic slow sail and present an easy mark. If allowed to alight 

 they touch the ground lightly, with wings upraised, and the sun reveals the 

 beauty of the delicate cinnamon linings of the wings before these members are 

 gently folded. 



Elsewhere upon the ground the curlews are unapproachable, except during 

 the breeding season. So sympathetic are they, however, and so devoted to their 

 traveling companions, that if one falls a victim to the gun, the gunner holds 

 the others at his mercy. With clamorous solicitude thev gather about their 

 fallen comrade and urge him to leave the fatal spot, receiving, of course, their 

 own death wounds as reward for their fidelity. 



When the nest is discovered, a mere depression anywhere in the open prairie, 

 the parent birds throw caution to the winds and hover about the intruder in an 

 agony of apprehension, filling the air with quavering plaints, and sometimes inter- 

 posing their bodies to shield the young. At such times the long mandibles, moving 

 through a wide arc with every utterance, appear nothing short of ridiculous, but 

 it does not occur to one to laugh at the time, — the bird is so terribly in earnest. 



547 



