from branch to branch, until he has gained his topmost perch again. Here he 

 sines for a time with such xigor that we are sure he is glad to be quit of his 

 vexatious cares. 



If one looks in the bushes or crowded, rank weeds for the Indigo's nest 

 he will soon be joined in the search by a wild-ej-ed female, who dogs his e\ery 

 step and expostulates with him by vigorous cliips for every movement of the 

 foliage. The maternal Indigo is the soul of suspicion, and her protests are so 

 emphatic that the inquisitor believes himself "hot" when he may be a dozen 

 yards away. As a result the nest is rather hard to find : and the number found 

 in a season's nesting will be out of all proportion to the abundance of birds. 



The nests, while usually bulky, are models of neatness and strength. Dead 

 leaves and grasses make up its mass, and there is a copious lining of fine grasses 

 with an admixture of horse-hair. Often two. and sometimes three, broods are 

 raised in a season. 



The eggs are of beautiful pale blue, warmed, while fresh, by the color of 

 the contents. Oi their occasional variation Dr. Coues says: "The egg is 

 variably described as pure white, plain blue, or bluish speckled with reddish. 

 The fact appears to be, not that these statements are conflicting or any of them 

 erroneous, but that dififerent eggs vary accordingly. It seems to be the general 

 rule with normally bluish eggs that they range in shade from quite l)lue to white, 

 and are occasionally speckled.'' 



HudsOnian Curlew {Numenius IIndsonicns) 

 Range: Breeds on coast of Alaska from mouth of Yukon to Kotzebue 

 Sound, and on coast of northern Mackenzie; winters from lower California to 

 southern Honduras, from Ecuador to southern Chile, and from British (iuiana to 

 mouth of Amazon. 



Within the memory of many still li\ing. the jack curlew, as this bird is best 

 known to sportsmen, was the least abundant of the three species of curlew here 

 mentioned. To-day it is the most numerous if, indeed, we still may speak of the 

 Eskimo curlew as a living species. The journeys of the jack curlew north and 

 south rarely take it into the interior, and except when nesting, it sticks rather 

 closely to the vicinity of salt water. It is difficult to explain just why this curlew 

 should have maintained its numbers so well when its relatives have been so 

 reduced, but persecution has taught it the art of self protection and it is now no 

 easy matter to bag a Hudsonian curlew. Then, too, its inaccessible nesting- 

 grounds aid in its preservation, although in this respect it is no better off than was 

 the Eskimo curlew, while the latter bird had the advantage of an oversea route 

 to South America. It is possible, however, that, while the passage over the ocean 

 saved the Eskimo curlew from the onslaught of sportsmen, except in easterly 

 storms which drove it in large flocks on our coast, it exposed the flocks to the fury 

 of the elements during off-shore gales. 



The bristle, thigh, our fourth species of curlew, is little known in America. It 

 certainly summers and probably breeds in Alaska, and in fall disperses widely 

 over the South Pacific islands. 



551 



