252 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



I found them in scattered pairs. Conspicuous 

 in size, they also make themselves so by their 

 reiterated loud, high-pitched, trilling cries, es- 

 pecially when they have young or eggs in 

 the vicinity. They are shyer than the Marbled 

 Godwits which share with them these alkaline 

 plains. 



Photo by H. K. Job Courtesy of Outing Pub. Co. 



YOUNG LONG-BILLED CURLEWS 



The nest is a simple hollow in the prairie, amid 

 rather sparse grass, lined with dry stems. Three 

 or four very large eggs make the usual comple- 

 ment. It is hard to find, as the male bird gives 

 the alarm when an intruder approaches, and the 

 female joins him. Perhaps they become some- 



what accustomed to the cowboys who ride around 

 after the cattle, since all of the nests which I 

 knew about were discovered by cowboys on 

 horseback through flushing the bird from the 

 nest. Though the anxious parents are in evi- 

 dence, flying or trotting about at a distance and 

 whistling, they give no definite clue as to the 

 direction in which the chosen spot is located. 



One evening at sundown after a fortv mile 

 drive over the plains, we were approaching a 

 ranch, in rolling prairie country, when we noticed 

 two birds squatting together in the short grass. 

 They proved to be young of this species, quite 

 large, yet still in the downy stage, very pretty and 

 interesting. There was just enough light to take 

 photographs of them by time-exposures. Mean- 

 while the parents were flying about, swooping 

 angrily past us at close range, screaming most 

 vociferously. Altogether it was a spectacle 

 which I would not have missed for a good deal. 



Herbert K. job. 



The Long-billed Curlew is evidently a per- 

 sistent eater of the highly injurious locust, as is 

 shown by the fact that ten stomachs of the bird 

 were found by Government experts to contain 

 forty-eight locusts each. This would be sufficient 

 reason for giving it a place among the birds of 

 great economic value to man. But the bird's 

 usefulness does not stop here, for it is known to 

 feed freely also upon various injurious grass- 

 hoppers, and it is more than likely that its diet 

 includes other noxious insects, so that its useful- 

 ness is beyond cjuestion of a doubt. 



HUDSONIAN CURLEW 



Numenius hudsonicus Latham 



A. O. U. Xumber 265 See Color Plate 38 



Other Names. — Jack Curlew; Jack: Striped-head; 

 Crooked-billed Marlin ; .American Whimbrel ; Short- 

 billed Curlew. 



General Description. — Length. 18 inches. Can be 

 distinguished from young Long-billed Curlews only at 

 close range. 



Color. — Top of head, nnifonn blackish-brown zvith 

 zvell-dcfincd zchitish central and side stripes; a dis- 

 tinct streak of dusky from bill through and behind 

 eye and a pronounced broad whitish streak above it; 

 upper parts, blackish-brown variegated with white, 

 ocher, or pale brown in the same pattern as the Long- 

 billed Curlew but tone less rufous ; primaries and their 

 coverts, dusky, the former brol^cn-barred zvith paler: 

 tail, ashy-brown with a number of narrow blackish 

 bars ; beneath, very pale brownish-white ; breast, with 



dusky streaks changing to arrowheads or broken bars 

 on sides ; bill, dusky, yellowish below for about one- 

 third its length, darkest at tip: feet, grayish-blue; 

 iris, dark brown. 



Nest and Eggs. — \est : Like that of Long-billed 

 Curlew. Eggs: 4. creamy to pale olive-gray, boldly 

 marked with shades of umber-brown. 



Distribution. — North and South America : breeds on 

 the coast of Alaska from mouth of Yukon to Kotzebue 

 Sound, and on the coast of northern Mackenzie; winters 

 from Lower California to southern Honduras, from 

 Ecuador to southern Chile, and from British Guiana to 

 mouth of the Amazon; migrates mainly along the 

 Pacific and .Atlantic coasts : rare in the interior ; casual 

 on the Pribilof Islands and in Greenland and Bermuda; 

 accidental in Spain. 



