198 BI^D NAMES. [No. 57, 



Range : " Temperate North America, migrating south to 

 Guatemala and the West Indies. Breeds in the South Atlantic 

 States, and in the interior through most of its North American 

 range" (A. O. U. Check List). 



Not now a common species in New England or north of New 

 Jersey, and noticeably less common along the shores of New 

 Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, than in former years. 

 In South Carolina and southward, and in interior parts of the 

 country, it is met with in goodly numbers, 



SICKLE -BILL CURLEW, or SICKLE -BILL; very generally 

 known as such, or as the BIG- CURLEW, along the coast as 

 far south as Maryland at least, though otherwise designated as 

 shown in the following list. 



In Massachusetts at Rowley and New Bedford, HEN CUR- 

 LEW, or OLD-HEN CURLEW. At Shinnecock Bay, Moriches, 

 Bellport, and many other Long Island localities, this is the only 

 CURLEW ; the Hudsonian, No. 58, being the " Jack," and the Es- 

 kimo, No. 59, the " Fute " or " Doe-bird " (see " Curlew " as ap- 

 plied to the Marbled Godwit, No. 60). In New Jersey at Tucker- 

 ton, LONG-BILLED CURLEW; at Absecum, Pleasantville (Atlan- 

 tic Co.), and Somers Point, BUZZARD CURLEW (its flight re- 

 sembling that of a turkey-buzzard) ; known also at Pleasantville 

 to some of the gunners as SMOKER or OLD SMOKER (the bill 

 curving downward like the stem of a pipe, and the enlarge- 

 ment at the end answering for the bowl) ; again at Pleasant- 

 ville, LOUSY-BILL (the bird being frequently found infested with 

 lice) ; at Cape May C. H., MOWYER (an old-fashioned word mean- 

 ing one who mows). To many gunners along the shores of South 

 Carolina and Georgia, and at St. Augustine, Fla., it is the SPAN- 

 ISH CURLEW — this name being given in books to the White 

 Ibis, Guara alba. Mr. Ridgway (in Survey of Fortieth Parallel, 

 1877) speaks of its being " called SNIPE by the people of the 

 Salt Lake Valley ;" and also of its being " particularly abundant 

 alonof the southern shore of the Great Salt Lake, and some of 

 the larger islands." 



In Hallock's Gazetteer (1877), SABRE-BILL. 



