632 ESKIMO CURLEW. 



Moluccas and to Australia in winter, is JV. ininutus of Gould, 

 {Mesoscolopax miitutits, Sharpe), a slightly smaller species, which has 

 paler and less barred under-parts, and has moreover the front of 

 the tarsus transversely scutellated like the back ; whereas in the 

 American bird and typical members of the genus Nuvieiiius only 

 the hind tarsus is reticulated. Although the Eskimo Curlew has 

 been obtained in the Galapagos Islands, and also on the coast of 

 Chile, it does not appear to pass down the Pacific sea-board of North 

 America ; its line of flight in autumn being rather to the eastward 

 of the Rocky Mountains. Immense numbers migrate through the 

 Mississippi valley, but none winter there, nor is a long stay made 

 in any part of the United States to the north of Texas ; some visit 

 the Bermudas, while others pass southward as far as Patagonia and 

 the Falkland Islands. On the migration northward in spring, few, 

 if any, birds pass along the Atlantic coast, for, like the American 

 Golden Plover, they prefer the route by, and to the west of, the 

 Mississippi valley (G. H. Mackay). 



Mr. MacFarlane, who found nests of this species between June 

 20th and July loth, describes them as mere hollows in the Barren- 

 grounds ; the eggs, 4 in number, are olive-drab or light ash-green, 

 blotched with various shades of brown: measurements 2 by i"5 in. 

 Four examples, after drawings by Mr. J. L. Ridgway, are figured in 

 Poynting's ' Eggs of Limicolae.' In autumn the bird feeds freely on 

 crowberries, and it is so partial to a species of snail found on low 

 rocks and mud-flats that Dr. Elliott Coues has seen flocks hovering 

 distractedly over a party of gunners who were stationed on ground 

 where these molluscs abounded. The note is an oft-repeated soft, 

 mellow whistle ; the flight is straight and very swift. 



The points which distinguish this species from Mesoscolopax 

 minutus, have already been indicated ; the other diagnostic char- 

 acteristics are : primaries with scarcely a trace of bars, no white on 

 the rump, under-parts buff with transverse ' arrow-head ' markings, 

 axillaries chestnut barred with brown. Length 14 in. (bill 2-5), 

 wing 8'55 in. As Seebohm pointed out in his work on the Chara- 

 driidas, the pale stripe down the centre of the dark crown is suffi- 

 ciently defined to show that this species belongs to the group of the 

 Whimbrels rather than that of the Curlews ; but the expediency of 

 changing a long-accepted trivial name on such slight grounds may 

 well be questioned. 



