102 BULLETIN 14 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



escape him. We watched them for some time until they finally dis- 

 ajjpeared over a hill, fully half a mile from where we first saw them. 



Plumages. — The young curlew, when first hatched, is completely 

 covered with long, thick, soft doAvn. The color varies from " warm 

 buff " on the breast and flanks, to " cream buff " on the face, upper 

 parts and belly and to " cream color " on the throat ; the crown is 

 even paler. The markings, which are brownish black in color, con- 

 sist of a broken and narrow median stripe on the forehead, irregular 

 spotting on the posterior part of the head and large, bold, irregular 

 spotting on the back, wings, and thighs. In older birds the bright 

 buffs fade to paler shades. 



I have seen no specimens showing the change from downy to 

 Juvenal plumage. The latter is very much like that of the winter 

 adult, but it is somewhat more tawny, especially below, and the 

 streaks on the neck and breast are fewer and narrower. The first 

 winter plumage is apparently a continuation of the juvenal, sub- 

 ject to some wear and fading, and with very little molting. By 

 spring young birds are practically indistinguishable from adults. 



Adults have a complete postnuptial molt from August to Novem 

 ber, most of which is accomplished in September and October, includ- 

 ing the wings. The prenuptial molt, which involves the body 

 plumage, most of the scapulars, many wing coverts and the tail, is 

 prolonged through the spring, from February to June. 



Food. — On their breeding grounds, and to a large extent in their 

 winter quarters, these curlews are upland feeders, far out on the 

 open prairies, in the damp, grassy hollows, or about the edges of 

 prairie sloughs or ponds. But on migrations they are often seen 

 feeding on ocean beaches or about the shores of large lakes, I have 

 seen them on the beaches of southern California feeding at the surf 

 line in company with marbled godwits. They were wading out 

 into the retreating waves, picking up some small objects about an 

 inch long or less, probably mollusks. They seemed to experience 

 some difficulty in properly grasping the morsel with the tips of the 

 long mandibles, but when once started right they handled it very 

 skillfully, as the shell seemed to travel swiftly up the long bill and 

 into the mouth. They are said to probe in the soft sand to the full 

 extent of the long bill, but I did not see them do this, 



C, W. Wickersham (1902) has described the food and the feeding 

 habits of the long-billed curlew very well as follows: 



Crawfish, small crabs, snails, periwinkles, toads, worms, larvae, grasshop- 

 pers, crickets, beetles, caterpillars when found on the ground, spiders, flies, 

 butterflies, and berries, especially dewberries, all play minor or major parts 

 in their diet. The worms, larvae, etc., are pulled out of the ground by the long 

 bill, the end of which may act as a finger having separate muscles to control it, 

 and often it is sunk into the ground as far as it will go to reach some unwilling 



