SCOLOPACID.t;. 



6i5 



THE ESKIMO CURLEW. 



NuMENius lujREALis (J. R. Forstcr). 



This small American species is an occasional straggler to the 

 British Islands, the first instance on record being that ot" a bird 

 which was killed in Kincardineshire on September 6th 1S55. On 

 September 29th 1879 another, shot in Aberdeenshire, was sent for 

 preservation to Mr. G. Sim, who also received an adult male from 

 Kincardineshire on September 21st iSSo. An example, said to 

 have been forwarded from Sligo, was purchased in Dublin market 

 on October 21st 1870, and afterwards presented by Sir Victor 

 Brooke to the Museum of that city. According to the late Dr. 

 Churchill Babington, two were obtained near Woodbridge in Suffolk 

 in November 1S52, only one of which is now in existence; while he 

 adds, on Hele's authority, that a bird, which was not preserved, was 

 killed on the river Aide some few years before 1870. The latest 

 occurrence is that mentioned by Mr. Thomas Cornish, at Tresco in 

 the Scilly Islands, on September loth 18S7. 



The Eskimo Curlew appears to be merely a visitor to Greenland, 

 but is widely distributed during the summer throughout the Arctic 

 regions of ^America from Hudson Bay to Alaska; only a few, how- 

 ever, remain to breed in the latter as far south as St. Michael's 

 though northward this is the most abundant member of the genus. 

 It has wandered to the Bribilov Islands, but its representative 

 in Northern Siberia— and southward to Australia in winter— is 



