170 SNIPES, SANDPIPERS, ETC. 



264* Numenius longirostris Wils. Long - billed Curlew ; 

 Sickle-bill. Ad.— Read and neck streaked, and back barred with buft'y 

 and black ; wing-coverts, inner webs of primaries, secondaries, and tail vary- 

 ing from bufty to pale rufous, barred or mottled with blackish; under parts 

 ochraceous-buff, breast more or less streaked and sides sometimes barred 

 with black ; axillars rufous, generally unbarred. L., 24-00 ; W., 10-50 ; Tar., 

 3-10 ; B., 6-00. 



Eange. — United States, breeding in the interior as far north as Manitoba 

 and on the Atlantic coast to North Carolina; casual northward to New Eng- 

 land ; winters from Florida and Texas southward to the West Indies. 



Washington, rare and irregular T. V. Long Island, casual from July to 

 Sept. Sing Sing, A. V. 



Eggs^ three to four, olive clay-color or brownish ashy, spotted or blotched 

 with chocolate, 2-58 x 1-85. 



" These birds, as a rule, inhabit the muddy shores and moist grassy 

 flats and plains, but often frequent and breed upon the uplands re- 

 mote from water. Their food consists of worms, crickets, beetles, 

 grasshoppers, small snails, crabs, and crawfish ; the latter they reach 

 for with their long bills and pull them out of their holes ; and I have 

 seen them probe for and unearth the larvge of the beetles and other 

 forms of life that in the spring come to or near the surface prepara- 

 tory to transformation. While feeding they move about with an easy 

 carriage. 



" Their flight is not rapid but well sustained, with regular strokes 

 of the wings, and when going a distance usually high and in a trian- 

 gular form, uttering now and then their loud, prolonged whistling 

 note, so often heard during the breeding season ; before alighting, sud- 

 denly drop nearly to the ground, then gather, and with a rising sweep 

 gracefully alight " (Goss). 



S65. Numenius hudsonicus Lath. Hudsonian Curlew; Jack 

 Curlew. yl</.— Upper parts grayish brown, the sides of the feathers with 

 whitish spots ; rump and tail barred with buffy and blackish ; inner web of 

 outer primaries and both webs of inner ones barred with buffy or whitish and 

 black ; under parts butfy or whitish, the neck and breast streaked and the 

 sides and under wing-coverts barred with black. L., 17-00 ; W., 9-50 ; Tar., 

 2-20; B., 3-75. 



^a^^e.— Breeds in the arctic regions and winters from the Gulf States to 

 Patagonia. 



Long Island, T. V., rare from May 20 to 30; common from July to Oct. 1. 



Eggs, three to four, pale olive, spotted with dull brown, 2-27 x 1-57 

 (Kidgw.). 



This is a much commoner bird on our coasts than the preceding, 

 which it resembles in habits but not in notes. 



266. Numenius borealis (Forst.). Eskimo Curlew; Fute; 

 Dough-bird. .4d— Upper parts black, margined and tipped with buffy or 



