ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 397 



four species that are destitute of the medial coronal line. It is easily 

 known from the large species by its diminutive size, from the small ones 

 by wanting the white rump, from all by its very short bill. 



It is but half the size of the species that has usurped its name of 

 SJiort-billed, being hardly fourteen inches in length, and twenty-four in 

 breadth. The bill is no more than two and a half inches long, but little 

 arched, remarkably slender, blackish, the lower mandible rufous at base : 

 the head is pale, with longitudinal lines of brown : the forehead is deep 

 brown, with pale spots ; although there is no medial line, it is somewhat 

 indicated by yellowish marks on that part : the eyebrows and chin arc 

 whitish : the neck, breast, belly and vent are rufous-white, the two first 

 dashed with brown streaks and arrowheads, and a few slender streaks 

 on the vent : the feathered parts of the thighs are rufous-white, spotted 

 with brown ; the sides under the wings, rufous, transversely fasciated 

 with brown : the back is of a deep brown, the feathers margined with 

 yellowish-gray in a serrated manner, and the croupe is uniform with the 

 rest. The wings are long, reaching much beyond the tail ; they are 

 brown ; the shafts of the prime quills are white ; the secondaries and 

 lesser coverts margined with gray: the lower coverts, as well as the 

 long axillary feathers, are ferruginous banded with brown : the rump is 

 brown, the feathers edged and spotted with whitish. The tail is short, 

 brown-ash crossed with darker bands, and slightly edged with whitish. 

 The legs are bluish black ; the tarsus is one and three-quarter inches 

 long. The female is perfectly similar to the male, except a very little 

 inferiority in size. 



This exclusively American bird is widely spread throughout both sec- 

 tions of the new continent, being traced from the fens of Hudson's Bay 

 in the extreme north, to the warm climates of Brazil, Monte Video, and 

 Paraguay, a circumstance which, however recently observed, or extra- 

 ordinary, is often repeated with the Waders that are peculiar to 

 America.. D'Azara informs us that in Paraguay this species makes its 

 passage in the month of September, and keeps in the open champaigns, 

 either wet or dry, and never on the borders of rivers or marshes : hence 

 he calls it Field Curlew, Chorlito champetre. 



At Hudson's Bay this Curlew makes its appearance early in May, 

 coming from the south, and going further north, returning again to 

 Albany Fort in August : it remains there till September, when it de- 

 parts for the south. It is common in JIaine and Nova Scotia during 

 the months of October and November, and still more so at Newfound- 

 land. We have received it from Maine, and from Prairie du Chien in 

 Michigan, and have occasionally met with it also in the markets of New 

 York and Philadelphia : in the Middle States, however, it is by no 

 means common, having escaped the industrious Wilson. This fact 

 proves that our Curlew is fond of extremely remote regions, without 



