THE LONG-BILLED CURLEW. ae 
darkening toward tip; feet and legs stout, dark; claws short and broad. Length: 
20.00-26.00 (508-660.4) ; wing 10.75 (273.1); tail 4.10 (104.1); bill up to 8.50 
(215.9); av. about 6.50 (165.1); tarsus 3.15 (80). 
Recognition Marks.—About Crow size——making some allowance for bill; 
pale cinnamon coloration; long decurved bill distinctive; quavering cry. 
Nesting.—Nest: a rather deep grass-lined depression on ground. Eggs: 4, 
ashy brown or clay-color, spotted and blotched with chocolate. Av. size, 2.58 x 
1.82 (65.5 x 46.2). Season: April 20-May 10; one brood. 
General Range.—Temperate North America, migrating south to Guatemala, 
Cuba and Jamaica. Breeds in the South Atlantic States and in the interior thru 
most of its North American range. 
Range in Washington.—Not common summer resident and migrant east of 
the Cascades; casual, during migrations only, west of the Mountains. Formerly 
an abundant breeder on the East-side, especially between the Cascades and the 
Columbia River. 
Migrations.—Spring: c. April tst; Malott, April 6, 1806. 
Authorities.—Cooper and Suckley, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. XII. pt. Il. 1860, 
Dy 24s, AM, WAS in; IDS 1D: Iidke, Ife 
Specimens.—(U. of W.) Prov. C. 
THE Long-billed Curlew, or Sickle-bill, is a little the largest, as he is one 
of the best known birds of the order in Washington. Casual or rare west of 
the Cascade Mountains, this odd genius was formerly plentiful and well dis- 
tributed thruout the open country of the interior. Being less dependent than 
most of his congeners upon the vicinity of water, he was to be found equally 
upon the upland prairies, the bunch-grass hills, or in the well-watered 
valleys,—in fact, wherever the sage was not so abundant as to deny a varied 
fare of land molluscs, beetles, caterpillars, grasshoppers, and fallen berries, 
such as the Curlew loves. 
Arriving from the South about the first of April the birds move in large 
flocks, sometimes to the number of a hundred or more, in continually shifting 
lines and A-shaped figures—like the geese in that some experienced leader 
maintains a position at the front. Altho wary and difficult of approach, save 
at the nesting season, clumsy efforts at imitation of their quavering call will 
serve to bring the birds up eagerly. Once within range the Curlews are so 
overcome by solicitude for their fallen comrades that they are exposed to 
repeated attack until the hunter is satisfied. The “wagon-loads” reported 
from the Columbia Valley in an earlier day were, unfortunately, no exaggera- 
tion, and the ranchers today who occasionally see a Curlew may not realize 
how fearfully their ranks have been depleted. 
Save in the fall of the year when the birds are fat, the flesh is tough and 
dry, and in many cases positively unpleasant. But if it tasted like twisted 
artemisia fibers, frail human nature could hardly endure to see so large a bird 
