440 The Heater-fowl Family 



/[UDSONIAN CURLEW 

 (^Numenius hudsonicus) 



Adult male and female in breeding plumage — Top of head, sooty 

 brown, divided longitudinally by a stripe of buflf. A narrow 

 dusky stripe from bill to the eye over the ear-coverts, separated 

 from the crown by a superciliary stripe of buff; rest of head, 

 neck, lower parts, light buff; neck, jugulum, and breast, streaked 

 with dark brown ; axillars, buff, barred with brown ; upper parts, 

 spotted with buff and dark brown ; bill, black, yellowish at base 

 of mandible ; legs and feet, grayish brown. Other plumages, 

 closely similar. 



Measurements — Length, 17 inches; wing, 9.50 inches; culmen, 

 3.50 inches ; tarsus, 2.25 inches. 



Eggs — Three to four in number; ground color, drab with large 

 brown spots; measure 2.40 by 1.55 inches. 



Habitat — Breeds from St. Michael and Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, 

 to the Barren Grounds near the Anderson River, and probably 

 east to Greenland, where it has been taken, and south to Hud- 

 son Bay. Winters from the West Indies, Louisiana, and 

 Lower California, south to the Galapagos Islands, Chili, and 

 Patagonia. In migrations, most common on the Atlantic Coast 

 of North America, and rare in the western interior south of 

 Athabasca. Accidental in Spain, and occurs in Bermuda. 



The commonest and most widely distributed of 

 our curlews, this bird passes from the Arctic 

 regions through South America to Patagonia. 

 In North America frequenting both coasts and 

 the interior. The shores of the Atlantic, how- 

 ever, seem to be its favorite range. The Hud- 

 sonian curlew arrives on the islands of the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence early in August, increasing 

 steadily in numbers until late in the month. 

 They are found in the fields where grasshoppers 



