THE HUDSONIAN CURLEW. 535 
Elsewhere upon the ground the Curlews are unapproachable, except 
during the breeding season. So sympathetic are they, however, and so 
devoted to their travelling companions, that if one falls a victim to the gun, 
tne gunner holds the others at his mercy. With clamorous solicitude they 
gather about their fallen comrade and urge him to leave the fatal spot, re- 
ceiving, of course, their own death wounds as reward for their fidelity. 
When the nest is discovered, a mere depression anywhere in the open 
prairie, the parent birds throw caution to the winds and hover about the 
intruder in an agony of apprehension, filling the air with quavering plaints, 
and sometimes interposing their bodies to shield the young. At such times 
the long mandibles, moving through a wide are with every utterance, appear 
nothing short of ridiculous, but it does not occur to one to laugh at the time, 
—the bird is so terribly in earnest. 
No. 250. 
HUDSONIAN CURLEW. 
a 
1, O. U. No. 265. Numenius hudsonicus [ath. 
Synonym.—]Ack CURLEW. 
Description.—Adult: Prevailing color pale buffy; crown with two broad 
dusky stripes parted by buffy; a dusky line through eye; throat whitish, immacu- 
late ; sides of head, neck all around, and fore-breast finely streaked with dusky; the 
streaks, widening into bars on sides and flanks ; back, etc., dusky, varied with buffy 
and ochraceous-buff; tone lightening on wings, due to preponderance of latter 
color ; tail distinctly barred, ochraceous-gray and dusky ; quills less distinctly barred 
with same tints, except on outer webs of outer primaries, which are plain dusky ; 
axillars and lining of wing clear ochraceous-butf, heavily barred with fuscous ; bill 
decurved, blackish above, lightening at base of mandible; feet and legs black. 
Length 16.50-18.00 (419.1-457.2); wing 9.75 (247.6) ; tail 3.50 (88.9) ; bill 3.50 
(88.9) ; tarsus 2.28 (57.9). 
Recognition Marks.—Crow size; mottled and streaked, dusky and pale buff ; 
rather stout, decurved bill of moderate length; broad, blackish crown-stripes. 
Nesting.—Does not breed in Ohio. Eggs, 3-4, pale olive, spotted with dull 
brown. » Av. size, 2.27 x) 1-57 (57.7 x 38.0): 
General Range.—All of North and South America, including the West 
Indies ; breeds in the high north, and winters chiefly south of the United States. 
Range in Ohio.—Very rare spring and fall migrant. 
UNLIKE the preceding species, which is almost wholly confined to 
temperate North America both summer and winter, this less conspicuous Cur- 
lew spends its summers in the far north, and its winters in remotest Pata- 
