BIRDS FOUND ALONG THE BEACHES "73 
the nest as soon as the down is dry, but so protective is 
their coloring that they might crouch unnoticed at your 
feet. I have found them sleeping huddled together 
at night in a hole made by a cow’s foot in the grassy 
meadow bordering a lake, and though they were so 
openly exposed, I should never have discovered them 
but for the anxiety of the parent birds. They are about 
the size of a walnut, quaint little balls of down, perched 
on toothpick-like legs, and have the same odd_ habit 
of bobbing as the adults. Instead of opening their 
mouths to be fed, after the manner of most young birds, 
they will pick up the food found for them by the parents, 
and in a day’s time they have learned to hunt it along 
the shore. They are independent youngsters, wise in 
tricks of hiding motionless on the sand or in the grass, 
and in keeping together. Their low, sweet, peeping 
notes are like those of young chickens, and they seem 
to care more for each other than for the brooding of the 
parent birds. The call note of the adults is a sharp 
“peet-weet” uttered on the wing. 
264. LONG-BILLED CURLEW, OR SICKLE-BILLED 
CURLEW. — Numenius longirostris. 
Famity: The Snipes and Sandpipers. 
Length : 20.00-26.00. 
Adults; Head, neck, and upper parts streaked and mottled grayish buff 
and black ; under parts brownish buff, more or less streaked and barred 
with black; bill very long, slender, and curved. 
Downy Young: Upper parts deep buff, mottled with black ; under parts 
sulphur-yellow ; bill straight. 
Geographical Distribution : Entire temperate North America; south in 
winter to West Indies, 
