33^ 



NEW YORK STATE Ml'SEUM 



few dry grasses, leaves or weed stalks which fomi a lining in the slight hollow 

 which contains the eggs. These are four in number, of a creamy buff color, 

 spotted and blotched with chocolate and obscure shell markings, most 

 thickly at the larger end. Average dimensions are 1.3 x i inches, or slightly 

 less. The downy young are grayish above with a narrow black stripe from 

 the bill down the neck and back, and a narrow black line on each side of the 

 head through the eye; under parts whitish. They leave the nest soon after 

 hatching and from the first teeter like their parents. 



Numenius americanus Bechstem 



(Numenius longirostris on plate) 



Long-billed Curlew 



Plate J 7 



Numenius americanus Bechstein, in Latham AUg. Ueb. Vogel. 1812. 



4. 2, 432 

 Numenius longirostris DeKav. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 232, fig. 216 



A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 2. 1895. No. 264 



nume'niiis, Gr. vovfx-qvio'; , a kind of curlew, from vov/nr;na. the new moon, 

 alluding to the crescent or sickle-shaped bill; americanus, Lat., 



American 



Description. Large; bill very long and curved, upper mandible longer 

 and slightly knobbed at the tip; toes webbed at the base; upper parts 

 varied buft'y or rufous and blackish, chiefly in streaks on head and neck, 

 and broken bars on the back and wings ; outer webs of the primaries blackish ; 

 under parts pale ocherous buff; legs dull bluish gra}-; bill yellowish flesh 

 color at the base and below, blackish toward the tip. 



Length 20-26 inches; extent 36-39; wing 10-12; tail 4; tarsus 2.75-3.5; 

 bill 4-8.5 (young of the year only 2.3-3.5). 



The Long-billed curlew. Big curlew, or Sickle-bill, breeds in the interior 

 of America as far north as Manitoba and Saskatchewan and winters on the 

 gulf coast and the West Indies. Sixty years ago it was plentiful on Long 

 Island, according to Colonel Pike [Dutcher, AtUs;, 10:272], but is now only 

 a rare or accidental visitor in New York. The following are oui' records 

 for the last 35 years: 



Far Rockaway, L. L 9 . Aug. 20, 1873. N. T. Lawrence, Auk, 2: 273 

 Oneida Lake. Oct. 5, 1880. Ralph & Bagg List, 115 

 Far Rockaway, L. I. Aug. 26, 1885. N. T. Lawrence, Auk, 2: 273 

 Canandaigua, N. Y. Sept. 1885 or 1886. A. P. Wilbur 



