148 NOTES ON THE 



of flower mandible reddish-yellow; legs greenish- brown; speci- 

 mens vary in the shade of the lighter colors of the plumage, 

 and in the length of the bill; iris brown. 



Length, 18; wing, 9; tail, 4; bill, 3 to 4; tarsus, 2.25. 



Habitat, North and South America. 



NUMENIUS BOREALIS (Forster). (266.) 

 ESKIMO CURLEW. 



I find specimens of this species of Curlew occasionally in the 

 hands of the taxidermists, and have had them sent to me from 

 the Red river once, but have never seen them alive. 1 was 

 ready to doubt their specific identity almost, until I read 

 Coues' account of his observations of them in the Missouri 

 region, in his Birds of the Northwest, pp. 510-512. 



If they are so abundant along the Missouri, it seems most 

 probable that flocks may not altogether infrequently find their 

 way along the Mississippi, and up the St. Peters or Minnesota 

 rivers, and be regarded as rather small representatives of the 

 ' 'Short Bills" by the Hunters, who have more interest in them 

 as game than specimens for the cabinets of birdologists. 



SPECIFIC characters. 



Bill rather longer than the head, slender; wings long; tail 

 short; legs moderate; entire upper parts brownish-black, spot- 

 ted with dull yellowish rufous; quills brownish-black, uniform 

 on both webs, without bars on either; under wing coverts and 

 axillaries light-rufous, with transverse stripes of brownish- 

 black; under parts dull-white; tinged with rufous, with longi- 

 tudinal narrow stripes of brownish-black on the neck and 

 breast, and transverse stripes of the same on the sides and 

 under tail coverts; tail ashy -brown, with transverse bands of 

 brownish-black; bill brownish -black; base of under mandible 

 yellow; legs greenish -brown; iris dark-brown. 



Length, 13.50; wing, 8.25; tail, 3; bill, 2.25 to 2.50; tarsus, 1.75. 



Habitat, eastern North America. 



Family CHARADHIID^. 



CHARADRIUS SQUATAROLA (L.). (270). 



BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. 



I know of no other species of Plover which is a more reg- 

 ular, and numerically uniform migrant in both spring and 

 autumn in the locality from which I write. They are only 

 moderately represented, arriving about the last of April in 

 flocks of ten to twenty, but do not seem to remain but three or 



