^"Ig^'^] WiCKERSHAM, The SicMe-biUed Curlezv. 353 



northern parts of its range. Probably also breeds in southern Mexico, as 

 I have an adult $ taken at Jalapa April 15, 1897, by Mr. C. B. Isham.' 



Cistothorus mariance Scott. Salt marshes of western Florida, non-mi- 

 gratory. 



Cistothorus griseus Brewster. Salt marshes of Atlantic coast, from. 

 South Carolina to Matanzas Inlet, Fla., non-migratory. 



SICKLE-BILLED CURLEW. 



BY C. W. WICKERSHAM. 



The name Curlew, or Curlieu, is applied to this genus as an 

 imitation of its long, short-ending call note and originates with the 

 French, whence the second name mentioned above. Species of 

 Curlew are met with all over the known world, but none, except, 

 perhaps, the Australian Curlew, can vie with our Sickle-bill either 

 in size, shyness or cunning. 



The Sickle-billed Curlew {Nume/iius longirostris) is found in 

 almost every part of North America but it is only in the west and 

 extreme south that it is met with in considerable numbers ; the 

 southwest in winter and the northwest in summer. On our Atlan- 

 tic seaboard it is famous for its littoral habits, nesting in the 

 Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, on the beaches and keys, spend- 

 ing his days probing the sand, wet from the retreating tide, for 

 his food and generally supplementing the proof furnished by his 

 long curved bill that he belongs, body and soul, to the shore birds. 



But in the interior he leads quite a different life ; for here we 



' The occurrence of this species at Jalapa is recorded by Mr. F. M. Chap- 

 man (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., X, 1S9S, p. 23) as follows : "On the out- 

 skirts of Jalapa there is a small marsh grown with high grasses and reeds, in 

 which there were about a dozen individuals of this bird, which has apparently 

 not before been recorded from Mexico. The three specimens secured are evi- 

 dently to be referred to the interior form of Long-billed Marsh Wren recently 

 distinguished by Mr. H. C. Oberholser under the above name \_Cistothortcs 

 pabistris J>lesms\. They were females, and on dissection the ovaries showed 

 no signs of enlargement." 



A 



