242 CURLEW SANDPIPER. 



(those towards the outside paler and clouded) with 

 white ; the under parts are pure white, tinged on 

 the sides of the neck and upon the hreast with pale 

 wood-brown, having the shafts and a narrow streak 

 in the centre of the feathers hair-brown ; the bill is 

 proportionally long, being from one and a-half to 

 one and seven -tenths in length, slender and slightly 

 bending towards the point, which has gained for it 

 its Curlew appellation ; this, with the legs and feet, 

 are greenish-black. The season and state in which 

 these birds were procured, induce us to consider 

 them as in the plumage of the young, or in the 

 state intermediate to assuming the complete winter 

 dress, which, we believe, to be quite uniform, or 

 very nearly so, above, without pale margins to the 

 feathers, the tint hair-brown, glossed with purple. 

 In the summer or breeding state this Sandpiper 

 follows more nearly the colours of the Knot ; the 

 head, neck, and breast, are a rich chestnut or 

 orange-red ; the feathers on the crown dark in the 

 centre ; the back and scapulars are nearly black, the 

 plumage cut into with pale orange-red, and tipped 

 with yellowish-white, and the white on the rump 

 and tail-coverts appears to become spotted and barred 

 with black; the under parts are reddish- orange, 

 becoming paler on the belly and vent, and are crossed 

 with irregular bars of black. A skin from Mexico, 

 in our possession, shows an intermediate state of 

 plumage. 



