LONG-BILLED CURLEW. 97 



the wounded are sure to detain them until the gunner has made 

 repeated shots and great havoc among them. 



This species is said to breed in Labrador, and in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Hudson's Bay. A few instances have been known 

 of one or two pair remaining in the salt marshes of Cape May 

 all summer. A .person of respectability informed me, that he 

 once started a Curlew from her nest, which was composed of a 

 little dry grass, and contained four eggs, very much resembling 

 in size and colour those of the Mud Hen, or Clapper Rail. This 

 was in the month of July. Cases of this kind are so rare, that 

 the northern regions must be considered as the general breeding 

 place of this species. 



The Long-billed Curlew is twenty-five inches in length, and 

 three feet three inches in extent, and when in good order weighs 

 about thirty ounces; but individuals differ greatly in this respect; 

 the bill is eight inches long, nearly straight for half its length, 

 thence curving considerably downwards to its extremity, where 

 it ends in an obtuse knob that overhangs the lower mandible; 

 the colour black, except towards the base of the lower, where 

 it is of a pale flesh colour; tongue extremely short, differing in 

 this from the Snipe; eye dark; the general colour of the plu- 

 mage above is black, spotted and barred along the edge of each 

 feather with pale brown; chin, line over the eye and round the 

 same, pale brownish white; neck reddish brown, streaked with 

 black; spots on the breast more sparingly dispersed; belly, thighs 

 and vent pale plain rufous, without any spots; primaries black 

 on the outer edges, pale brown on the inner, and barred with 

 black; shaft of the outer one snowy; rest of the wing pale reddish 

 brown, elegantly barred with undulating lines of black; tail 

 slightly rounded, of an ashy brown, beautifully marked with 

 herring-bones of black; legs and naked thighs very pale light 

 blue or lead colour, the middle toe connected with the two 

 outer ones as far as the first joint by a membrane, and bordered 

 along the sides with a thick warty edge; lining of the wing dark 

 rufous, approaching a chestnut, and thinly spotted with black. 

 Male and female alike in plumage. The bill continues to grow 



VOL. III. 



