SPECIES 2. N. BOREALIS* 



ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 



[Plate LVL Fig. 1.] 



drct. Zool.p. 461, JVo. 364.- LATH, m. TURT. Syst. p. 392.-- 

 PEALE'S Museum, JY'o. 4003. 



IN prosecuting our researches among the feathered tribes of 

 this extensive country, we are at length led to the shores of the 

 ocean, where a numerous and varied multitude, subsisting on 

 the gleanings of that vast magazine of nature, invite our atten- 

 tion; and from their singularities and numbers, promise both 

 amusement and instruction. These we shall, as usual, introduce 

 in the order we chance to meet with them in their native haunts. 

 Individuals of various tribes, thus promiscuously grouped to- 

 gether, the peculiarities of each will appear more conspicuous 

 and striking, and the detail of their histories less formal as well 

 as more interesting. 



The Esquimaux Curlew, or as it is called by our gunners on 

 the seacoast, the short-billed Curlew, is peculiar to the new con- 

 tinent. Mr. Pennant, indeed, conceives it to be a mere variety 

 of the English Whimbrel (S.Phdeopus}; but among the great 

 numbers of these birds which I have myself shot and examined, 

 I have never yet met with one corresponding to the descriptions 

 given of the Whimbrel, the colours and markings being differ- 

 ent, the bill much more bent, and nearly an inch and a half lon- 

 ger; and the manners in certain particulars very different: these 

 reasons have determined its claim to that of an independant spe- 

 cies. 



The Short-billed Curlew arrives in large flocks on the sea- 

 coast of New Jersey early in May from the south ; frequents the 



* Wilson erroneously arranged this in the following Genus, Scolopax. 



