100 ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 



salt marshes, muddy shores and inlets, feeding on small worms 

 and minute shell-fish. They are most commonly seen on mud 

 flats at low water, in company with various other waders; and 

 at high water roam along the marshes. They fly high, and with 

 great rapidity. A few are seen in June, and as late as the be- 

 ginning of July, when they generally move off to wards the north. 

 Their appearance on these occasions is very interesting: they 

 collect together from the marshes as if by premeditated design, 

 rise to a great height in the air, usually about an hour before 

 sunset, and forming in one vast line, keep up a constant whis- 

 tling on their march to the north, as if conversing with one an- 

 other to render the journey more agreeable. Their flight is then 

 more slow and regular, that the feeblest may keep up with the 

 line of march, while the glittering of their beautifully speckled 

 wings, sparkling in the sun, produces altogether a very pleas- 

 ing spectacle. 



In the month of June, while the dew-berries are ripe, these 

 birds sometimes frequent the fields in company with the Long- 

 billed Curlews, where brambles abound, soon get very fat, and 

 are at that time excellent eating. Those who wish to shoot them, 

 fix up a shelter of brushwood in the middle of the field, and by 

 that means kill great numbers. In the early part of spring, and 

 indeed during the whole time that they frequent the marshes, 

 feeding on shell-fish, they are much less esteemed for the table. 



Pennant informs us, that they were seen in flocks innumera- 

 ble on the hills about Chatteux bay, on the Labrador coast, 

 from August the ninth to September sixth, when they all dis- 

 appeared, being on their way from their northern breeding place. 

 He adds, " they kept on the open grounds, fed on the empe- 

 truin nigrum, and were very fat and delicious." They arrive 

 at Hudson's Bay in April, or early in May; pair and breed to 

 the north of Albany fort among the woods, return in August to 

 the marshes, and all disappear in September. * About this time 

 they return in accumulated numbers to the shores of New Jer- 

 sey, whence they finally depart for the south early in November. 



* Phil. Trans. LXII,411. 



