60 NUMENIUS LONGIROSTRIS. 



of which a whole flock may sometimes be enticed 

 within gunshot, whilr tin- nirs of tin- wounded are 

 sure to detain them until the gunner has made repeated 

 shots and "Teat havoc among them. 



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

 neighbourhood of Hudson's Bay. A few instai 

 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 resem- 

 bling 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 plumage 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 dis- 

 persed; belly, thighs, and vent, pale plain rufous, with- 

 out 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 



