ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 61 



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 \vith black. 

 Male and female alike in plumage. The bill continues 

 to grow in length until the second season, when the 

 bird receives its perfect plumage. The stomach of this 

 species is lined with an extremely thick skin, feeling 

 to the touch like the rough hardened palm of a sailor 

 or blacksmith. The intestines are very tender, mea- 

 suring usually about three feet in length, and as thick 

 as a swan's quill. On the front, under the skin, there 

 are two thick callosities, which border the upper side 

 of the eye, lying close to the skull. These are common, 

 I believe, to most of the tringa and scolopax tribes, and 

 are probably designed to protect the skull from injury 

 while the bird is probing and searching in the sand and 

 mud. 



216. NUXENIUS BUDSOtflCUS, LATHAM. 



SCOLOPAX BOREALIS, WILSON. ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 



WILSON, PLATE LVI. FIG. I. 



THE Esquimaux curlew, or, as it is called by our 

 gunners on the sea coast, the short-billed curlew, is 

 peculiar to the new continent. Mr Pennant, indeed, 

 conceives it to be a mere variety of the English 

 whimbrel (S.phcRopus}; but among the great numbers 

 of these birds which 1 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 different, the bill much more bent, and 

 nearly an inch and a half longer, and the manners in 

 certain particulars very different : these reasons have 

 determined its claim to that of an independent species. 



The short-billed curlew arrives in large flocks on the 

 sea coast of New Jersey, early in May, from the south, 

 frequent the 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 



