ESKIMO CURLEW. 515 



easily imitated by gunners, but owing to the open order of 

 the flocks comparatively few are killed at a shot ; the flight 

 is firm, direct, and very swift. The pertinacity with which 

 these birds cling to certain feeding-grounds, even when 

 much molested, is remarkable, and Dr. Elliott Coues has 

 seen flocks hovering distractedly over a party of gunners 

 stationed on a favourite mud- flat where snails abounded, 

 regardless of the numbers that fell at every moment (B. of 

 North- West, p. 511). 



The bird killed in Kincardineshire is thus described in 

 ' The Naturalist,' 1855 (p. 265) : The bill is brownish- 

 black, the basal portion of the lower mandible flesh-coloured; 

 irides dark brown ; sides of the head yellowish-brown, with 

 brown streaks ; upper part of the head brownish-black, edged 

 with reddish-brown, neck considerably lighter, edged with 

 dull white ; upper parts blackish-brown, with light edges ; 

 primary quills dusky-brown, the shafts of the first four white, 

 the others becoming darker, passing into pale brown ; 

 secondaries lighter ; rump dark brown, with light edges ; 

 upper tail-coverts barred with dark and light shades ; tail, 

 of twelve feathers, ash-grey, with dark brown bars, edged 

 and tipped with brownish-white ; throat, and a streak over 

 the eye, nearly white ; foreneck light brown, with small 

 longitudinal liver-brown markings; under wing-coverts chest- 

 nut, with irregular brown markings; breast and abdomen 

 yellowish -grey, tinged with brown ; tarsi and feet dark green. 

 The adult in breeding-plumage is characterized by a more 

 rufous tint. 



The whole length is about fourteen inches ; the bill two 

 inches three lines ; wing, from anterior bend, eight inches 

 nine lines ; tarsus one inch ten lines ; middle toe almost 

 one inch. 



The representation here given is taken, on a reduced 

 scale, from Mr. Swainson's figure in the * Fauna Boreali- 

 Americana.' 



