THE CURLEW. 351 



crooked at the very tip : irides reddish hazel ; a whitish line 

 passes over and encircles each eye> from the corner of which 

 a dusky brown spot is extended to the beak. The head, and 

 hind part of the neck, dusky ash-colour, spotted with brown : 

 back and scapulars glossy olive brown : wing coverts ash-colour, 

 mixed with dusky and brown, and marked with whitish spots : 

 the bastard wing and primary quills are brown ; the inner webs 

 of the latter are deeply edged with white freckled with brown, 

 and some of these quills next the secondaries are elegantly marked 

 near their tips with narrow brown lines, pointed and shaped to 

 the form of each feather. Some of the secondaries are similarly 

 barred, others are white : the throat and forepart of the breast 

 are marked with short dusky spots ; the under parts from the 

 breast, and the lower parts of the back and rump, white, marked 

 with minute dusky spots : tail coverts and tail crossed with narrow 

 bars of black, twelve or thirteen on each feather : legs orange 

 red, and measure, from the end of the toes to the upper bare 

 part of the thigh, five inches and a half: claws black. In some 

 birds both the rump and belly are of a pure white. The red- 

 shank is common in many parts of Europe, as high as Finland ; 

 is likewise found in Siberia, and is indigenous also to the conti- 

 nent of America. 



THE CURLEW 



is common in England, where it is to be met with at all seasons. 

 In the winter haunting the sea coast and marshes in great num- 

 bers, where they live upon the worms, marine insects, and dif- 

 ferent fishy substances, which they find upon the beach, aad 



