CLASS II. AVES: ORDER 7. GRALLATORES. 



279 





berries. They soon depart, moving away to the south in large flocks. Their flesh is excellent, 

 and they are tolerably abundant during the season in the larger city markets. 



The Esquimaux Curlew, or Little Curlew, or Dough-Bird, JV. borealis — the Sviall Esqui- 

 maux Ourlciv of Nuttall — is four- 

 teen inches long; blackish-brown 

 above, mottled with rufous-brown 

 and gray ; beneath yellowish-gray, 

 streaked. Its range is very ex- 

 tensive — from Paraguay to 70° 

 north. It is common along our 

 coasts from August to November, 

 when it proceeds southward. It 

 is a great delicacy, and much 

 song] it after by sportsmen. 



The Long-billed Curlew, N, 

 lonf/i)'ostris,]inov,n along our coast 

 by the names of Sickle-Bill and 

 JJir/ Curlew, is twenty-five inches 

 long; bill long, and curving down- 

 ward in a remarkable degree to- 

 ward the tip ; the color blackish- 

 brown, spotted with reddish and 

 gray above ; beneath reddish-buft' ; 

 its food consists of small mollusca, 

 insects, berries, w'orms, and crabs ; 

 common on the coasts of the Mid- 

 dle States from the middle of Au- 

 gust to the middle of September; 

 some linger till November. Its flesh is indifferent food ; distributed throughout the temperate 

 parts of North America. It is supposed there may be two or three species confounded in this one. 



Genus TOTANUS : Totanus. — This includes sev- 

 eral birds called Tatlers, which resemble the snipes 

 and sandpipers, but have longer legs. The Spotted 

 Red-Shank, T.fusctcs — the Chevalier brun of the 

 French^is twelve inches long ; ash-gray above, be- 

 neath white. It inhabits the sea-shore, as well as 

 the borders of rivers and lakes, feeding on worms, 

 insects, and small testacea, and in search of these, 

 burying itself to the breast in mud ; it is migratory, 

 breeds at the north, and is found in Europe and 

 Asia. 



The Common Red-Shank, T.calidris — Chevalier 



; gamhette of the French — is ten and a half inches 



long ; brown, with black spots, above ; beneath 



i\k. white, with brown spots ; spread over Europe ; sed- 



" entary in France. 



Bartram's Tatler, T. Bartramius — named Bar- 

 trani's Sandpiper by Wilson, and known along our 

 coast by the various names of Gray Plover, Grass- 

 Plover, Upland-Plover, and Field-Plover — is twelve 

 inches long; ferruginous, with small black streaks, 

 above; beneath white; found on the Atlantic coast, 

 from Texas to Nova Scotia ; accidental in Europe. This is the Actiturus Bartramius of Bonaparte. 



THE SPOTTED RED-SHANK. 



•^:^- 



THE COMMOX RED-SHANK. 



