ESQUIMAUX, OR SHORT-BILLED CURLEW. 227 



breast very pale brown; upper part of the body pale drab, 

 centered and barred with dark brown and edged with spots of 

 white on the exterior vanes; three primaries black, with white 

 shafts; rump and tail coverts barred with dark brown; belly 

 white, vent the same, marked with zigzag lines of brown on a 

 dark cream ground ; legs and naked thighs a pale lead color." 



This Bird, like most others of our Sea-fowl, is migratory, 

 arriving in the Middle States from the South early in the 

 spring, and remaining a short time, feeding on the mud flats 

 and salt marshes, in company with various others of the fea- 

 thered race. After this, they take up their line of march for 

 the far North, where they spend the summer in breeding and 

 rearing their young. The Short-Billed Curlews travel in large 

 bodies, and keep up a constant Avhistling during their journeys. 

 It is possible that some few remain the whole summer through 

 in the marshes about Cape May, for the purposes of incubation; 

 such, indeed, is the opinion of those employed in shooting 

 these Birds for the markets. We have often met with them in 

 the neighborhood of Cape May early in July. 



During the breeding season. Curlews collect in immense 

 numbers on the Labrador coast, where thev remain till the 

 months of August and September, and then leave in large com- 

 panies for the South. During these months, and until the 

 commencement of cold weather. Curlews are very numerous on 

 the coast of New Jersey and Long Island, frequenting the salt 

 marshes and flats, where they find abundance of food, such as 

 marine worms, shell-fish, and various species of aquatic insects, 

 all of which they partake of greedily. On these mud fiats, 

 where numberless varieties of Sea-birds collect, are great quan- 

 tities of a particular kind of shell, or craw fish, vulgarly called 

 fiddlers, upon which the larger fowds prey and soon become fat" 

 This dainty food, however, though very nutritious and excel- 

 lent, does not improve the flavor of the Bird, as their meat soon 

 becomes coarse and sedgy after their arrival among us. In the 

 North, they keep more to the open grounds of the interior, 

 and consequently feed chiefly on seeds, insects, and berries. 

 Their flesh at such times is pronounced delicious, and even 

 delicate. We have shot them within a few days after their 

 arrival among us from the North, and always found them more 



