DESCRIPTIVE LIST 



143 



It seems to be most common in May, and it occurs from Cape Hatteras to the 

 Blue Ridge Mountains and beyond. The nest is placed on the ground. It is simply 

 a depression in the soil, lined sometimes with grass or moss, and is situated usually 

 near water. The eggs commonly number four; have a creamy, buff, or clay-colored 

 ground, blotched, spotted, and dotted with blackish brown; and measure about 

 1.34 x .92. 



Genus Numenius (Briss.) 



KEY TO SPECIES 



1. Secondaries, quills, etc., rusty cinnamon. L., 20.00 or more. Long-billed Curlew. 

 1. Secondaries, quills, etc., dull brownish. L., 16.00 to 18.00. Hudsonian Curlew. 



A third species, the Eskimo Curlew. Numenius borealis (J. R. Forst); doubtless formerly 

 occurred. It is a still smaller bird than the Hudsonian Curlew (L., 12.50 to 14.50), and further 

 differs from it in having no paler median stripe on the crown. It is now considered to be nearly 

 or quite extinct. 



126. Numenius americanus (Wils.). LONG-BILLED CURLEW. 



Ads. Head and neck streaked, and back barred with buffy and black; wing-coverts, inner 

 webs of primaries, secondaries, and tail varying from buffy to pale rufous, barred or mottled with 

 blackish; underparts ochraceous-buff, breast more or less streaked and sides sometimes barred 

 with black; axillars rufous, generally unbarred. L., 24.00; W., 10.50; Tar., 3.10; B., 6.00. (Chap., 

 Birds of E. N. A.) 



Range. North America, now only a straggler east of the Mississippi; winters from South 

 Carolina to Central America. 



Range in North Carolina. Not well known. 



FIG. 105. LONG-BILLED CUELEW. 



Formerly abundant on our coasts (Coues, 1871), its status with us today is hard 

 to define, except that it is a very rare bird, if found at all within our borders. We 

 know of no later unquestioned record than that of a specimen killed on Shackle- 

 ford Banks, near Beaufort, in 1885, by "Tobe" Lane of New Bern. 



