BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 145 
with asomewhat metallic or bronzed lustre, and with numerous 
longitudinal lines, and sagittate, lanceolate, and irregular spots 
of brownish-black, having the same lustre; line over the eye 
and entire under parts, white, with numerous circular and oval 
spots of brownish-black, smaller on the throat, largest on the 
abdomen; quills brown, with a green lustre; primaries slightly 
tipped with white and having a white spot on their inner edges; 
secondaries white at the base and tipped with white; middle 
feathers of the tail same green as the other upper parts; outer 
tipped with white, and with irregular bars of brownish-black; 
bill yellowish-green, tipped with brown; feet reddish-yellow; 
iris hazel. 
Length, 7.50 to 8; wing, 4.50; tail, 2; bill, 1; tarsus, 1. 
Habitat, North and South America. 
NUMENIUS LONGIROSTRIS (Witson). (264.) 
LONG-BILLED CURLEW. 
This widely distributed species is nowhere better represented 
than in Minnesota,* or strictly speaking, in portions of it. 
They reach this latitude variously from the 20th of March to 
the first of May, usually about the 10th of April, and about the 
middle of May they mostly move beyond the Big Woods (re- 
ferred to previously), whence to the British possessions they 
breed in different localities. 
The nests, which I have not personally seen, are said to be 
in general scolopacine in character, never in communities, and 
located near, but not on wet lands or marshes asarule. Not 
far from the 25th of May, they lay four eggs, ‘‘clay colored, 
with more or less olivaceous in some instances, and in others 
decidedly buffy shade. The spotting is generally pretty uni- 
formly distributed and of small pattern, though in many cases 
there is larger blotching and even massing about the great end. 
The color of the markings is sepia or umber, of different shades 
in the buffy-tinged specimens, rather tending to chocolate. The 
shell markings are commonly numerous and evident.” (Coues.) 
Early in August, the young have become strong enough for 
flight, and small flocks of them begin to be seen in the sections 
where the breeding has taken place. They gradually extend 
their range southward with the advance of the season, until by 
the first or second week in September, they have reached the 
whole southern portions of the states, while continued acces- 
* The above was true when written, but the Curlews of this species, once so common, 
have become less so within the last decade, and now, having been driven back from 
both coasts by civilization, are found in great numbers far inland on the dry plains, 
where they are killed by scores and hundreds. 
