( 69 ) 

 ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 



NUMUNIUS BOREALIS, LatH. 

 PLATE CCVIII. Male and Female. 



I KEG RET that I am unable to present a complete history of the Es- 

 quimaux Curlew. It is true I might somewhat enlarge my account of 

 its habits, were I to borrow from others, but as I have resolved to confine 

 myself to the results of my own observation, unless in certain cases, in 

 which I always take care to give my authorities, I hope you will be 

 pleased with the little which I have to offer. 



Previous to my voyage to Labrador, I had seen only a single bird of 

 this species, which was kindly given me by my learned friend William 

 Oakes, Esq. of Ipswich, Massachusetts, who had procured it in his imme- 

 diate neighbourhood, where, as I have since ascertained, the Esquimaux 

 Curlew spends a few days in early autumn, while on its way southward. 

 During their short stay in that State, they are met with on the high 

 sandy hills near the sea-shore, where they feed on the grasshoppers and on 

 several kinds of berries. On this food they become fat, so as to afford 

 excellent eating, in consequence of which they have probably acquired 

 the name of " Dough Bird," which they bear in that district, but which 

 is also applied to several other birds. How this species manages to cross 

 the whole extent of the United States without being seen after leaving 

 Massachusetts, is to me very wonderful. On one occasion only have I 

 ever had a glimpse of it. I was in company with my learned and gene- 

 rous friend John Bachman of Charleston, on one of the islands on the 

 coast of South Carohna, whither we had gone with the view of watching 

 the Long-billed Curlews (Ntimenius longirostris ) . It was at the dawn 

 of a fine day, when a dense flock of the northern Curlews passed to the 

 southward, near enough to enable us to ascertain the species, but so swift- 

 ly, that in a few minutes they were quite out of sight. 



On the 29th of July 1833, during a thick fog, the Esquimaux Cur- 

 lews made their first appearance in Labrador, near the harbour of Bras 

 d'Or. They evidently came from the north, and arrived in such dense 

 flocks as to remind me of the Passenger Pigeons. The weather was ex- 

 tremely cold as well as foggy. For more than a week we had been look- 



