244 LONG-BILLED CURLEW. 



are sold at all seasons in the markets of Charleston, at about twenty-five 

 cents the pair. 



Rambling birds of this species are sometimes seen as far as the neigh- 

 bourhood of Boston ; for my learned friend Thomas Nuttall says in his 

 Manual, that " they get so remarkably fat, at times, as to burst the skin 

 in falUng to the ground, and are then superior in flavour to almost any 

 other game bird of the season. In the market of Boston, they are seen 

 as early as the 8th of August." I found them rather rare in East Florida 

 in winter and spring. They were there seen either on large savannahs, 

 or along the sea shore, mixed with marbled Godwits, Tell-tales, and other 

 species. 



NuMENius LONGiROsTais, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, 

 p. 314. — Richards and Swains. Fauna Bor. Amer. part ii. p. 370. 



Long-billed Curlew, Numenius lokgirostris, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. viii^ 

 p. 23. pi. 64. fig. 1. adult Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 94. 



Adult Male. Plate CCXXXI. Fig. 1. 



Bill excessively elongated, being more than four times the length of 

 head, very slender, subcylindrical, slightly compressed, nearly straight to 

 the middle, beyond which it is slightly curved. Upper mandible with 

 the ridge broad and flat at the base, broad and rounded in the rest 

 of its extent, a deep groove running from the nostrils to near the tip, 

 which is decurved, enlarged so as to form an oblong obtuse knob, pro- 

 jecting beyond the point of the lower mandible, the edges rounded, the 

 inner surface with a deep narrow groove. Nostrils basal, lateral, longi- 

 tudinal, linear, pervious. Lower mandible similar in its curvature to the 

 upper, its angle extremely narrow, and extending to near the middle, the 

 ridge rounded, the sides with a shallow groove to near the end, the edges 

 directly meeting those of the upper mandible, the tip obtuse. 



Head rather small, oblong, compressed. Neck long and slender. 

 Body rather slender. Feet long and rather stout. Toes rather small, 

 scutellate above ; first very small, second and fourth about equal, third 

 considerably longer, flat beneath and broadly marginate, the three ante- 

 rior connected by short webs, of which the outer is much larger. Bare 

 part of tibia covered with transverse series of angular scales, as is the 

 upper part of the tarsus, its lower two-thirds with scutella in front. 

 Claws small, compressed, blunt, that of middle toe largest, curved out- 

 wards, with a sharp dilated inner edge. 



