284 HUDSONIAN CURLEW. 



along the marshes. They fly high, and with great rapidity. A few are 

 seen in June, and as late as the beginning of July, when they generally 

 move off toward the north. Their appearance on these occasions is very 

 interesting : they collect together from the marshes as if by premeditated 

 design, rise to a great height in the air, usually an hour before sunset, 

 and, forming in one vast line, keep up a constant whistling on their way 

 to the north, as if conversing with one another to render the journey more 

 agreeable. Their flight is then more slow and regular, that the feeblest 

 may keep up with the line of march ; while the glittering of their beauti- 

 fully speckled wings, sparkhng in the sun, produces altogether a veiy 

 pleasing spectacle. 



" In the month of June, while the dewberries are ripe, these birds 

 sometimes frequent the fields, in company with the Long-billed Curlews, 

 where brambles abound ; soon get very fat, and are at that time excellent 

 eating." 



Nuttall says, " From the middle of August to the beginning of Sep- 

 tember, they arrive in the vicinity of Massachusett's Bay, and other parts 

 of New England, frequenting the pastures as well as marshes, and fatten 

 on grasshoppers and berries, till the time of their departure, about the 

 close of September ; and they wholly disappear from New Jersey, on their 

 way to the south, early in the month of November."' 



I have only to add, that, having compared specimens of the present 

 species with the Whimbrel of Europe, Numenius Phceopus, I am satisfied 

 that they are perfectly distinct. 



Numenius hudsonicus, Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 712 Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. 



of Birds of the United States, p. 314 Swains, and Richards. Fauna Bor. Amer. 



part ii. p. 377. 

 EsQuisiAUx Curlew, Scolopax borealis, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. vii. p. 92. pi. 59. 



fig. 1. 

 Esquimaux Curlew, Numenius hudsonicus, Nuttall, Manual, vol. iL p. 97. 



Adult Male. Plate CCXXXVII. 



Bill much longer than the head, very slender, subcybndrical, com- 

 pressed, slightly arched. Upper mandible with the dorsal line slightly 

 arched, the sides, excepting at the base, rounded, and marked with a nac- 

 row groove extending more than two-thirds of its length, the ridge ra- 

 ther flattened at the base, convex and narrower towards the end, the edges 



