( 444 ) 

 THE CURLEW SANDPIPER. 



TrINGA SUBAIiQUATA, Temm. 

 PLATE CCLXIII. Adult and Young. 



In the course of my extensive rambles along our coasts and in the in- 

 terior, I have seen only three birds of this species, all of which I have 

 kept with care, considering the Cape Sandpiper or Pigmy Curlew as the 

 rarest of its genus with us. It appears to resort to particular districts ; 

 two of my birds were shot at Great Egg Harbour in New Jersey, in the 

 spring of 1829, the other on Long Island near Sandy Hook. No other 

 birds were near them, and I approached them without much difficulty. 

 They were wading along the shores up to the knees, picking vip floating 

 garbage and sand worms. In their stomachs I found fragments of mi- 

 nute shells, slender red worms, and bits of marine plants. The one 

 killed on Long Island was a fine male in full plumage, and from it I 

 made the figure that has been engraved in the plate. The others were 

 females or young birds of the preceding year. One, in plain plumage, 

 was drawn ; the other, mottled beneath with patches of white and dull 

 rufous, I considered as a female which might perhaps have perfected its 

 colouring that season. I have seen a few specimens in New York, and 

 two in Boston ; and my friend John Bachman has one or two in his 

 possession. 



Tringa subarquata, Temm. Man. d'Omith. part ii. p. 609 — Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis 



of Birds of the United States, p. 317. 

 NuMENius africanus Lath. Ind. Omith. vol. ii. 712. 

 Cape Curlew or Sandpiper, Nuttall, Manual, p. 104. 



Adult Male. Plate CCLXIII. Fig. 1. 



Bill longer than the head, slender, subcylindrical, flexible, very shght- 

 ly decurved, compressed at the base, the point obtuse. Upper mandible 

 with the dorsal line at first sUghtly sloping, then nearly straight, and to- 

 wards the end slightly decurved, the ridge convex but narrow, the sides 

 sloping, the edges rather blunt and soft. Nasal groove extending to near 

 the tip ; nostrils basal, linear, pervious. Lower mandible with the angle 

 long and very narrow, the dorsal line straight, the sides nearly erect, with 

 a long narrow groove, the tip tapering but rounded. 



