BIRDS FOUND ALONG THE BEACHES 75 



The young bird has a well-developed but straight bill 

 more than an inch long when hatched ; he runs about on 

 strong legs within an hour of his emancipation from the 

 shell. 



265. HUDSONIAN CURLEW, OR JACK CURLEW 



Numenius hudsonicus. 



Family : The Snipes and Sandpipers. 



Length: 16.50-18.00. 



Adults: Upper parts mottled and barred with pale 

 oinnaraon-browu and blackish ; line through the 

 crown buffy, bordered with two brown stripes ; under 

 parts buiT, nari'owly streaked with blackish. 

 Downy Young: Buffy brown above, merging to lemon - 

 yellow below ; upper parts indistinctly mottled with dusky. 

 Geographical Distribution .■ Nearly the whole of North and 

 South America; south in winter. 

 Breeding Bange : Arctic regions. 



i,son: June 15 to July 15. 

 Nest : A slight hollow, scantily lined with grasses. 



Eggs : 4 ; pear-shaped, grayish yellow, coarsely scrawled 

 with chocolate and brown. Size 2.27 X 1,67. 



The Hudsonian Curlew occurs 

 throughout North America, breed- 

 ing at the ponds and lakes of the 

 arctic regions and in all parts 

 In California it is abundant as 

 and fall migrant, and is found 

 on the coast in company with the long- 

 billed curlew and the jack-snipe. Like 

 the others, it is a conspicuous bird on the beach or 

 flying in triangular flocks over the edge of the water ; 

 like the long-billed curlew, it drops its feet and raises 



265. Hudsonian 



CUKLEW. 

 " When alighting.^'* 



of Alaska. 

 a spring 



