632 ESKIMO CURLEW. 
Moluccas and to Australia in winter, is M. minutus of Gould, 
(Mesoscolopax minutus, Sharpe), a slightly smaller species, which has 
paler and less barred under-parts, and has moreover the front of 
the tarsus transversely scutellated like the back; whereas in the 
American bird and typical members of the genus Vumenius only 
the hind tarsus is reticulated. Although the Eskimo Curlew has 
been obtained in the Galapagos Islands, and also on the coast of 
Chile, it does not appear to pass down the Pacific sea-board of North 
America ; its line of flight in autumn being rather to the eastward 
of the Rocky Mountains. Immense numbers migrate through the 
Mississippi valley, but none winter there, nor is a long stay made 
in any part of the United States to the north of Texas; some visit 
the Bermudas, while others pass southward as far as Patagonia and 
the Falkland Islands. On the migration northward in spring, few, 
if any, birds pass along the Atlantic coast, for, like the American 
Golden Plover, they prefer the route by, and to the west of, the 
Mississippi valley (G. H. Mackay). 
Mr. MacFarlane, who found nests’ of this species between June 
zoth and:July roth, describes them as mere hollows in the Barren- 
grounds; the eggs, 4 in number, are olive-drab or light ash-green, 
blotched with various shades of brown: measurements 2 by 1°5 in. 
Four examples, after drawings by Mr. J. L. Ridgway, are figured in 
Poynting’s ‘ Eggs of Limicole.’ In autumn the bird feeds freely on 
crowberries, and it is so partial to a species of snail found on low 
rocks and mud-flats that Dr. Elliott Coues has seen flocks hovering 
distractedly over a party of gunners who were stationed on ground 
where these molluscs abounded. The note is an oft-repeated soft, 
mellow whistle ; the flight is straight and very swift. 
The points which distinguish this species from AZesoscolopax 
minutus, have already been indicated ; the other diagnostic char- 
acteristics are : primaries with scarcely a trace of bars, no white on 
the rump, under-parts buff with transverse ‘ arrow-head’ markings, 
axillaries chestnut barred with brown. Length 14 in. (bill 2°5), 
wing 8°55 in. As Seebohm pointed out in his work on the Chara- 
driidz, the pale stripe down the centre of the dark crown is suffi- 
ciently defined to show that this species belongs to the group of the 
Whimbrels rather than that of the Curlews ; but the expediency of 
changing a long-accepted trivial name on such slight grounds may 
well be questioned. 
