ISQUIMAUX CUELEW. 493 



as pertaining to the next species. The birds spoken of by Dr. Kirtland 

 are N. hudtonicus, Latham, which he calls Esquimaux Curlew. There has 

 been confusion in regard to this and the next species, both the scientific 

 and common names having been transposed by several writers. Mr. Win- 

 slow, in a list of birds of this family furnished me in 1861, gives both this 

 and the following species as found in the vicinity of Cleveland. I have 

 never seen it or known of its capture in this vicinity. It appears to be 

 everywhere less numerous than the other members of this genus. 



The eggs of the Hndsonian Curlew are always larger than thoae of the 

 following species but cannot be distinguished from them with certainty, 

 by any other character. They measure from 2.12 to 2.80 in length, in 

 width about 1.60. 



Ntjmenius bobkalis (Forst.) Lath. 



iE^fsquimaixx Cxi.rl«-w. 



Nummius lorealis, Whbaton, Ohio Agrio. Eep. for 1860, 380, 480 ; Keprint, 1861, 11. 

 Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agrio. Eep. for 1874, 573 ; Reprint, 1875, 13. — Lajjgdon, 

 Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 15; Revised List, Jonrn. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 183; 

 Reprint, 17. 



So»lopax horealis, Forstte, Phvlqs Trans., Ixii, 1772, 411. 

 Numenius horealis, Latham, Ind. Orn., ii, 1790, 719. 



Bill small, under 3 inches long ; length, 12-15 inches ; wing, under 9 ; tail, 3 ; tarsus, 

 2. Plumage in tone »nd pattern almost exactly as in the last species, but ayeraging 

 more rufous, espeoially under the wings, and primaries not barred. 



Habitat, North and Middle America. Not recorded west of the Rocky Mountains. 

 Alaska. Breeds within the Arctic Circle. Migratory though the United States, where 

 rarely if ever observed in winter, never to breed. Extraordinarily abundant in 

 Labrador in August. Winters in Middle and South America. No West Indian record. 

 Accidental m Europe. 



Not common spring and fall migrant. Mr. Winslow gives it as not 

 rare in the vicinity of Cleveland. Mr. Langdon, states on the authority 

 of Mr. Shorten, that a specimen was taken in the vicinity of Cincinati, 

 in September, 1878. In this vicinity of this city it is very raje ; I have 

 seen a single specimen aiccompanying a flock of Golden Plover, in 

 autumn, several years since. 



Dr. Coues (Pr. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1861, 236), gives the following 

 observations of their habits in Labrador : 



" The Curlews associato in flocks of every size, from three to as many thousand, but 

 they generally fly in so loose and straggling a manner that it is rare to kill more than 

 half a dozen at a shot. When tkey wheel, however, in any of their many beautiful 

 evolutions, they close together in a more compact body, and offer a more favorable op 

 portunity to the gnnner. Their flight is firm, direct, very swift, when necessary much 



