512 NIMENIUS BOEEALIS, ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 



grounds, even when much molested, I saw strikingly illustrated on one 

 occasion. The tide was rising and about to flood a muddy flat, of per- 

 haps an acre in extent, where their favorite snails were in great quan- 

 tities. Although six or eight gunners were stationed upon the spot, and 

 kept up a continual round of tiring upon the poor birds, they continued 

 to fly distractedly about over our heads, notwithstanding the numbers 

 that every moment fell. They seemed in terror lest they should lose 

 their accustomed fare of snails that day. On another occasion, when 

 the birds had been so harassed for several hours as to deprive them of 

 all opportunity of feeding, great numbers of them retired to a very 

 small island, or rather a large pile of rocks, a few hundred yards from 

 the shore, covered with sea-weed and, of course, with snails. Flock 

 after flock alighted on it, till it was completely covered with the birds, 

 which there, in perfect safety, obtained their morning meal." 



Some of these Curlews may winter on our southern border, but I am 

 not aware that such is the case. The great extent of their southward 

 movement at this season into Central and South America may be gath- 

 ered from the above citations, which attest their presence in Brazil, 

 Chili, and Buenos Ayres. For their summer resorts we must turn to 

 the far North, where the species breeds in numbers commensurate with 

 the hordes that pass regularly through the United States. They occur 

 on the Yukon Eiver, though they are not yet known to take up a line of 

 migration along the Pacific side of the Eocky Mountains. (Compare, 

 however, Seerm., P. E. E. Eep. x, pt. vi, 66.) We learn of extensive 

 breeding-grounds from the series of eggs transmitted to the Smithso- 

 nian, by Mr. MacFarlane, from the Arctic coast, east of Anderson Eiver. 



This species breeds in great numbers in the Anderson Eiver region, 

 usually making up its nest-compleraent of four eggs by the third week 

 in June. The nest is generally in an open plain, and is a mere depression 

 of the ground, lined with a few dried leaves or grasses. The eggs vary 

 to the great extent usually witnessed among waders. The ground is 

 olive-drab, tending either to green, gray, or brown in different instances, 

 The markings, always large, numerous and bold, are of different depths 

 of dark chocolate, bistre, and sepia brown, with the ordinary stone-gray 

 shell spots. They always tend to aggregate at the larger end, or, at 

 least, are more numerous on the major half of the egg ; though in a few 

 instances the distribution is nearly uniform. Occasionally the butt end 

 of the egg is almost completely occupied by confluence of very dark 

 markings. Eggs vary from 1.90 by 1.40 to 2.12 by 1.33, averaging 

 about 2.00 by 1.45. 



