BIRDS FOUND ALONG THE BEACHES 73 



the nest as soon as the down is dry, but so protective is 

 their coloring that they might crouch unnoticed at your 

 feet. I have found them sleeping huddled together 

 at night in a hole made by a cow's foot in the grassy 

 meadow bordering a lake, and though they were so 

 openly exposed, I should never have discovered them 

 but for the anxiety of the parent birds. They are about 

 the size of a walnut, quaint little balls of down, perched 

 on toothpick-like legs, and have the same odd habit 

 of bobbing as the adults. Instead of opening their 

 mouths to be fed, after the manner of most young birds, 

 they will pick up the food found for them by the parents, 

 and in a day's time they have learned to hunt it along 

 the shore. They are independent youngsters, wise in 

 tricks of hiding motionless on the sajid or in the grass, 

 and in keeping together. Their low, sweet, peeping 

 notes are like those of young chickens, and they seem 

 to care more for each other than for the brooding of the 

 parent birds. The call note of the adults is a sharp 

 "peet-weet" uttered on the wing. 



264. LONG-BILLED CURLEW, OR SICKLE-BILLED 

 CURLEW. — Numenius longirostris. 



Family : The Snipes and Sandpipers. 



Length: 20.00-26.00. 



Adults : Head, neck, and upper parts streaked and mottled grayish buff 



and black ; under parts brownish buff, more or less streaked and barred 



with black; bill very long, slender, and curved. 

 Downy Young : Upper parts deep buff, mottled with black ; under parts 



sulphur-yellow ; bill straight. 

 Geographical Bistriiution : Entire temperate North America ; south in ■ 



winter to West Indies. 



