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Genus — Numenius. Curlews. 



General Description. Large Shore Birds between 13 • 50 and 24 inches long. Coloured 

 in various shades from cream to weak brown, mottled above, lighter and clear below, neck 

 and breast finely striped and with more or less suffusion or suggestion of buff over all. 

 The bills are long and curved decidedly downward. 



Distinctions. Large size, decurved bill, and general buffy colour. Distinguished 

 from the Godwits by down-curved instead of slightly up-turned bill. 



Field Marks. Large size, and decurved bill, general buff colour. 



Large size among birds is a distinct menace to their existence. The 

 Curlews are a good example of this and unless intelligent measures to pro- 

 tect them are taken in the near future there will soon be none left. In the 

 east the Curlews have almost disappeared, but in the west there is still a 

 fair number left. The vegetable part of their food is largely wild fruit and 

 in the Maritime Provinces they frequent barrens and upland bogs for bake- 

 apple berries and cranberries. In cultivated fields, insects are their chief 

 food and as many noxious species, including grasshoppers, are consumed, 

 their presence is decidedly beneficial to the farmer. 



264. Long-billed Curlew, sickle-bill curlew, fk. — le couhlis a long bec. 

 Numenius americanus. L, 24. The largest of the genus. The coloration of all the 

 Curlews is quite similar, but the Long-bill is distinctly buff below instead of creamy 

 white (See previous heading). 



Distinctions. In well-grown specimens the extreme length of bill (6 inches) of this 

 species is diagnostic, but, as in numerous other species showing great specialization or 

 size, growth continues for some time after apparent maturity, and this feature is unreliable 

 as sole guide. The crown, axillars, and primary characters, however, make good criteria 

 for the Curlews. In this species the crown is dark, evenly spotted with light without 

 aggregation into a median line, and the inner vanes of the primaries are marked with 

 saw-tooth figures of dark on a light buff ground. The axillars are solidly coloured without 

 bars. 



Field Marks. For recognition as a Curlew see previous page. The Curlews cannot 

 be separated in life with absolute certainty. 



Distribution. Breeds in the prairie provinces and well to the south. It is recorded 

 originally as a more or less common migrant on the Atlantic coast north to the Maritime 

 Provinces, but does not occur there now; also recorded from the Great Lakes region 

 but without supporting evidence. The general confusion of this with the Hudsonian 

 Curlew is responsible for many known misidentificaticns and the species should in future 

 be recorded in eastern Canada only upon the conclusive evidence of specimens. 



265. Hudsonian Curlew, fr. — le courlis de la baie d'hudson. Numenius hud- 

 sonicus. L, 17. A smaller Curlew than the last, but larger than the next. Of same 

 general coloration, but the Hudsonian less buffy than the Long-billed, the underparts 

 being dull creamy; See Curlew heading, above. 



Distinctions. Often diagnosed as the Long-billed, but can be easily distinguished 

 from the other Curlews by the pronounced median stripe on the crown, instead of uni- 

 formly distributed spots, combined with the saw-tooth marks on the inner webs of the 

 primaries, and the barred axillars. 



Field Marks. For recognition as Curlews see Curlew, previous page. Curlews cannot 

 be easily separated in life with certainty, but size and length of bill may help. This 

 is the only species likely to be met with in eastern Canada. 



Distribution. Breeds in the northwestern Canadian Arctic. Migrates down the 

 Pacific coast, and across the continent to the Atlantic where it is more common than in 

 the interior. A regular though not abundant migrant in the Great Lakes region. 



This is the only Curlew of which we have any satisfactory evidence on 

 the lower Great Lakes. It has learned from experience to be a wild and 

 wary bird, and as it now occurs in numbers only locally in the extreme east 

 not very many are taken. 



