NUMENIUS LONGIROSTRIS : LONG-BILLED CURLEW. 249 



in length, usually 5.00 or 6.00. Length, 24.00 or more ; extent 

 about 37.00; wing, 10.00-12.00; tail, 4.00; tarsus, 2.75-3.50. 

 Prevailing tone of plumage rufous, usually deepest under the 

 wings, where little varied with other color ; primaries dark, 

 varied with rufous. Top of head variegated with rufous or 

 whitish and blackish, without distinct pale median and lateral 

 lines. Upper parts brownish-black, speckled with tawny or 

 cinnamon-brown ; tail-feathers and secondaries cinnamon-brown, 

 with pretty regular dark bars throughout. Under parts rufous 

 or cinnamon of varying intensity, usually deepening to chestnut 

 under the wings, fading to whitish on the throat ; the jugulum 

 and fore breast with dusky streaks which tend to become bars or 

 arrow-heads on the sides. No white on rump, wings, or tail. Bill 

 black, much of under mandible pale flesh-color or yellowish ; 

 feet dark. 



This great Curlew, the largest of the whole family 

 ScolopacidcB, is rated by Dr. Brewer as a rare midsum- 

 mer visitor along the coast 

 (Pr. Bost. Soc., xvii, 1875, 

 p. 446). As Mr. Purdie has 

 shown, however (Bull. Nutt. 

 Club, i, 1876, p. 73 ; ii, 1877, 

 p. 17) it is rather to be 

 placed in the category of 

 the spring and autumn mi- 

 grants, as given by Allen, '^^'^- ss.— head of long-billed 

 Merriam, and Boardman, 



though a few individuals undoubtedly spend the summer 

 on the more unfrequented portions of the coast and in the 

 adjoining marshes. Unlike others of its genus, it is not 

 a bird of the high north. It is generally .seen in small 

 flocks, and found to be extremely wary and difficult 

 to approach. It is not one of our common birds, nor 

 at all regular in its times of appearance and disappear- 

 ance. 



