Genus NUMENIUS or CURLEWS. 



Type NUMENIUS ARQUATUS. 



Numenius of Brisson (1760). — The birds comprising the 

 present genus are characterised by having the lower half of the 

 tarsus scutellated in front, and the bill sufiSciently arched that the 

 point is considerably lower than the plane of the gape.* The 

 wings are long and pointed ; tail nearly square. The tarsus is 

 rather long and slender, the lower portion of the tibia devoid 

 of feathers. The bill is long, slender, and decurved; nostrils 

 lateral, linear, and situated within the basal fourth part of the 

 bill. 



This genus is composed of eleven species and subspecies 

 confined to the Palsearctic and Nearctic regions during summer, 

 but cosmopolitan during winter. Three species are included as 

 British, one a very rare straggler, one a common resident, and 

 one best known on passage and in winter. 



The Curlews are dwellers on moors, marshes, and upland 

 wastes in summer, of sea coasts during winter. They are birds of 

 rapid and well-sustained flight, and walk and run with ease. 

 Their notes are clear, loud, and not unmusical. They subsist on 

 worms, mollusks, insects, and fruit. They make slight nests on 

 the ground, and their pyriform eggs are four in number and 

 spotted. They are monogamous; during winter they are 

 gregarious, and even in summer somewhat social. They are shy 

 and wary, and their flesh is not unpalatable. 



* Not having had access to a very large series of specimens of Numenius, 

 I cannot speak with absolute certainty, but probably the plane of the gape does 

 not extend beyond the basal half of the upper mandible. 



