Snipe, Sandpipers, etc. 



land, the male pours out his happiness in low, sweet peet-weets 

 trilled rapidly and prolonged into a song; — cheerful, even ecstatic 

 notes, without a trace of the plaintive tone heard at other 

 times. A good deal of music passes back and forth from these 

 birds a-wing. Fluffy little chicks run from the creamy buff 

 shells thickly spotted and speckled with brown, as soon as 

 hatched. The nest, or a depression in the ground, lined with dry 

 grass, that answers every purpose, may be in a meadow or 

 orchard, but rarely far from water that attracts worms, snails, and 

 insects for the little family to feed on. This is the one sandpiper 

 that we may confidently expect to meet throughout the summer. 



Long-billed Curlew 



(Numenius longirostris) 



Calledalso: SICKLE-BILL; SABRE-BILL; SPANISH CURLEW; 

 BUZZARD CURLEW 



Length — 24 inches; bill of extreme length, about 6 inches, some- 

 times 8 inches. 



Male and Female — Upper parts buff or pale rufous and black ; 

 the head and neck streaked; the back, wings, and tail barred 

 or mottled with cinnamon, buff, and blackish; under parts 

 buff; the breast streaked, and the sides often barred with 

 black. Long, black bill, curved downward like a sickle; 

 long legs and feet, dark. 



Range — Temperate North America; nesting in the south Atlantic 

 states and in the interior so far as Hudson Bay, or mostly 

 throughout its range; winters from Florida and Texas to the 

 West Indies and Guatemala. 



Season — Summer resident in the interior; an irregular summer vis- 

 itor on Atlantic coast north of the Carolinas ; migratory north- 

 ward to the prairies of the great northwest. 



The extraordinary bill of the curlew, curving in the opposite 

 direction from the avocet's, serves the same purpose, however, 

 and drags small crabs and other shell fish that have buried them- 

 selves in the wet sand, snails, larvae, and worms from their holes, 

 the blades acting like a forceps. Beetles, grasshoppers, and flying 

 food seized on the prairies; berries, and particularly dewberries, 

 complete the curlew's menu. The entire bill so far as the nos- 



234 



