322 ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 



stomach of this species is lined with an extremely thick skin, feeling 

 to the touch like the rough hardened palm of a sailor or blacksmith. 

 The intestines are very tender, measuring usually about three feet in 

 length, and as thick as a Swan's quill. On the front, under the skin, 

 there are two thick callosities, which border the upper side of the eye, 

 lying close to the skull. These are common, I believe, to most of the 

 Tringa and Scolopax tribes, and are probably designed to protect the 

 skull from injury while the bird is probing and scratching in the sand 

 and mud. 



Note. — This species was observed by Lewis and Clark as high up as 

 the sources of the Missouri. On the twenty-second June they found 

 the females were sitting : the eggs, which are of a pale blue, with black 

 specks, were laid upon the bare ground. Hist, of the JExped. vol. I., p. 

 279, 8vo. 



Species II. JV. BOREALIS.* 



ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 



[Plate LVI. Fig. 1.] 

 Arct. Zool. p. 461, No. 364.— Lath, hi.— Turt. Syst. p. 392. 



In prosecuting our researches among the feathered tribes of this 

 extensive country, we are at length led to the shores of the ocean, where 

 a numerous and varied multitude, subsisting on the gleanings of that 

 vast magazine of nature, invite our attention ; and from their singulari- 

 ties and numbers, promise both amusement and instruction. These we 

 shall, as usual, introduce in the order we chance to meet with them in 

 their native haunts. Individuals of various tribes, thus promiscuously 

 grouped together, the peculiarities of each will appear more conspicu- 

 ous and striking, and the detail of their histories less formal as well as 

 more interesting. 



The Esquimaux Curlew, or as it is called by our gunners on the sea- 

 coast, the Short-billed Curlew, is peculiar to the new continent, Mr. 

 Pennant, indeed, conceives it to be a mere variety of the English 

 Whimbrel {S. Phceopus) ; but among the great numbers of these birds 

 which I have myself shot and examined, I have never yet met with one 

 corresponding to the descriptions given of the Whimbrel, the colors 

 and markings being different, the bill much more bent, and nearly an 

 inch and a half longer ; and the manners in certain particulars very 



* Wilson erroneously arranged this in the following genus, Scolopax. 



