394 ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 



Possessing numerous general features common to the Waders of their 

 family, and a few of those which distinguish the Ihis and Tantali, the 

 Curlews have nevertheless some peculiar traits of their own more easy 

 to perceive than to define. Their physiognomy may be thus described. 

 They have a rather small head, with a remarkably long, slender, and 

 arched beak, longish neck, and body deeper than broad, and apparently 

 gibbous. The wings are long, the tail moderate, the feet rather slender, 

 though not so much so as in the allied genera, and bare for a consider- 

 able space above the heel (commonly, but improperly, called the knee). 

 The toes remarkably short and stout. The plumage of the Curlews is 

 composed of a rather thick covering of somewhat loose, though silky 

 feathers, abundantly furnished with down. The colors, consisting of a 

 mixture of grayish brown, white, and blackish, are very dull, and 

 hardly vary in the different species. The sexes are not distinguishable 

 by difference of color or stature ; the female is perhaps a trifle smaller 

 than the male. The young scarcely differ in plumage from the adults, 

 but are well marked by their much shorter and straighter bill. They 

 moult but once during the year, and late in the season. We have 

 detected a clue to the species in the medial line of the crown, the 

 color of the rump and of the under wing-coverts and long axillary 

 feathers. 



The Curlews are mute, timid, shy and wary. They frequent and 

 seek their food in salt marshes, and along muddy coasts and inlets, 

 where at low water they may be observed in company with other Waders 

 on the mud flats, or at high water roaming along the marshes. They 

 but seldom alight on wet sands, and only when muddy shores are not 

 to be found ; always preferring such on account of their flexible bill. 

 They seldom desert the salt wafer, and are very rarely met with inland,' 

 at a distance from the sea or large rivers : during summer, however, 

 they often -frequent dry fields in search of berries. They run swiftly, 

 being much upon the ground : their flight is high, very rapid, and long 

 sustained. The voice of the Curlews is loud and whistling : when about 

 to commence their great periodical journeys they congregate in large 

 flocks, rise to a great height, and extend themselves into a vast line : 

 whilst thus travelling onward, they keep up an almost incessant whis- 

 tling, carefully waiting for each other. These companies only separate 

 during the breeding season. In captivity, though they may linger for 

 weeks or months, they seem to perish at last from the continued opera- 

 tion of melancholy and want of proper food. 



Their food is chiefly animal, and in a great degree marine. They 

 prey indifferently upon worms, insects, mollusca, Crustacea, and occa- 

 sionally small fish, and are very dexterous in probing the mud with 

 their long, soft and slendier bill, and pulling out of their holes small 

 shell-fish and crabs. In summer, however, they are very fond of ber 



