Snipe, Sandpipers, etc. 



trils, notwithstanding its extreme length, often sinks through the 

 soft sand or mud to probe for some coveted dainty. The curlew, 

 the avocet, the sea parrot, and the skimmer vie with each other 

 in possessing the queerest freak of a bill. 



Large flocks of curlews, flying in wedge-shaped battalions, 

 like geese, with some veteran, a loud, hoarse whistler, in the lead, 

 evidently migrate up our coast to the St. Lawrence and across 

 Canada, to disperse over the broad prairies of the northwest. 

 Not at all dependent on water, however truly their bills indi- 

 cate that nature intended them for shore birds, they are quite as 

 likely to alight on dry, grassy uplands as on the muddy flats of 

 lower watercourses. "Their flight is not rapid, but well sus- 

 tained, with regular strokes of the wings," says Goss; "and 

 when going a distance, usually high, in a triangular form, utter- 

 ing now and then their loud, prolonged whistling note, so 

 often heard during the breeding season. Before alighting, they 

 suddenly drop nearly to the ground, then gather, and with a ris- 

 ing sweep, gracefully alight." Flocks on their way south stop to 

 rest awhile on Long Island any time from July to September. 



Wherever the curlew strays, its large size and unusual bill 

 make it conspicuous. It is a shy and wary bird, impossible to 

 stalk when feeding, but responsive to an imitation of its call, and 

 coming readily to decoys. In the interior, sportsmen declare the 

 flesh is well worth shooting; but on the coast, north or south, even 

 its odor is rank. Evidently there is a truly strong attachment be- 

 tween members of the same flock, as there is among many sand- 

 pipers, for the cries of wounded and dying victims draw the 

 agonized sympathizers back to the spot where they lie, although 

 a second discharge may bring them the same fate. 



Three or four clay colored eggs, shaped like a barnyard 

 hen's, but spotted with fine marks of chocolate brown, are found 

 in a depression of the ground. Great numbers of nests are made 

 on the south Atlantic coast and also on the prairies of the north- 

 west, a strange division of habitat indeed for young chicks. 



Whimbrel, Striped-head, and Crooked-bill, the Hudsonian 

 Short-billed or Jack Curlew (Numenius hudsonicus), with a bill 

 only three or four inches long to bring the entire length of the 

 bird to sixteen or eighteen inches, has blackish brown upper 

 parts mottled with buff, most conspicuous on wing coverts ; the 



23S 



