550 LONG-BILLED CURLEW. 
The Whooping Crane is four feet six inches in length, from the 
point of the bill to the end of the tail, and, when standing erect, meas- 
ures nearly five feet; the bill is six inches long, and an inch anda 
half in thickness, straight, extremely sharp, and of a yellowish brown 
color; the irides are yellow; the forehead, whole crown, and cheeks, 
are covered with a warty skin, thinly interspersed with black hairs; 
these become more thickly set towards the base of the bill; the hind 
head is of an ash color; the rest of the plumage, pure white, the pri- 
maries excepted, which are black; from the root of each wing rise nu- 
merous large, flowing feathers, projecting over the tail and tips of the 
wings; the uppermost of these are broad, drooping, and pointed at 
the extremities; some of them are also loosely webbed, their silky 
fibres curling inwards, like those of the Ostrich. They seem to occupy 
the place of the tertials. The legs and naked part of the thighs are 
black, very thick and strong; the hind toe seems rarely or never to 
reach the hard ground, though it may probably assist in preventing 
the bird from sinking too deep in the mire. 
Spa 
LONG-BILLED CURLEW.—NUMENIUS LONGIROSTRIS. — 
Fig. 259. 
Peale’s Museum, No. 3910. 
NUMENIOS LONGIROSTRIS. — Wi.son.* 
Numenius longirostris, Bonap. Synop. p. 314. — North. Zool. ii. p. 376. 
Tus American species has been considered by the naturalists of Eu- 
rope to be a mere variety of their own, notwithstanding its difference of 
color, and superior length of bill. These differences not being acci- 
* Wilson had the merit of distinguishing and separating this species from the 
Common Curlew of Europe, and giving it the be iees hare name of longirostris, from 
the extraordinary length of the bill. It will fill in America the place of the Com- 
mon Curlew in this country, and appears to have the same manners, frequenting 
the sea-shores in winter, and the rich, dry prairies during the breeding season. Nu- 
menius arquata, the British prototype of NV. longirostris, during the breeding sea- 
son, is entirely an inhabitant of the upland moors and sheep pastures, and in the 
soft and dewy mornings of May and June forms an object in their early solitude, 
which adds to their wildness. At first dawn; when nothing can be seen but rounded 
hills of rich and green pasture, rising one beyond another, with perhaps’ an extenh- 
sive meadow between, looking more boundless by the mists and shadows of morn, 
a Jong string of sheep marching off at a sleepy pace on their well-beaten track to 
some more favorite feeding ground, the shal, tremulous call of the Curlew to his 
mate has something in it wild and melancholy, yet always pleasing to the associa- 
tions. In such situations do they build, making almost no nest, and, during the 
commencement of their amours, run skulkingly among the long grass and rushes, 
the male.rising and sailing round, or descending with the wings closed above his 
back, and uttering his peculiar, quavering whistle. ‘The approach of an intruder 
requires more demonstration of his powers, and he approaches near, ‘buffeting and 
whauping with all his night. When the young are hatched, they remain near the 
