288 KEY TO THE WATER BIRDS OF FLORIDA. 
small streams of fresh water and also on sand beaches, usually selecting 
rocky places. It breeds nearly throughout its range, the eggs being buff 
white or pale brown spotted with dark brown, mostly on the larger end. 
Genus NUMENIUS Brisson. 
Numenius longirostris. 
NUPMENIUS LONGIROSTRIS Wis. 
Long=billed Curlew. Sickle=bill. 
Adult in summer: Upper parts marked with buff and black; tail feathers alternately 
banded with tawny buff and brown; throat whitish; rest of under parts pale reddish brown, 
becoming very light on the belly; breast narrowly striped with brown on the middle of the 
feathers; bill very long. 
Adult in winter: General plumage tawny brown; the back blackish, mottled with buff; 
top of the head dark brown; the feathers edged with tawny; throat white; under part pale 
buff brown; feathers on the lower throat and upper breast finely lined with dark brown; bill 
very long and curved downward; bill black, becoming dull lilac brown on basal half of the 
mandible. 
Length, 26; Wing, 10.50; Tarsus, 2.30; Bill very variable, measuring from 2.50 to 9. 
The immature of this species has the bill nearly straight but quite short, sometimes not ex- 
ceeding two inches in length. 
Ranges from temperate North America south to Central America and the 
West Indies. It breeds in the Southern Atlantic States, but is now not 
common on the Atlantic coast, and is becoming less so every year. The 
eggs are described as olive gray in color, spotted with chocolate brown. 
