438 GAME BIRDS OF CALIFOBNIA 



Long-billed Curlew 



Numenius americanus Bechstein 



Other names — Brown Curlew; Sickle-bill; Sickle-billed Curlew; Curve-bill; 

 Daddy-long-legs; Wheu-bird; Numenius americanus americanus; Numenius longi- 

 rostris. 



Description — Adults, ioth sexes: Top and sides of head and neck, pale cinna- 

 mon brown, streaked with blackish brown, most heavily on crown; stripe from, 

 base of upper mandible over eye and eyelids, light cinnamon, nearly or quite 

 unstreaked; chin and throat clear pinkish white; bill dusky brown paling to 

 dull flesh color on basal half of lower mandible; iris deep hazel brown; whole 

 back, upper tail coverts, tail, and outer surface of closed wing, coarsely and 

 irregularly barred or spotted with blackish brown on a light pinkish cinnamon 

 ground; outer webs of outer primaries and their coverts, blackish brown; shaft 

 of outermost primary ivory white; inner, flight feathers like back but with 

 more cinnamon; under wing coverts and axillars, pinkish cinnamon sparsely flecked 

 with dusky; under surfaces of flight feathers, pale cinnamon, narrowly barred 

 with dusky; ground color of whole under surface of body pinkish cinnamon, 

 lightest on belly; foreneck and chest streaked, and sides and flanks barred, 

 with blackish brown, these markings few and narrow; feet and legs, light olive 

 gray, slightly darker at joints; nails blackish. Males: Total length 20.60-22.50 

 inches (523-572 mm.) (five specimens from Arizona and California); folded 

 wing 9.85-10.48 (250-266); bill along culmen 5.30-5.55 (134.5-140.9); tarsus 

 3.18-3.21 (80.8-81.5) (two specimens from California). Females: Total length 

 23.60-25.75 (600-653) (five specimens from New Mexico and California) ; folded 

 wing 10.71-11.41 (272-290); bill along culmen 5.00-7.12 (127.0-180.5); tarsus 

 3.11-3.63 (79.0-92.2) (six specimens from California). Juvenile plumage: Simi]a.r 

 tp that of adults. Natal plumage: Ground-color of upper surface pale ochre 

 yellow, with irregular scattered markings of brownish black; bill about as long 

 as head, dusky; ground color of under surface pale orange yellow, lightest on 

 chin and side of neck; legs and feet (dried) pale greenish brown. Bill notably 

 down-curved in adults, but straight in downy young. 



Marks tor field identification — Large size (largest shore bird occurring 

 in California), long, down-curved, or sickle-shaped bill (fig. 73), and distinctly 

 pinkish brown coloration without contrasting white or black areas. Distinguished 

 from Hudsonian Curlew by larger size, proportionately longer bill, pinkish tone 

 of coloration, and unbarred under wing coverts and axillars; from Marbled 

 Godwit by larger size and longer, down-curved instead of up-curved bill; from 

 White-faced Glossy Ibis ("Black Curlew") by pinkish brown rather than deep 

 reddish brown plumage (so dark as to appear black at a distance). 



Voice — A startling loud cur-lew', cur-lew', cur-lew' with a harsh quality. 



Nest — Usually in dry situations, on open, usually grassy meadow or prairie 

 land; a slight depression lined with dried grasses and weeds. 



Eggs — Normally 4, pear-shaped, measuring in inches, from 2.42 to 2.70 by 

 1.82 to 2.00 (in millimeters, 61.5 to 68.5 by 46.3 to 50.8) (averages of two sets, 

 eight eggs, from Montana) ; ground-color varying shades of light greenish 

 olive; superficial markings of dark umber, chocolate and blackish (Silloway, 

 1900, pp. 80, 82), with deeper-lying markings. 



General distribution — North and Middle America. Breeds north to central 

 British Columbia, southern Alberta, southern Saskatchewan and southern Mani- 

 toba, south to Oklahoma, northwestern Texas, central New Mexico, southern 



