38 THE LONG-BILLED CURLEW. 



The Long-billed Curlews are in general easily shot, but take a good charge. 

 So long as life remains in them, they skulk off among the thickest plants, 

 remaining perfectly silent. Should they fall on the water, they swim 

 towards the shore. The birds that may have been in company with a 

 wounded one fly off uttering a few loud whistling notes. In this respect, the 

 species differs from all the others, which commonly remain and fly about 

 you. When on land, they are extremely wary; and unless the plants are 

 high, and you can conceal yourself from them, it is very difficult to get near 

 enough. Some one of the flock, acting as sentinel, raises his wings, as if 

 about to fly, and sounds a note of alarm, on which they all raise their wings, 

 close them again, give over feeding, and watch all your motions. At times 

 a single step made by you beyond a certain distance is quite enough to raise 

 them, and the moment it takes place, they all scream and fly off. You need 

 not follow the flock. The best mode of shooting them is to watch their 

 course for several evenings in succession; for after having chosen a resting 

 place, they are sure to return to it by the same route, until greatly annoyed. 



The food of the Long-billed Curlews consists principally of the small 

 crabs called fiddlers, which they seize by running after them, or by pulling 

 them out of their burrows. They probe the wet sand to the full length of 

 their bill, in quest of sea-worms and other animals. They are also fond of 

 small salt-water shell-fish, insects, and worms of any kind; but I have never 

 seen them searching for berries on elevated lands, as the Esquimaux Cur- 

 lews are wont to do. Their flesh is by no means so delicate as that of the 

 species just mentioned, for it has usually a fishy taste, and is rarely tender, 

 although many persons consider it good. They are sold at all seasons in the 

 markets of Charleston, at about twenty-five cents the pair. 



Rambling birds of this species are sometimes seen as far as the neighbour- 

 hood of Boston; for my learned friend Thomas Nuttall says in his Ma- 

 nual, that "they get so remarkably fat, at times, as to burst the skin in falling 

 to the ground, and are then superior in flavour to almost any other game bird 

 of the season. In the market of Boston, they are seen as early as the 8th of 

 August." I found them rare in East Florida in winter and spring. They 

 were^there seen either on large savannahs, or along the sea-shore, mixed with 

 marbled Godwits, Tell-tales, and other species. 



Long-billed Curlew, Numenius longirostris , Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. viii. p. 23. 



Numenius longirostris, Bonap. Syn., p. 314. 



Nomenius longirostris, Long-billed Curlew, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. 



p. 376. 

 Long-billed Curlew, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 94. 

 Long-billed Curlew, Numenius longirostris, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 240; vol. v. 



p. 587. 



