( So ) 



GENUS IV. CURLEW. 



Bill, long, flender, incurvated. 



Face, covered with feathers. 



Nostrils, linear, longitudinal, near the bafe of the bill. 



Tongue, fhort, {harp-pointed. 



Toes, connected as far as the firft joint by a ftrong membrane. 



SPECIES I. COMMON CURLEW. 



PI. 154. 



Scolopax arquata. Lin. Syji. I. p. 242. 

 Le Courly. Brif. Orn. V. p. 311. 



The ufual length of this bird is about two feet, but it is apt to differ conft- 

 derably in weight and fize, fome weighing thirty-feven ounces, others not 

 twenty-two ; the bill alfo varies much in its length, though it is commonly 

 about feven inches. The bill is of a dark colour, inclining to black near the 

 end: the plumage of the head, neck, and wing coverts, is of a pale brown, 

 each feather ftreaked with black down the fhaft : about the eye, white : back, 

 white ftreaked with black : breaft, and belly, white, marked with narrow 

 lines of black: the quill feathers, black, but the inner webs fpotted with 

 white : the tail, reddifh white, barred with black : the legs, long, ftrong, and 

 of a bluifh grey colour : the bottoms of the toes, fiat and broad. 



The female is not unlike the male. 



This fpecies is common in England, and frequents, for the moft part, the 

 fens, and parts bordering on the fea, but breeds in the more elevated places, 

 laying four eggs on the ground. For the egg fee PI. XXXV. Fig. 1. 



