ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 505 
mence their great periodical journeys, they congregate in large 
flocks, rise to a great height, and extend themselves into a 
vast line: whilst thus travelling onward, they keep up an 
almost incessant whistling, carefully waiting for each other. 
These companies only separate during the breeding season. 
In captivity, though they may linger for weeks or months, 
they seem to perish at last from the continued operation of 
melancholy and want of proper food. 
Their food is chiefly animal, and in a great degree marine. 
They prey indifferently upon worms, insects, mollusca, crus- 
tacea, and occasionally small fish, and are very dexterous in 
probing the mud with their long, soft, and slender bill, and 
pulling out of their holes small shellfish and crabs. In sum- 
mer, however, they are very fond of berries, especially those 
of Rubus trivialis, or dewberries, and Hmpetrum nigrum, on 
which they soon fatten. 
The spring is their season for breeding, and the northern 
regions the place they prefer for this purpose. They are mono- 
gamous, lay four or five pyriform eggs, which are deposited 
with little art on a few bits of reeds or grass, placed in the 
midst of tufts, or in small bushes, for shelter ; sometimes they 
are merely dropped in sandholes, or on wild open shores. 
Both sexes sit on the eggs; but the young receive little atten- 
tion from their parents, and almost as soon as hatched pro- 
vide for themselves without requiring their assistance. 
This genus, though by no means numerous in species, is 
not confined to any particular region of either continent, but 
is distributed everywhere along the shores, from the frozen 
regions of the north to those of the south pole, and they appear 
also in the torrid zone in winter. Their migrations may be 
traced from north to south according to the seasons. ‘They pass 
the winter in our temperate regions, generally returning in 
May from the south, and in September from the north. In 
the economy of nature, these birds seem to be of some im- 
portance in preventing the superabundant multiplication of 
numerous marine animals, thus assisting to maintain the 
