506 ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 
equilibrium and preserve the harmony of the animal king- 
dom, as the flycatching birds serve to check the too great 
increase of land insects. It is perhaps on this account that 
they are so generally diffused. In relation to man they appear 
to be of no less importance, since, without being delicious, 
their flesh is very palatable, and even, when they have fed and 
fattened on berries, tender and excellent meat: when their 
nourishment has been derived from the sea, it is much inferior. 
They are pursued both in Europe and America in various 
ways, and brought in numbers to the city markets. In some 
districts their eggs are much sought after, but those of other 
aquatic birds are mixed with them, and offered for sale under 
the same name. 
Wherever the curlews may be classed by ornithologists, 
their rank in the system of nature is at the head of the family 
Limicole, which they connect with the Falcati. Their linear 
place, therefore, is between the genera /bis of the latter and 
Tringa of their own family: species of the latter genus are 
so closely related to them, as almost to fluctuate between the 
two genera. There is a striking affinity on the one hand be- 
tween some species of Jbis and Numenius, and on the other 
between the smaller Vumeniw and Tring with slightly curved 
bills, such as ZYringa subarquata, and also those with semi- 
palmated feet, but especially when they combine both these 
characters, as our new Tringa himantopus. In their own very 
natural family, the curlews are more immediately related to 
Tringa and Limosa, both in aspect and manners. The genus 
Scolopax we do not consider as approaching them within 
several degrees. 
Cuvier had attempted to divide this genus into two inde- 
pendent subgenera, but unsuccessfully, and they must be relin- 
quished even as sections, inasmuch as the characters on which 
they are based have no existence in nature, as he has since 
virtually acknowledged by omitting all mention of the group 
Pheopus in his new edition of the “ Régne Animal.” This is, 
in fact, one of those very natural small genera which do not 
