508 ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 
with the remainder of the plumage, and the latter rust col- 
oured. 
The true Esquimaux curlew (we say the ¢rwe, for it is neither 
the Esquimaux curlew of Wilson nor of the “Arctic Zoology”) is 
one of the four species that are destitute of the medial coronal 
line. It is easily known from the large species by its diminu- 
tive size; from the small ones, by wanting the white rump; from 
all, by its very short bill. 
It is but half the size of the species that has usurped its 
name of short-billed, being hardly fourteen inches in length, 
and twenty-four in breadth. The bill is no more than two 
and a half inches long, but little arched, remarkably slender, 
blackish, the lower mandible rufous at base: the head is pale, 
with longitudinal lines of brown: the forehead is deep brown, 
with pale spots : although there is no medial line, it is some- 
what indicated by yellowish marks on that part: the eye- 
brows and chin are whitish ; the neck, breast, belly, and vent 
are rufous white, the two first dashed with brown streaks and 
arrowheads, and a few slender streaks on the vent: the 
feathered parts of the thighs are rufous-white, spotted with 
brown; the sides under the wings, rufous, transversely fas- 
ciated with brown: the back is of a deep brown, the feathers 
margined with yellowish grey in a serrated manner, and the 
croup is uniform with the rest. The wings are long, reach- 
ing much beyond the tail ; they are brown: the shafts of the 
prime quills are white; the secondaries and lesser coverts 
margined with grey: the lower coverts, as well as the long 
axillary feathers, are ferruginous banded with brown: the 
rump is brown, the feathers edged and spotted with whitish. 
The tail is short, brown ash, crossed with darker bands, and 
slightly edged with whitish. ‘The legs are bluish black ; the 
tarsus is one and three-quarter incheslong. 'The female is per- 
fectly similar to the male, except a very little inferiority in size. 
This exclusively American bird is widely spread throughout 
both sections of the new continent, being traced from the fens 
of Hudson’s Bay, in the extreme north, to the warm climates 
