LONG-BILLED CURLEW. 44 1 



uplands in search of this fruit, on which they get very fat, and 

 are then tender and good eating, altogether free from the sedgy 

 taste with which their flesh is usually tainted while they feed 

 in the salt marshes. 



The curlews fly high, generally in a wedge-like form, some- 

 what resembling certain ducks, occasionally uttering their 

 loud whistling note, by a dexterous imitation of which a whole 

 flock may sometimes be enticed within gunshot, while the cries 

 of the wounded are sure to detain them until the gunner has 

 made repeated shots and great havoc among them. 



This species is said to breed in Labrador, and in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Hudson's Bay. A few instances have been known 

 of one or two pairs remaining in the salt marshes of Cape May 

 all summer. A person of respectability informed me that he 

 once started a curlew from her nest, which was composed of a 

 little dry grass, and. contained four eggs, very much resembling 

 in size and colour those of the mud-hen, or clapper rail. This 

 was in the month of July. Cases of this kind are so rare, that 

 the northern regions must be considered as the general breed- 

 ing place of this species. 



The long-billed curlew is twenty-five inches in length, and 

 three feet three inches in extent, and, when in good order, 

 weighs about thirty ounces, but individuals differ greatly in 

 this respect ; the bill is eight inches long, nearly straight for 

 half its length, thence curving considerably downwards to its 

 extremity, where it ends in an obtuse knob that overhangs the 

 lower mandible ; the colour black, except towards the base of 

 the lower, where it is of a pale flesh colour ; tongue, extremely 

 short, differing in this from the snipe ; eye, dark ; the general 

 colour of the plumage above is black, spotted and barred along 

 the edge of each feather with pale brown ; chin, line over the 

 eye and round the same, pale brownish white ; neck, reddish 

 brown, streaked with black ; spots on the breast more sparingly 

 dispersed ; belly, thighs, and vent, pale plain rufous, without 

 any spots ; primaries, black on the outer edges, pale brown on 

 the inner, and barred with black ; shaft of the outer one,. 



