THE SLENDER-BILLED CURLEW. 



8th 43-53 shorter. Longest inner secondary between 5th and 7th 

 primaries. Bill short, slender, tapering to a point, decurved, nasal 

 groove and faint groove in lower mandible extending to one -third 

 from tip. Other structure as Cur lev/ but regular scutes on front 

 of tarsus extend further up tarsus towards tibio-tarsal joint. 



Soft parts. — Bill black ; legs and feet dark slate ; iris brown. 

 Characters. — No subspecies. Small size, black-brown upper -parts 

 tinged olive and plentifully notched pink-buff, together with 

 uniform primaries with scarcely a trace of barring distinguish this 

 from other species of Numenius. 



Breeding-habits. — Haunts barren grounds of north-west Canada. 

 Nest. — Mere hollow in tundra. Eggs. — Normally 4, sometimes 3 

 only, pyriform, ground pale ashy-green or olive-drab, spotted and 

 blotched with brown. Average of 8 eggs, 52.1x36.8. Max.: 

 57.1x38 and 54x39.5. Min. : 48.7x35.7 and 51x34.6 mm. 

 Breeding -season. — Latter part June and early July. Incubation. — 

 No details. Single brooded. 



Pood. — Insects and their larvse, especially diptera and fresh -water 

 insects, small univalve moliusca, and large numbers of crowberries 

 (Empetrum nigrum). 



Distribution. — British Isles. — Seven or eight. One Sept. 6, 1855, 

 and one Sept. 21, 1880, Kincardine. One Sept, 29, 1879, Aberdeen. 

 Two Nov., 1852, near Woodbridge (Suffolk), and one alleged 

 R. Aide (Suffolk) prior to 1870. One Sept. 10, 1887, Scilly Isles. 

 One Dublin Market, Oct., 1870, alleged from Sligo (Saunders 

 p. 631). 



Distribution. — Abroad. — L T sed to breed on Barren Grounds of 

 north Mackenzie in arctic America, passing through United States 

 and wintering in S. America from Galapagos Islands and Chile to 

 Brazil, Argentina, and Patagonia. Also recorded from Greenland, 

 Pribylof Is., Bermuda, and Falkland Islands ; flock observed on 

 coast of Tchuktchi-land in August. Has become very rare, not 

 observed since 1915, and feared to have become extinct. 



NUMENIUS TENUIROSTRI3 



427. Numenius tenuirostris Vieill. — THE SLENDER-BILLED 

 CURLEW. 



Numenius tenuirostris Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., nouv. ed., 



viii, p. 302 (1817— Egypt). 



Numenius tenuirostris Vieill. M. J. Nicoll, Brit. B., v, p. 124. 



Description. — Adult male and female. Winter. — Very similar to 

 Curlew but crown and nape paler, feathers of fore -head and nape 

 edged white or light buff, those of crown more broadly margined 

 whitish or pink-buff ; mantle and scapulars paler, some scapulars 

 shading to white at edge ; back and rump white ; upper tail- 

 coverts and lower -rump white with shaft-lines, oval spots and 



