22 



ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 

 SCOLOPAX BOREALIS. 

 [Plate LVL— Fig. 1.] 



ArcL ZqoI. p, 461, JVo. 364.-— Lath. Ill Tukt. Syst. p. 392.--Peale's Museum, J\*o. 4003. 



IN prosecuting our researches among the feathered tribes of 

 this extensive country, we are at length led to the shores of the 

 ocean, where a numerous and varied multitude, subsisting on the 

 gleanings of that vast watery magazine of nature, invite our at- 

 tention; and from their singularities and numbers, promise both 

 amusement and instruction. These we shall, as usual, introduce 

 in the order we chance to meet with them in their native haunts. 

 Individuals of various tribes, thus promiscuously grouped toge- 

 ther, the peculiarities of each will appear more conspicuous and 

 striking, and the detail of their histories less formal as well as more 

 interesting. 



The Esquimaux Curlew, or as it is called by our gunners on 

 the sea-coast, the Short-billed Curlew, is peculiar to the new con- 

 tinent. Mr. Pennant, indeed, conceives it to be a mere variety of 

 the English Whimbrel (S. Phseopus); but among the great num- 

 bers of these birds which I have myself shot and examined, I have 

 never yet met with one corresponding to the descriptions given of 

 the Whimbrel^ the colors and markings being different, the bill 

 much more bent, and nearly an inch and a half longer ; and the 

 manners in certain particulars very different: these reasons have 

 determined its claim to that of an independent species. 



The Short-billed Curlew arrives in large flocks on the sea- 

 coast of New Jersey early in May from the south, frequent the 

 salt marshes, muddy shores and inlets, feeding on small worms 



