322 
ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 
stomach of this species is lined with an extremely thick skin, feeling 
to the touch like the rough hardened palm of a sailor or blacksmith. 
The intestines are very tender, measuring usually about three feet in 
length, and as thick as a Swan's quill. On the front, under the skin, 
there are two thick callosities, which border the upper side of the eye, 
lying close to the skull. These are common, I believe, to most of the 
Tringa and Scolopax tribes, and are probably designed to protect the 
skull from injury while the bird is probing and scratching in the sand 
and mud. 
Note. — This species was observed by Lewis and Clark as high up as 
the sources of the Missouri. On the twenty-second June they found 
the females were sitting : the eggs, which are of a pale blue, with black 
specks, were laid upon the bare ground. Hist, of the JSxped. vol. I., p. 
279, Svo. 
Species II. N. BOREALIS* 
ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 
[Plate LVI. Fig. 1.] 
Ard. Zool. p. 461, No. 304.— Lath, hi.— Turt. S>/st. p. 392. 
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 magazine of nature, invite our attention ; and from their singulari- 
ties 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 together, the peculiarities of each will appear more conspicu- 
ous 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 continent, Mr. 
Pennant, indeed, conceives it to be a mere variety of the English 
Whimbrel (>S. Phceoj?us) ; but among the great numbers 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 
Wilson erroneously arranged this in the following genus, Scolopax. 
