SC0L0PACID2E — THE SNIPE FAMILY — NUMENIUS. 
315 
very uniformly distributed over the whole surface, and consisting of rather small 
blotches, longitudinal in direction, and of a burnt-umber tint. In others (S. I. No. 
5117) the ground-color is a pearly white, with a shading of cream, covered with large 
blotches of an ashy lilac, these being overlain by smaller and deeper spots of burnt- 
umber. These eggs vary from 2.70 to 2.90 inches in length, and from 1.78 to 1.92 
inches in breadth. 
Numenius Hudsonicus. 
THE HUDSONIAN CURLEW. 
Scolopax borealis, Gmel. S. N. I. 1788, 654 (nec Forster, 3 772). — Wils. Am. Orn. YII. 1813, 22, 
pi. 56, fig. 1. 
Numenius borealis, Ord, ed. Wilson, 1825. — Brewer, ed. Wilson, 1840, 473 (excl. syn.). 
Numenius Iludsonicus, Lath. Ind. Orn. II. 1790, 712 (based on Esquimaux Curlew, Arct. Zool. II. 
461, no. 364, pi. 19, and Hudsonian Curlew, Latii. Syn. Suppl. YII. 243). — Sw. & Rich. 
F. B. A. II. 1831, 377. —Nutt. Man. II. 1834, 97. — Aud. Orn. Biog. III. 1835, 283; V. 
1839, 589, pi. 237 ; Synop. 1839, 254 ; B. Am. VI. 1843, 42, pi. 356. — Cass, in Baird’s B. N. 
Am. 1858, 744. — Baird, Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 550. — Coues, Key, 1872, 262; Check 
List, 1873, no. 442 ; 2d ed. 1882, no. 645 ; Birds N. W. 1874, 509. — Ridgw. Nom. N. Am. 
B. 1881, no. 559. 
Numenius intermedins, Nutt. Man. II. 1834, 100. 
Numenius rufiventris, VlG. Zool. Jour. IV. 1829, 356. 
“Numenius brasiliensis, Maxim, et Burm.” (Sclater). 
Hab. The whole of America, including the West Indies ; breeds in the high north, and 
winters chiefly south of the United States. Greenland. 
Sp. Char. Adult : Crown dark sooty brown, divided longitudinally by a mesial stripe of buff » 
a narrow dusky stripe on side of head, from bill to anterior angle of the eye, continued back beneath 
the eye and along upper edge of auriculars, separated from the dusky of the crown by a wide, well- 
defined superciliary stripe of light buff. Rest of head and neck, and entire lower parts, light buff, 
the chin, throat, and abdomen immaculate, other portions, including cheeks, entire neck, jugulum, 
and breast, marked with linear streaks of dark brown ; axillars pinkish buff or dilute cinnamon, 
barred with dark brown. Upper parts spotted with dark sooty brown and light buff, the latter 
prevailing on the wing-coverts, the former on the back ; rump and upper tail-coverts similarly 
spotted ; primaries dusky, the inner quills spotted with buff. 
Wing, 9.00-10.25 ; culmen, 3.00-4.00 ; tarsus, 2.25-2.30 ; middle toe, 1.35-1.40. 
This species, generally known to sportsmen as the Jack Curlew or Short-billed 
Curlew, and to ornithologists as the Hudsonian Curlew, is very generally distributed 
throughout North America, being found both on the Pacific and the Atlantic coast, 
