The Hudsonian Curlew 
247 
Nest and 
Eggs 
November. As with all the shore-birds, the early flights are composed 
dmost entirely of adult birds, and the flights of young birds follow, on an 
Lverage, about a month later. 
The Pacific Coast flights occur on corresponding dates. The early 
fights of adults reach California about the middle of July; and on the 
oast of Peru they make their appearance early in August. Young birds 
ire common about Nome, Alaska, until the first of September, when 
arge numbers are brought into the markets, with a few Bristle-thighed 
urlews. 
Very little seems to be known about the nesting habits of the Hud- 
>onian Curlew. Mr. MacFarlane found them breeding on the treeless 
A.rctic tundra near the mouth of the Anderson River, where he took 
several sets of eggs late in June and early in July; the nests were merely 
depressions in the ground lined with a few withered leaves. J. O. 
Stringer described a nest found on an island in the 
lower Mackenzie River, as a pile of grass, moss, and 
weeds. Joseph Grinnell reported this species as 
breeding in the Kowak Valley, Alaska, between June 14 and 20, 1899. 
The eggs vary in color from creamy drab to brownish buff, and are 
more or less heavily spotted with various shades of brown. Young birds 
in the fall may be distinguished from adults by their shorter bills, and 
by the conspicuous buff spots on the upper parts. 
The Hudsonian Curlew is more of a littoral species than either of 
the others, and seems to prefer to frequent and feed on the seacoast. 
At low tide it resorts to the recently uncovered flats and beaches, where 
it can pick up marine insects, worms, and small crustaceans. George 
H. Mackay says of its feeding habits in Massachusetts : “The Hudsonian 
Curlew is a tide bird, frequenting the sand flats near the edge of the water, 
when they become uncovered, and resorting to marshes and uplands 
when driven from the former by the in-coming tide. 
They feed on fiddler crabs, grasshoppers, and the large 
gray sand-spiders {Lycosa) which live in holes in the 
sand amo'ng the beach-grass adjacent to headlands; huckleberries, which 
they pick from the bushes ; and on beetles. All this is usually mixed 
with coarse gravel. 
When a flock of these birds is on the ground where they have been 
feeding, they become scattered, twenty-five or thirty birds covering fifteen 
or twenty yards apiece. At such times they do not appear to be par- 
ticularly active, moving about in a rather slow, stately manner, although 
once in a while I have seen them run.” On their inland resorts they 
prefer to frequent the shores of lakes, ponds, and marshes, but are fre- 
quently seen on the upland pastures, feeding on grasshoppers, beetles, 
or berries. 
The flight of the Hudsonian Curlew is rather slow and steady, but 
strong and protracted. When migrating, they usually fly high in the air 
in small flocks, much after the manner of ducks and geese. During the 
spring migration on the coast of South Carolina, they congregate in im- 
Gathering 
Food 
