LONG-BILLED CURLEW. 
II9 
the North only separate into solitary pairs, and disperse them- 
selves through the vast wilds of the interior of North America. 
The Long-billed Curlews fly high and rapidly, generally 
throwing themselves, when in company, into an angular wedge, 
after the manner of Wild Geese, uttering, as they fly, and when 
at all alarmed, a loud, short, whistling, and almost barking 
note, sometimes, as in other species of the family, strongly re- 
sembling the sibilation of the word kurlew, and whence they 
derive their characteristic name, which has been adopted into 
so many of the European languages. By a dexterous imitation 
of this note a whole flock may sometimes be enticed within gun- 
shot ; and the cries of the wounded continue the sympathetic 
enticement, while the fowler, repeating his shots, carries havoc 
among the quailing throng. Their food consists principally 
of insects, worms, and small crabs. The young and old also, 
on their arrival from the North, where they feed on various 
kinds of berries, still continue their fondness for this kind of 
food, and now frequent the uplands and pastures in quest of 
the fruit of the bramble, particularly dewberries, on which they 
get so remarkably fat at times as to burst the skin in falling to 
the ground, and are then superior in flavor to almost any other 
game-bird of the season. In the market of Boston they are 
seen as early as the 8th of August, having already raised their 
krood and proceeded thus far towards their winter- quarters. 
The Sickle-bill is an. abundant bird from the Pacific to the Mis- 
sissippi ; but eastward of that river it is common only in the South- 
ern States and around the Great Lakes; while in New England it 
is quite rare, and occurs chiefly during the autumn migration. In 
the West it ranges to the Saskatchewan valley, about latitude 55°; 
but on the Atlantic it has not been taken north of Baie de Chaleur, 
On the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 
Our Eastern birds probably raise their broods in the region ly- 
ing immediately south of Hudson Bay, and then journey eastward 
through the valleys of the St, Lawrence and its tributaries until 
teaching the sea, along which the birds proceed to their winter 
quarters in the West Indies. 
Mr. George A. Boardman heard a report several years ago that 
this species had been discovered breeding on Prince Edward’s 
Island; but this has not been confirmed by recent observations. 
