ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 
315 
delicious. They arrive at Hudson’s Bay in April, or early in 
May; pair and breed to the north of Albany Fort among the 
woods ; return in August to the marshes, and all disappear in 
September.” * About this time they return in accumulated 
numbers to the shores of New Jersey, whence they finally 
depart for the south early in November. 
The Esquimaux Curlew is eighteen inches long, and thirty- 
two inches in extent ; the bill, which is four inches and a half 
long, is black towards the point, and a pale purplish flesh 
colour near the base ; upper part of the head, dark brown, 
divided by a narrow stripe of brownish white ; over each eye 
extends a broad line of pale drab ; iris, dark coloured ; hind 
part of the neck, streaked with dark brown ; fore part and 
whole breast, very pale brown ; upper part of the body, pale 
drab, centered and barred with dark brown, and edged with 
spots of white on the exterior vanes; three first primaries, 
black, with white shafts ; rump and tail-coverts, barred with 
dark brown ; belly, white ; vent, the same, marked with zigzag 
lines of brown ; whole lining of the wing, beautifully barred 
with brown, on a dark cream ground ; legs and naked thighs, 
a pale lead colour. 
The figure of this bird, and of all the rest on the same plate, 
are reduced to exactly one-half the size of life. 
[Mr Ord adds, in his reprint, “ I have some doubts whether 
or not this species is the Esquimaux Curlew (N. borealis) of 
Dr Latham ; as this ornithologist states his bird to be only 
thirteen inches in length, and in breadth twenty-one ; whilst 
that above described is eighteen inches long, and thirty-two 
in breadth. Besides, Latham’s species has a bill of two inches 
in length, and the bill of mine is four inches and a half long. 
I am aware, however, that the bills of some birds increase 
greatly with age ; and if it should turn out hereafter that the 
two birds are identical, the specimen from which Latham took 
his description must have been quite immature.”] 
* Arct. Zool. vol. ii. p. 163. Phil. Trans, lxii. 411. 
