44 
LONG-BILLED CURLEW. 
strong ; the hind toe seems rarely or never to reach the hard 
ground, though it may probably assist in preventing the bird 
from sinking too deep in the mire. 
LONG-BILLED CURLEW NUMENIUS LONGIROSTRIS. 
Plate LXIV. Fig. 4. 
Peale's Museum, No. 3910. 
yNVMEUITJS Wilson.* 
Numenius longirostris, Bonap. Synop. p. 314. — North. Zool. ii. p. 376. 
This American species has been considered by the naturalists 
of Europe to be a mere variety of their own, notwithstanding 
* Wilson had the merit of distinguishing and separating this species from the 
common curlew of Europe, and giving it the appropriate name of longirostris, 
from the extraordinary length of the bill. It will fill in America the place of 
the common curlew in this country, and appears to have the same manners, 
frequenting the sea-shores in winter, and the rich dry prairies during the 
breeding season. Numenius ar quota, the British prototype of N. longirostris, 
during the breeding season, is entirely an inhabitant of the upland moors and 
sheep pastures, and in the soft and dewy mornings of May and June forms 
an object in their early solitude, which adds to their wildness. At first dawn, 
when nothing can be seen but rounded hills of rich and green pasture, ri- 
sing one beyond another, with perhaps an extensive meadow between, looking 
more boundless by the mists and shadows of morn, a long string of sheep march- 
ing off at a sleepy pace on their well-beaten track to some more favourite feeding 
ground, the shrill tremulous call of the curlew to his mate has something in it 
wild and melancholy, yet always pleasing to the associations. In such situations 
do they build, making almost no nest, and, during the commencement of their 
amours, run skulkingly among the long grass and rushes, the male rising and 
sailing round, or descending with the wings closed above his back, and uttering 
his peculiar quavering whistle. The approach of an intruder requires more de- 
monstration of his powers, and he approaches near, buffeting and whauping with 
all his might. When the young are hatched, they remain near the spot, and are 
for a long time difficult to raise ; a pointer will stand and road them, and at this 
time they are tender and well- flavoured. By autumn, they are nearly all dispersed 
to the sea-coasts, and have now lost their clear whistle. They remain here until 
next spring, feeding at low tide on the shore, and retiring for a few miles to inland 
fields at high water ; on their return again at the ebb, they show a remarkable in- 
stance of the instinctive knowledge implanted in, and most conspicuous in the 
