46 
LONG-BILLED CURLEW. 
what resembling certain ducks, occasionally uttering their 
loud whistling note, by a dexterous imitation of which a whole 
flock may sometimes be enticed within gunshot, while the cries 
of the wounded are sure to detain them until the gunner has 
made repeated shots and great havoc among them. 
This species is said to breed in Labrador, and in the neigh- 
bourhood of Hudson’s Bay. A few instances have been known 
of one or two pairs remaining in the salt marshes of Cape May 
all summer. A person of respectability informed me, that he 
once started a curlew from her nest, which was composed of a 
little dry grass, and contained four eggs, very much resembling 
in size and colour those of the mud hen, or clapper rail. This 
was in the month of July. Cases of this kind are so rare, that 
the northern regions must be considered as the general breed- 
ing place of this species. 
The long-billed curlew is twenty-five inches in length, and 
three feet three inches in extent, and, when in good order, 
weighs about thirty ounces ; but individuals differ greatly in 
this respect : the bill is eight inches long, nearly straight for 
half its length, thence curving considerably downwards to its 
extremity, where it ends in an obtuse knob that overhangs the 
lower mandible ; the colour black, except towards the base of 
the lower, where it is of a pale flesh-colour ; tongue, extremely 
short, differing in this from the snipe ; eye, dark ; the general 
colour of the plumage above is black, spotted and barred along 
the edge of each feather with pale brown ; chin, line over the 
eye and round the same, pale brownish white ; neck, reddish 
brown, streaked with black ; spots on the breast more sparingly 
dispersed ; belly, thighs, and vent, pale plain rufous, without 
any spots ; primaries, black on the outer edges, pale brown on 
the inner, and barred with black ; shaft of the outer one, snowy ; 
rest of the wing, pale reddish brown, elegantly barred with 
undulating lines of black ; tail, slightly rounded, of an ashy 
brown, beautifully marked with herring bones of black ; legs 
and naked thighs, very pale light blue, or lead colour, the 
middle toe connected with the two outer ones as far as the first 
