ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 
121 
well marked by their much shorter and straighter bill. They 
moult but once during the year, and late in the season. We have 
detected a clue to the species in the medial line of the crown, 
the colour of the rump and of the under wing-coverts and long 
axillary feathers. 
The Curlews are mute, timid, shy and wary. They frequent 
and seek their food in salt marshes, and along muddy coasts and 
inlets, where at low water they may be observed in company 
with other Waders on the mud flats, or at high water roaming 
along the marshes. They but seldom alight on wet sands, and 
only when muddy shores are not to be found; always preferring 
such on account of their flexible bill. They seldom desert the 
salt water, and are very rarely met with inland, at a distance 
from the sea or large rivers: during summer, however, they often 
frequent dry fields in search of berries. They run swiftly, being 
much upon the ground: their flight is high, very rapid, and long 
sustained. The voice of the Curlews is loud and whistling: 
when about to commence their great periodical journies they 
congregate in large flocks, rise to a great height, and extend 
themselves into a vast line : whilst thus travelling onward, they 
keep up an almost incessant whistling, carefully waiting for 
each other. These companies only separate during the breeding 
season. In captivity, though they may linger for weeks or 
months, they seem to perish at last from the continued operation 
of melancholy and want of proper food. 
Their food is chiefly animal, and in a great degree marine. 
They prey indifferently upon worms, insects, mollusca, Crustacea, 
and occasionally small fish, and are very dexterous in probing 
the mud with their long, soft and slender bill, and pulling out of 
their holes small shell-fish and crabs. In summer, however, they 
are very fond of berries, especially those of Rubus trivialis or 
Dewberries, and Empetrum nigrum, on which they soon fatten. 
VOL. iv.— h h 
