mm 
i . .. 
ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 
It is but half the size of the species that has usurped its name 
of Short-billed, being hardly fourteen inches in length, and twenty- 
four in breadth. The bill is no more than two and a half inches 
long, but little arched, remarkably slender, blackish, the lower 
mandible rufous at base: the head is pale, with longitudinal 
lines of brown: the forehead is deep brown, with pale spots ; 
although there is no medial line, it is somewhat indicated by 
yellowish marks on that part: the eyebrows and chin are whitish: 
the neck, breast, belly and vent are rufous-white, the two first 
dashed with brown streaks and arrowheads, and a few slender 
streaks on the vent: the feathered parts of the thighs are rufous- 
white, spotted with brown ; the sides under the wings, rufous, 
transversely fasciated with brown: the back is of a deep brown, the 
feathers margined with yellowish-gray in a serrated manner, and 
the croupe is uniform with the rest. The wings are long, reaching 
much beyond the tail; they are brown; the shafts of the prime 
quills are white; the secondaries and lesser coverts margined 
with gray: the lower coverts, as well as the long axillary feathers, 
are ferruginous banded with brown: the rump is brown, the 
feathers edged and spotted with whitish. The tail is short, 
brown-ash crossed with darker bands, and slightly edged with 
whitish. The legs are bluish black; the tarsus is one and 
three-quarter inches long. The female is perfectly similar to the 
male, except a very little inferiority in size. 
This exclusively American bird is widely spread throughout 
both sections of the new continent, being traced from the fens 
of Hudson’s Bay in the extreme north, to the warm climates of 
Brasil, Monte Video, and Paraguay, a circumstance which, how¬ 
ever recently observed, or extraordinary, is often repeated with 
the Waders that are peculiar to America. D’Azara informs us 
that in Paraguay this species makes its passage in the month of 
September, and keeps in the open champaigns, either wet or dry, 
VOL. iv. —i i 
