ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 493 
as pertaining to the next species. The birds spoken of by Dr. Kirtland 
are N. hudsonicus, Latham, which he calls Hsquimaux Curlew. There has 
been confusion in regard to this and the next species, both the scientific 
and common names having been transposed by several writers. Mr. Win- 
slow, in a list of birds of this family furnished me in 1861, gives both this 
and the following species as found in the vicinity of Cleveland. I have 
never seen it or known of its capture in this vicinity. It appears to be 
everywhere less numerous than the other members of this genus. 
The eggs of the Hudsonian Curlew are always larger than those of the 
following species but cannot be distinguished from them with certainty, — 
by any other character. They measure from 2.12 to 2.30 in length, in 
width about 1.60. 
NUMENIUS BOREALIS (Forst.) Lath. 
Kisquimaux Curlew. 
Numenius borealis, WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 380, 480; Reprint, 1861, 11. 
Food of Birds, etc, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 573; Reprint, 1875, 13.—LANGDON, 
Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 15; Revised List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 183; — 
Reprint, 17. 
Scolopax borealis, Forsr=rR, Philos. Trans, lxii, 1772, 411. 
Numenius borealis, LATHAM, Ind. Orn., ii, 1790, 712. 
Bill small, under 3 inches long; length, 12-15 inches; wing, under 9; tail, 3; tarsus, 
2, Plumage in tone and pattern almost exactly as in the last species, but averaging 
more rufous, especially under the wings, and primaries not barred. 
Habitat, North and Middle America. Not recorded west of the Rocky Mountains. 
Alaska. Breeds within the Arctic Circle. Migratory though the United States, where 
rarely if ever observed in winter, never to breed. HExtraordinarily abundant in 
Labrador in August. Winters in Middle and South America. No West Indian record. 
Accidental in Europe. 
Not common spring and fall migrant. Mr. Winslow gives it as not 
rare in the vicinity of Cleveland. Mr. Langdon, states on the authority 
of Mr. Shorten, that a specimen was taken in the vicinity of Cincinati, 
in September, 1878. In this vicinity of this city it is very rare; I have 
seen a single specimen accompanying a flock of Golden Plover, in 
autumn, several years since. | 
Dr. Coues (Pr. Phila Acad. Nat. Sci., 1861, 286), gives the following 
observations of their habits in Labrador: 
‘¢The Curlews associate in flocks of every size, from three to as many thousand, but 
they generally fly in so loose and straggling a manner that it is rare to kill more than 
half a dozen at a shot. When they wheel, however, in any of theirmany beautiful 
evolutions, they close together in a more compact body, and offer a more favorable op 
portunity to the gunner. Their flight is firm, direct, very swift, when necessary much 
