Chapter C: W. Wickersham (1902) has described the food and the feeding habits

of the long-billed curlew very well as follows:

Crawfish, small crabs, snails, periwinkles, toads, worms,
larvae, grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, caterpillars when
found on the ground, spiders, flies, butterflies, and
berries, especially dewberries, all play minor or major
parts in their diet. The worms, larvae, etc., are pulled
out of the ground by the long bill, the end of which may
act as a finger having separate muscles to control it, and
often it is sunk into the ground as far as it will go to
reach some unwilling victim. The crustaceans are taken
on the beach, or, discovered beneath the surface by the
probing bill, are pulled out and eaten. The berries are
neatly picked off the bushes, while butterflies and other
insects are taken on the wing.

_Behavior._--Except on their breeding grounds, where they are concerned in the welfare of their eggs or young, long-billed curlews are exceedingly wary; when a flock is feeding, one or more birds usually stand as sentinels, and at their cry of warning the whole flock raise their wings and make off. Their flight is a bit erratic or snipelike at first, but when well under way it is strong and steady. While migrating or traveling for long distances they often fly high in the air in wedge-shaped flocks, uttering occasionally their loud, whistling notes. When alighting they drop nearly to the ground, make a graceful upward sweep, and check their speed with a flash of cinnamon wings. They walk gracefully and swiftly on land and can swim if necessary.

The night roosting habits are well described by Audubon (1840), who saw them at their best in South Carolina. He writes:

The long-billed curlew spends the day in the sea marshes,
from which it returns at the approach of night to the sandy
beaches of the seashores, where it rests until dawn. As the
sun sinks beneath the horizon the curlews rise from their
feeding grounds in small parties, seldom exceeding 15 or
20, and more usually composed of only 5 or 6 individuals.
The flocks enlarge, however, as they proceed, and in the
course of an hour or so the number of birds that collect
in the place selected for their nightly retreat sometimes
amounts to several thousands. As it was my good fortune
to witness their departures and arrivals, in the company
of my friend, Bachman, I will here describe them. The sun
at length sunk beneath the water line that here formed
the horizon, and we saw the birds making their first
appearance. They were in small parties of 2, 3, or 5, and
by no means shy. These seemed to be the birds which we had
observed near the salt marshes as we were on our way. As
the twilight became darker the number of curlews increased,
and the flocks approached in quicker succession until they
appeared to form a continuous procession, moving not in
lines, one after another, but in an extended mass, and with
considerable regularity, at a height of not more than 30
yards, the individuals being a few feet apart. Not a single
note or cry was heard as they advanced. They moved for 10
or more yards with regular flappings, and then sailed for
a few seconds, as is invariably the mode of flight of this
species, their long bills and legs stretched out to their
full extent. They flew directly toward their place of rest,
called the “Bird Banks,” and were seen to alight without
performing any of the evolutions which they exhibit when at
their feeding places, for they had not been disturbed that
season. But when we followed them to the Bird Banks, which
are sandy islands of small extent, the moment they saw us
land the congregated flocks, probably amounting to several
thousand individuals, all standing close together, rose at
once, performed a few evolutions in perfect silence, and
realighted as if with one accord on the extreme margins
of the sand bank close to tremendous breakers. It was now
dark and we left the place, although some flocks were still
arriving. The next morning we returned a little before
day, but again as we landed they all rose a few yards in
the air, separated into numerous parties, and, dispersing
in various directions, flew off toward their feeding
grounds, keeping low over the water until they reached the
shores, when they ascended to the height of about a hundred
yards and soon disappeared.

A similar habit evidently prevails on the prairies, which Mr. Wickersham (1902) describes very well as follows:

As evening falls he becomes restless, his hunting comes to
an end, his bobbing becomes more jerky and more and more
repeated, until with a loud whistle he jumps forward, his
long wings fly out and up and with the first unsteadiness
over he joins the bunch in a long line and betakes his way
with the others toward some distant marsh or pond. On, on
they go; the leader whistles, the others answer, suddenly
they all drop, sweep forward and up a little, and then,
with wings almost meeting above them and legs held daintily
down to break the shock, they all alight. For five minutes
there is no movement, no sound; there are no birds to be
seen where, a moment before, the graceful creatures had
alighted; suddenly there is a little flutter of wings and
before you know it numerous forms have run forward and bent
over the water to noisily quench their thirst. For another
five minutes there is as great a confusion and clamor as
formerly there was order and quiet; wings are fluttering,
hoarse, short cries are arising, feet are pattering up and
down, the water is heavily rippling from the motion of
many bills, and, in a word, all is chaos. One by one the
drinkers cease, calmness is gradually restored, and, after
pluming themselves, the birds draw one leg up under them,
tuck their head under one wing, neatly fold the other, and
sweet slumber reigns.

On its behavior with other species Mr. Silloway (1900) writes:

There is another side to the disposition of the long-billed
curlew, for this spring I was once startled by an unusually
piercing whistle, and looking upward I saw a curlew
swooping angrily upon a ferruginous roughleg that had
chanced to wander over the claimed domain of this pair
of _Numenii_. Time and again the curlew swooped upon the
unoffending _Archibuteo_ as the latter flapped heavily
along the edge of the coulee, and the cliff echoed with the
shrill whistles of the angry curlew. On the other hand, the
long-billed curlews are the victims of petty teasing by
the longspurs which throng the prairie. I have repeatedly
noticed McCown’s longspur (_Rhynchophanes mccownii_)
flutter up beside a curlew, sailing upward, or attempt to
strike the curlew, the latter on such occasions seldom
giving any attention to the petty annoyance mentioned.

E. S. Cameron (1907) says that he has seen nesting curlews make flying attacks at Swainson and marsh hawks, just as the European curlews attack the jaegers.

_Voice._--Long-billed curlews are noisy birds, especially on their breeding grounds. I have recorded their ordinary notes of protest, when near their nests or young, as loud musical whistles, like _quee-hee, quee-hee, quee-hee_, sometimes prolonged into a long, rattling call, _que-he-he-he-he-he_, loud and striking. Sometimes we heard a series of somewhat guttural notes, or a melodious _coy, coy, coy_, somewhat like the autumn gather call of the bobwhite. I have heard them in Texas in the spring give rich, loud, musical notes as they flew, _wheety, wheety, wheety_, very rapidly uttered, opening the bill with each note. Our name “curlew” and the French “curlieu” are probably both derived from one of the commonest and most characteristic calls.

P. A. Taverner (1926) says:

The commonest call note is a clear _pil-will_, so nearly
like that of the willet that it can not always be
distinguished from it. Other notes resemble those of the
upland plover. One especially delightful is a long-drawn
_curl-e-e-e-u-u-u_, sparkling clear and rising in the
middle about five notes, then dying gradually away,
lowering in scale and volume. The entire call lasts about
three seconds of time.

_Field marks._--The long-billed curlew can be easily recognized by its large size, long, curved bill, and cinnamon color. It is much larger than the Hudsonian and much more cinnamon in color, especially in the wings. It is much like the marbled godwit in color, but its curved bill is easily distinguished from the straight bill of the godwit.

_Fall._--I quote again from Mr. Wickersham (1902) as follows:

July is spent in raising the chicks and by the middle or
latter part of August, all is ready for the flight south
to Texas, Mexico, Florida, and the West Indies. Then it
is that we see them in great flocks of hundreds, bobbing
up and down all over the prairie, more nervous than ever;
and then it is that they are least wary at times and at
other times so very wary that it is impossible to approach
them. They are so nervous and upset that they do not seem
to know their own mind and it is at that season of the
year that their antics become almost as ridiculous as they
are just before the breeding season. The day comes when
you stroll out to take notes on the birds that you have
seen by the hundreds the day before only to find that they
have disappeared; not a bird answers your call, no hoarse
screaming betokens your approach; they have gone, gone
far away in long V-like squadrons and, unless you follow
them to their winter home in the southland, you will not
see their familiar forms for many months.

The long-billed curlew is now practically unknown in any of the Eastern States, but it formerly appeared on the Atlantic coast about the middle of July and in the Southern States in early August. It is still quite common in California from the middle of July through September. The main flight goes directly south to Texas and Mexico.

_Game._--Although long since removed from the game-bird list, the “sickle-bill” was a fine game bird. Its large size made it a tempting target. It decoyed readily and could be easily whistled down by imitating its notes. The cries of a wounded bird were sure to attract others, which would circle around again and again until many were killed. For these and other reasons it is well that the much-needed protection came in time to save this fine bird from certain extermination.

Dr. D. G. Elliot (1895) writes:

Once when shooting in Florida, in the vicinity of St.
Augustine, a large flock of these birds passed overhead,
and I brought down some by two shots from my gun. Although
naturally much alarmed, the survivors immediately returned
to their wounded companions, which were calling aloud as
they lay upon the marsh, flying over and around them, with
hanging legs, and uttering answering notes of sympathy,
and approaching nearer and nearer until they were not many
feet above the ground. Repeated discharges of my gun failed
for a time to drive the unwounded birds from the vicinity,
but as each individual fell from the ranks, the rest would
swoop toward it, and with much crying seem to urge it to
rise and follow them. The air was full of rapid-flying
circling birds, each one screaming its best, and it was not
until a considerable number had fallen that the remainder,
convinced at length of the fruitlessness of their efforts,
and the danger present to themselves, departed for a more
secure locality.

_Winter._--The long-billed curlew is still quite common in Texas and Mexico in winter. Mr. Wickersham (1902) says:

After reaching its winter home, the curlew undergoes little
change of habits except in his relation to other birds.
For a few days the big bunches stay together and then they
begin to separate into small bunches of from 2 to 20 birds.
It is rarely that a single one is seen entirely by himself
but two or three feeding together and then, perhaps a mile
off, two or three more and in this way scattered all over
the pastures and prairies is the way we find them in Texas.
They are rarely found in the brush or even in ponds or
swales surrounded by the brush, but far out on the open
prairie or in little mud flats on the larger swales we
rarely miss them. Here they feed all day looking for almost
any form of insectivorous or crustacean life.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--North and Central America, accidental in the West Indies and Newfoundland. Failure to accurately separate the different curlews, particularly on the Atlantic seaboard, causes some uncertainty regarding their general ranges, but _americanus_ is evidently now very rare east of the Mississippi River.

_Breeding range._--The long-billed curlew breeds (at least formerly) north to British Columbia (150-mile House, probably Lac La Hache, and Vernon); Alberta (near Calgary, probably Flagstaff, and Walsh); Saskatchewan (Rush Lake and Quill Lake); Manitoba (Shell River, Aweme, and Pilot Mound); North Dakota (Bathgate and Argusville); and Wisconsin (Ceresco and Racine). East to Wisconsin (Racine); Illinois (formerly Chicago); Iowa (Newton and formerly Ferry); Kansas (Neosho Falls); Oklahoma (Camp Supply and Ivanhoe Lake); and Texas (Houston, Corpus Christi, and Brownsville). South to Texas (Brownsville, and Fort Davis); New Mexico (Fort Sumner, Santa Rosa, Los Pinos, and Fort Wingate); Arizona (Sulphur Springs); Utah (Fairfield, and Skull Valley); Nevada (probably Franklin Lake, Humboldt River, and Truckee Valley); and northern California (Pitt River, Butte Valley, and Eagleville). West to California (Eagleville); Oregon (Fort Klamath, Camp Harney, Haines and Dalles); Washington (Kiona, Yakima, and Wapato Lake); and British Columbia (Okanagan, Vernon, and 150-mile houses).

_Winter range._--The winter range extends north to California (San Rafael and Sacramento Valley); southern Arizona (Pima County); rarely New Mexico (Demning, Santa Rosa, and Carlsbad); Texas (Pecos, San Angelo, Clay County, and Victoria); Louisiana (Vermilion Bay); and formerly South Carolina (Charleston). East to formerly South Carolina (Charleston and Frogmore); Georgia (Savannah, Sapelo Island, and Darien); and Florida (mouth of the St. Johns River, Tarpon Springs, and Fort Myers). South to Florida (Fort Myers); and rarely Guatemala (Duenas, and Chiapan). West to rarely Guatemala (Chiapan); Oaxaca (Juchitan); Jalisco (La Barca); Durango (Rancho Santriario); Lower California (San Jose del Cabo, La Paz, Magdalena Bay, and San Quintin); and California (San Diego, Owens Lake, San Joaquin Valley, San Francisco, and San Rafael).

_Spring migration._--Early dates of spring arrival are: North Carolina, Corolla, April 15, Virginia, Chesapeake, April 15, and Locustvile, April 16; District of Columbia, Washington, April 11; New York, Montauk Point, April 28; Maine, Scarboro, May 2; Missouri, Warrensburg, April 1, St. Louis, April 2, and Appleton City, April 3; Illinois, Mount Carmel, April 4, Quincy, April 10, and Canton, April 15; Indiana, Liverpool, April 2; Iowa, Mitchell, April 3, Ferry, April 13, and Coralville, April 15; Minnesota, Hallock, April 24; Oklahoma, Sentinel, April 5; Kansas, Emporia, April 9, and Manhattan, April 13; Nebraska, Valentine, March 28, Long Pine, March 29, Whitman, March 31, and Alda, April 3; South Dakota, Vermilion, April 5, and Rapid City, April 10; North Dakota, Argusville, April 8, Charlson, April 14, and Larimore, April 15; Manitoba, Aweme, April 9, Margaret, May 2, and Killarney, May 4; Saskatchewan, Eastend, April 16; Ravenscrag, April 28, Osler, May 7, and Indian Head, May 9; Colorado, Springfield, April 3, Colorado Springs, April 11, Denver, April 15, and Salida, April 29; Utah, Salt Lake County, March 28, and Camp Floyd, April 12; Wyoming, Sheridan, April 13, Cheyenne, April 15, and Jackson, April 18; Idaho, Grangeville, March 14, and Neeley, March 15; Montana, Great Falls, April 5, Terry, April 7, Corvallis, April 7, and Big Sandy, April 13; Alberta, Provost, April 22, Veteran, May 2, and Flagstaff, May 14; Oregon, Malheur Lake, March 28, Klamath Falls, March 28, Narrows, March 30, and Lawen, April 1; Washington, Prescott, March 23, and Chelan, April 6; and British Columbia, Okanagan Landing, March 29, and Osoyoos Lake, April 1.

Late dates of spring departure are: Florida, Palma Sola, May 11; North Carolina, Cape Hatteras, May 20, and Cape Lookout, May 24; Maryland, Hail Point, May 23; Missouri, Corning, May 25; Tepic, San Blas, April 28, and Los Penas Island, May 5; and Lower California, Turtle Bay, April 14, and mouth of the Colorado River, May 15.

_Fall migration._--Early dates of fall arrival are: Lower California, San Quintin, July 4, and San Jose del Cabo, August 26; Sonora, Altar, September 14; New Hampshire, Rye Beach, August 12; Massachusetts, Amesbury, July 21, Plymouth, August 9, and Cape Cod, August 27; Rhode Island, Newport, July 15; New York, Orient Point, July 9, and Long Beach, July 24; Maryland, Ocean City, August 19; South Carolina, Frogmore, August 7, and Ladys Island, August 9; Florida, Tarpon Springs, July 5; and Alabama, Dauphin Island, August 21.

Late dates of fall departure are: British Columbia, Okanagan Landing, October 29; Washington, Grays Harbor, October 7; Oregon, Klamath Lake, November 19; Montana, Big Sandy, August 25, and Choteau, September 4; Idaho, Neeley, October 1; Utah, Fillmore, November 19; Wyoming, Cheyenne, August 9, and Yellowstone Park, August 22; Colorado, Denver, September 12, Yuma, September 30, and Barr, October 22; Saskatchewan, Eastend, August 6, and Quill Lake, August 11; Manitoba, Westbourne Marsh, October 8 (Nash); South Dakota, Rapid City, August 3, and Hermosa, August 15; Nebraska, Whitman, August 25, Valentine, September 1, and Long Pine, September 6; Michigan, Washtenaw County, September 12, and Ann Arbor, September 15; Ohio, Cleveland, September 15; Missouri, Jasper County, October 15; Quebec, Montreal, September 21; Massachusetts, Plum Island, September 2; Rhode Island, Jamestown, September 9; New York, Fishers Island, September 10, and Montauk Point, September 12; New Jersey, Cape May, September 14; and Virginia, Wallops Island, September 6, and Cobb Island, September 25.

_Casual records._--As previously stated, the long-billed curlew is now of casual or accidental occurrence east of the Mississippi River, although it was formerly fairly plentiful on the Atlantic coast. Macoun reports it as a rare emigrant in Newfoundland without particulars, and in the lack of subsequent confirmation it seems probable that he was misinformed. Preble (1908) records a specimen that was taken several years previous in the vicinity of Fort Simpson, Mackenzie. Several occurrences have been recorded for Alaska, among which are: Bethel, five seen May 9, 1917, by J. J. Brown (authority of A. H. Twitchell); a specimen, without date or exact locality, recorded by Macoun; St. Michael, June 19, 1874 (Turner); and upper Kuskokwim, July 23, 1898 (Hinckley). A specimen also is reported as having been taken near Spanishtown, Jamaica, in July, 1863.

Other West Indian records for this species are considered indefinite and probably refer to _N. hudsonicus_.

_Egg dates._--Utah: 41 records, April 1 to May 22; 21 records, April 26 to May 9. Montana and Idaho: 24 records, April 20 to July 4; 12 records, May 16 to 29. Saskatchewan: 11 records, May 3 to July 4; 6 records, May 23 to June 10. Washington and Oregon: 7 records, May 4 to 20.

NUMENIUS ARQUATA ARQUATA (Linnaeus)

EUROPEAN CURLEW

_Contributed by Francis Charles Robert Jourdain_

HABITS

The European curlew is said to have occurred once on Long Island, N. Y., in 1853, and the specimen is still extant in the New York State Museum. It was originally recorded as a long-billed curlew, _Numenius longirostris_, but was identified by William Dutcher, who recorded it in the _Auk_ (1892). Its claim to a place in the American list does not however rest on this ancient record, as E. Lehn Schiöler says that it has also occurred both on the west and east coasts of Greenland. The first record was that of Johan Petersen, who obtained a young male on August 23, 1913, at Angmagsalik on the east coast. Another was shot at Nanortalik in Julianehaab district in 1915 on the west side.

_Spring._--Although great numbers of curlew are present throughout the winter on the mud flats and low lying coasts and estuaries of the British Isles, there is little doubt that the majority of our homebred birds migrate southward, and this is confirmed by the fact that when the breeding birds appear on the moors, the shore haunting birds are still present in their haunts and remain for several weeks longer. The average date of the arrival of the breeding stock in the north of England is about mid February; Chapman has recorded their arrival from February 5 to March 11, and in years of heavy snowfall, such as 1886, they were unable to reach their nesting ground till March 19. In mid Derbyshire they generally arrive early in March.

_Courtship._--As William Farren (1910) remarks the watchfulness of the curlew and the open nature of the country it frequents, make observation of the courtship on the ground extremely difficult. False nests or “scrapes” are almost invariably to be found in the neighborhood of the nest, and O. R. Owen writes that in some parts of Radnorshire, where the curlew breeds commonly, it is not unusual to find two or three dozen “scrapes” in an afternoon. The curlews arrive on the moors in flocks, which keep together for a week or so, but soon resolve themselves into pairs. At this times, the moors reecho with their songs. Mr. Farren describes it as follows:

The performance, with its accompanying trilling song,
resembles somewhat that of the redshank. It rises from
the ground and with rapid wing beats ascends to a good
height. Often when near the summit of its flight it
checks suddenly, almost throwing itself over backwards.
Recovering, it hangs poised kestrel-like in the air, and
while so hovering, and also during a short temporary
drop on motionless wings, it pours forth the trilling or
jodelling song. It rises again on quivering wings and
again sinks as before. This may continue for some time or
it may be varied by the bird circling round on extended
wings, when one is again reminded of the flight of a hawk.
More often than not the bird will stop before a circle
is completed and hover again over a fresh spot. So it
continues, circling, rising, and falling, and pouring forth
a joyful ripple of song. The song consists of two--or
three--rising notes, rapidly repeated, high pitched, but
liquid and flutelike. I would express the curlew’s song as
_gur-lech, gur-lech, gur-lech, gur-lech_, pronounced rather
distinctly at first and not too quickly, but quickening
after the first two or three repetitions. Toward the end
the syllables must be almost run together, losing all of
the first except the “g” and at no time sounding the “ch”
too hard but rather as in the Scottish “loch.”

Seton Gordon (1915) writes as follows:

The singer, flying along the moor a few yards above
the surface of the ground, checks his flight and rises
almost perpendicularly with wings rapidly beating the
air. On reaching a certain elevation he soars--glides
rather--earthward in a slanting direction, and it is now
that his song is uttered. Commencing usually in a couple
of long-drawn whistles, uttered in a very low key, the
song quickens, the notes are sharper and clearer, and have
at the middle of the performance a curious, distinctive
“break,” difficult to put into words. It is at this point
that the song is carried far across the moorland country,
but almost at once the key is lowered, the calls become
more subdued, more drawn out, until they end, as they
commenced, in low, melancholy tones. Sometimes one sees
a curlew making his way across a moor and constantly
fluttering up into the air. But one imagines that there
is something at fault, for time after time he utters
only the first note of his song and then almost at once
mounts again into the heavens. Can it be that he does not
succeed in reaching the correct altitude from which all
self-respecting curlew commence their appeals to their
adored ones? But perhaps the songster is not producing
that bottom note satisfactorily and thus is doing his
best to perfect it. It is, I believe, only the male birds
that practice these distinctive risings and dips in the
air, but I can assert from personal experience the hen
also makes use of the trilling, tuneful notes which most
ornithologists associate only with the cock bird during the
season of nesting.

_Nesting._--The nesting sites are somewhat varied. Often the eggs are laid in a slight hollow, lined with grass or sometimes sprigs of heather on moorlands among short or long heather; others will breed among the long, wiry grass of high levels or on short-cropped pasture lands. A tussock in the middle of a wet bog may be used, or, exceptionally, the nest may be in a plowed field. There is not much effort at concealment, but the sentry is generally on watch to warn the sitting bird. Occasionally I have known a bird allow approach within a few yards, and Mr. Fenwick records a case in which the sitting bird allowed itself to be stroked and even lifted from the eggs. As a rule, the bird leaves the nest long before the intruder comes anywhere near. The nest is about 5 to 5½ inches across.

_Eggs._--The eggs, which are normally four, are occasionally only three or sometimes five. Of this latter number I have about a dozen records. The only recorded case of six was probably due to two hens laying together. The eggs are very large for the size of the bird, pyriform in shape and very thin shelled, and are not laid on consecutive days. In color they range from light green to olive green or olive brown, spotted or sometimes blotched with light or dark umber brown and ashy shellmarks. Exceptional varieties are pale greenish blue or whitish grey, almost unmarked. The measurements of 100 British eggs, made by the writer, average 67.6 by 47.9 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =78.6= by =55.1=, =56.2= by 44, and 61 by =43= millimeters.

_Young._--Incubation is carried on by both sexes, and the period is 29½ to 30 days. In spite of their long legs the young can run soon after they are hatched, but remain in the nest longer than the young of most waders, running out and concealing themselves on the approach of danger. Both parents assist in looking after the young, and only a single brood is raised in the season.

_Plumages._--The plumages and molts are fully described in A Practical Handbook of British Birds, edited by H. F. Witherby (1920).

_Food._--During the winter months the main food consists of marine mollusca, such as cockles (_Cardium edule_), mussels (_Mytilus edulis_), _Mya tellina_, _Bythenia_, etc.; also Crustacea, especially small crabs; occasionally fishes from rock pools, such as _blennies_ and Annelida (lugworms). In the breeding season land Mollusca, such as snails (_Helix aspersa_, _H. nemoralis_, etc.) and slugs; Amphitra (small frogs), Annelida (earthworms). Insects, including Diptera and their larvae (chiefly Tipulidae), Lepidoptera and their larvae, Orthoptera (_Acheta_, _Forficula_), Rhyncota (_Notonecta_, etc.), and Coleoptera (_Rhizotragus_, _Anisoplia_, _Dytiscus_, _Scarabicus_, _Aphodius_, _Harpalus_, _Zabras_, _Pterostichus_, etc.). Also vegetable matter, seeds of _Polygonum_ and grasses, berries of crowberry (_Empetrum nigrum_) and _Vaccinium myrtillus_; occasionally also blackberries. Fragments of seaweed have also been found in the stomach.

_Behavior._--The curlew is not popular with the shore shooter, as he is not only exceptionally wary himself but seems to take a delight in warning other and less suspicious species. Howard Saunders says that he has seen a curlew, after shrieking wildly over the head of a sleeping seal, swoop down and apparently flick with its wing the unsuspecting animal upon which the stalker was just raising his rifle.

Although a bird of the coast and bare moorlands, it can and does perch not infrequently on trees. In North Brabant, where it breeds on the vast expanses of moorland with scattered belts of small pine trees, I have seen an excited pair perched insecurely on the tips of small trees and keeping up an unceasing succession of anxious yelping notes while their young crouched in the heather below. Although it usually wades, the curlew can on occasion take voluntarily to the water and swims well.

_Enemies._--Naumann mentions the peregrine and gyrfalcon, as well as the goshawk among the enemies of this species. Saxby, J. F. Peters, and others have found remains of curlew at the feeding places of the peregrine; and Ussher also states that it is also the case in Ireland.

_Fall._--Early in July the young birds are on the wing on the English moors and are already beginning to collect into packs, which leave the breeding grounds about the middle of the month and resort to the shore.

_Winter._--Probably most of the birds which winter on the English coasts are migrants from northern Europe. They chiefly haunt the larger estuaries and the wide mud flats of the east coast, assembling in flocks of fifty to a hundred. When their feeding grounds are covered by the tide they will sometimes work inland, or may be seen waiting for the water to recede on some isolated clump of rock which commands a view in all directions, all facing the same way.

DISTRIBUTION

_Breeding range._--The British Isles, but only locally in England in the midlands and southeast; also in the Orkneys and Shetlands; but not in the Faroes. On the Continent, France (only in Bretagne), Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark (Jutland), Switzerland, Austria, Carinthia, Galicia, Rumania (Dobrogea), Poland, the Baltic Republics, Sweden and Norway, Russia, and Finland south to the Perm Government. In Asia it is replaced by an eastern race (_N. arquata lineatus_), which ranges east to Japan.

_Winter range._--Many winter in the British Isles, southern Europe (the Mediterranean region), and a great part of Africa. Also in small numbers to the Persian Gulf, but here it meets the eastern form.

_Spring migration._--At the Straits of Gibraltar the passage takes place in March, but Irby saw a few late in April, while along the Portuguese coast they pass from March to May. In the eastern Mediterranean some leave Cyprus by the end of February, but stragglers have been seen on March 30 and April 5 and others have been seen on Crete at the end of April. In Iraq large flocks passed Feluja between mid April and May 25, flying north in the evening.

_Fall migration._--Although long after the normal southward migration the advent of hard weather will bring big flocks past Heligoland flying west as late as November 19 to 20. The young birds begin to arrive there as early as mid July from Scandinavia, and on the Portuguese coast the passage lasts from late July to November and at Tangier from September through October. At the Ionian Isles and on Cyprus they arrive at the beginning of September, and the passage through Greece lasts throughout September.

_Casual records._--The records for Greenland and eastern America have been mentioned. In Iceland Faber recorded the first on September 6, 1819, and since then other occurrences have taken place without exact date. To the Faroes it is only a straggler in the winter months. In the Canaries it is an occasional visitor, chiefly to the eastern isles, and has been seen there as late as June 14. It has also been recorded from the Azores, Madeira (December 7, 1893, October 25, 1896, October 28, 1896, January 30, 1897, and great numbers on April 28, 1898) and the Cape Verde Islands.

_Egg dates._--British Isles, April 17 to May 31 (42 dates), April 20 to May 10 (26 dates). Holland and Germany, earliest date April 6. Scandinavia from about mid May onward, May 13 to 26 (6 dates).

NUMENIUS HUDSONICUS Latham

HUDSONIAN CURLEW

HABITS

A striking case of the survival of the fittest is seen when we compare the relative abundance of the three common species of North American curlews to-day with their status 50 years ago. Whereas, at that time the Hudsonian curlew was the rarest of the three, it is now by far the commonest. The vast flocks of Eskimo curlew, that formerly frequented the Labrador coast every summer and visited the New England coast at frequent intervals, have all disappeared. They were tame and unsuspicious, were easily decoyed, and were therefore slaughtered in enormous numbers on their feeding grounds; they made a long migratory flight over the ocean from Nova Scotia to South America, where many undoubtedly perished in stormy weather. The long-billed curlew, once so common all over the interior prairie regions, and even on the Atlantic coast, has gradually been driven westward and northward, until it is now occupying a comparatively restricted range. The long-billed will probably be the next of the curlews to disappear, perhaps within the near future. But the Hudsonian curlew, on the other hand, has held its own, and in some sections it has apparently increased. This increase, however, is probably more apparent than real, due to comparison with other species which are decreasing rapidly. The reasons for its success in the struggle for existence are not hard to find. Its breeding grounds are in the far north, where it is never disturbed; it has no dangerous migration route; it does not ordinarily migrate in large flocks, which are susceptible to vicissitudes of weather and great slaughter at the hands of gunners; but, above all, it is a shy, wary, wily bird, quite capable of taking care of itself and well fitted to survive. Like the crow, it is more than a match for its enemies.

The Hudsonian curlew was evidently comparatively rare in Audubon’s time, for he apparently knew very little about it. Wilson seems to have overlooked it entirely or to have confused it with the Eskimo curlew, and Nuttall’s remarks are not altogether clear on the subject. George H. Mackay (1892_b_) says:

Speaking for Nantucket and Tuckernuck Islands, as far as
I am aware, not over 15 or 20 of these birds a year on an
average have been shot there during the past 17 years, and
the local saying, that “it does not pay to go after them,”
is true, they being too shy and too limited in number to
make it any object, either for gain or for pleasure. During
these 17 years there have never been more than 100 birds on
an average living on the above islands each year, and for
the past few years I have noticed a falling off from this
number.

I am quite sure that I have seen more Hudsonian curlews on Cape Cod during the past 10 years that I saw during the previous 20. The species certainly has not decreased, and I am inclined to think that it has increased. The 1927 fall flight was unusually heavy.

_Spring._--From its winter range on the Pacific coast of South America this curlew migrates through Central America to Florida and up the Atlantic coast. It reaches Florida during the latter half of March, the Carolinas about the middle of April, and Massachusetts about the middle of May. During a week spent with Arthur T. Wayne on the South Carolina coast May 18 to 25, 1915, I saw the last part of a heavy flight of Hudsonian curlews. Mr. Wayne told me that the first birds come early in April, but the height of the migration is between the third week in April and the second week in May, when enormous numbers (he says hundreds of thousands) may be seen every day. We saw no such numbers, but numerous flocks were seen every morning flying in to feed on fiddler crabs on the extensive marshes and flying out again at night to roost on the sand bars and islands. They flew high in the air in V-shaped flocks or in long irregular lines and their loud notes could be heard almost constantly.

Herbert K. Job (1905) saw them here in “scores of thousands”; he spent a night at each of several little low islands--mere sand bars--lying off the coast, and says:

About half past 5 or 6 o’clock, when the sun was low in the
horizon or had set behind a cloud bank, the first advancing
line is seen, and a string of from a dozen to 50 Hudsonian
curlews come scaling over the beach, to alight on the bar,
down at the other end. After a few minutes another flock is
seen approaching. By half past 6 they are arriving fast,
and by 7 there are two or three flocks in sight all the
time, some of them containing as many as 75 birds. Meantime
I am shooting at them as they pass, with my reflex camera,
despite the dull light. As may be imagined, the company on
the sand has become immense, covering many acres. They keep
up a sort of murmuring noise, and now and then all fly up,
with a perfect storm and tumult of wings and voices, soon
to alight again. Even after dark they are yet arriving,
as one may hear. I hazard the guess that there are often
10,000 curlews at such a roost each night. At the first
glimmer of day they are off again for the marshes.

Mr. Wayne (1910) makes the following interesting suggestion:

This species supplanted the long-billed curlew between
the years 1883 and 1885, for previous to these dates the
former species was rare, but it gradually became more
abundant each year until it established itself firmly in
great numbers. The result was that the long-billed curlew
was driven from its accustomed range by a smaller species
in the struggle for existence. The long-billed curlews fed
almost entirely upon fiddlers, and the Hudsonian curlew
also subsisted upon them, and as the food supply was
inadequate, one species was forced to seek other paths of
migration.

The Hudsonian curlew seems to be a rare migrant everywhere in the interior; some of my correspondents do not mention it at all and others give only scattering records. But William I. Lyon writes to me that he saw a flock of about 100 on May 22, 1926, in Illinois; they were flying in V formation, uttering their characteristic four short whistles, and breaking sometimes from a V into a line. Edwin Beaupre tells me that “the foot of Amherst Island, in Lake Ontario, is a favorite crossing place for these curlews in their northward flight. May 24 is the date on which they may be looked for, passing through this locality in one large flock.”

J. A. Munro (1911) records a heavy flight which occurred at Fisherman’s Island, Toronto, during three days, May 24 to 26, 1910; a careful count was made of passing flocks in which over 1,000 birds were recorded. Probably the main flight from the Atlantic coast turns inland before it reaches New England and flies by way of the Great Lakes to the west side of Hudson Bay. The species is rare in New England in the spring.

Along the Pacific coast there is a heavy migration; the main flight appears in southern California about the middle of March, progresses slowly northward, reaches Alaska about the middle of May, and arrives on the breeding grounds in northern Mackenzie by the end of May. In California the main migration route is coastwise, the bulk of the flight coming in April; but John G. Tyler (1913) records them as “regular spring migrants” in the interior valleys. “Their favorite resorts are large, open fields where shallow ponds occur, and in such places they often gather in large numbers.” D. E. Brown’s notes record them as common, or very abundant at times, in Washington, flocks of 40 or 50 birds being not at all uncommon; his dates run from April 7 to May 14.

_Nesting._--The best account of the nesting habits of this species and its behavior on its breeding grounds is given us by Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1900), who found eight nests in the Kotzebue Sound region of northern Alaska; he writes:

I found the Hudsonian curlew to be a common breeding bird
over the tundras from Cape Blossom eastward into the Kowak
Valley. In the vicinity of our winter camp on the Kowak,
the arrival of the curlews was on May 17. From the middle
to the last of June, in the Kowak delta, I became well
acquainted with the Hudsonian curlew. At this season they
were of course mated and most of them had eggs. They were
ordinarily met with on the open stretches of tundra, often
where these alternate with strips of timber and lakes.
Where such perches are afforded, solitary birds on watch
would be seen sitting on the tips of isolated dwarfed
spruces or even willow bushes. As soon as an intruder
entered the domains of a pair of curlew, the bird on watch
would give the alarm by a loud, ringing call note, and soon
both birds would fly to meet him. As long as the intruder
remains in the vicinity, the pair of birds keep flying
restlessly to and fro, now and then alighting on the ground
and walking about, but most of the time keeping up their
monotonous rolling whistle. This was the only note I heard,
except earlier in the season a long, faint whistle like
that of a distant locomotive, uttered by the male bird
while sailing slowly, on set motionless wings over the
nesting grounds. This is probably their song flight, though
it is certainly very simple. The far-off whistle, however,
puzzled me for some time as to its origin. I at first
thought it was a steam launch on the river somewhere, until
I finally connected the sound with the slow soaring of the
curlew overhead.

The eggs so closely resemble the monotonous lights and
shadows of the surrounding moss and grass that I have
stepped directly over the nest, all the while scrutinizing
every foot of the ground about me, without detecting the
eggs. Sometimes from the nature of the surroundings the
eggs are more conspicuous and can be seen 10 yards or more,
but this is the exception. While one is at the nest, the
parents fly close about one, almost deafening one with
their loud penetrating cries. If anything the male bird
is the most demonstrative of the two. The nest is simply
a saucer-shaped depression in the top of a low hummock of
moss or grass. The locality was always a wet swale or low
place in the tundra, in which the clumps of grass or moss
were often surrounded at their bases with water. The nests
were in no way protected, the eggs always being in plain
view, but the remarkable mimicry in their coloration is
generally of sufficient protection.

MacFarlane collected some 13 sets of eggs on the barren grounds west of the lower Anderson River, but I find only one nest described in his notes; this he said was “a depression in the ground, lined with a few decayed leaves.” Stanton Warburton, Jr. took a set of three eggs near Teller, Alaska, on July 4, 1924; he writes to me that “the nest was situated on hard, dry tundra, the eggs occupying a slight depression in light grasses; distinctive nesting material of grey lichen-light material covered the cavity. Both birds were present.” A nest found by Bishop J. O. Stringer on an island in the lower Mackenzie River is described as a pile of grass, moss, and weeds.

_Eggs._--The Hudsonian curlew lays almost invariably four eggs, though the set of three referred to above was heavily incubated. The eggs are hardly, if at all, distinguishable from those of the European whimbrel. They are ovate pyriform, rather pointed, in shape and show little or no gloss. Doctor Grinnell (1900) describes them as follows:

Their ground color is very variable, from a bluish pea
green through olive buff to light olive green. The markings
are numerous and somewhat amassed at the larger ends of
the eggs. They consist of dots, spots, and blotches of
pale lavender, drab, Prout’s brown, and bistre. The latter
seems in every case the real pigment, and the varying depth
to which it is covered with subsequent layers of shell
material, seems to account for the different tints, even to
the palest lavender.

In the few sets that I have seen the prevailing ground colors are dark and light shades of “olive buff,” with occasionally “Isabella color” or “ecru olive.” In the markings I recognized various browns, such as “bone brown,” “warm sepia,” “Saccardo’s umber,” “olive brown,” and “buffy brown.” The measurements of 37 eggs average 57.5 by 40.7 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =61.9= by 41.7, 59.2 by =43.2=, =52= by 38.5, and 55 by =37.2= millimeters.

_Plumages._--I have never seen a downy young Hudsonian curlew, and, so far as I know, it has never been described. Young birds are in juvenal plumage when they reach us on migration. They are more easily recognized by their much shorter bills than by any plumage differences, as they look much like adults. The markings on the neck and breast are finer and closer; the feathers of the back, scapulars, tertials, and wing coverts are “warm sepia,” notched with cream-white or pale buff, producing a spotted effect, most pronounced on the wing coverts and tertials (in adults these parts are more narrowly edged with buff); the rump is “sepia,” with large spots of “pinkish buff,” and the upper tail coverts are barred with the same colors; the under parts are more buffy than in adults and the whole effect is brighter and more variegated.

A postjuvenal body molt in late fall or early winter, which almost runs into a first prenuptial molt, produces a plumage, which can be distinguished from the adult only by the faded juvenal wing coverts and the bird becomes fully adult at the next postnuptial molt.

Adults have a complete postnuptial molt, beginning with the body molt in August and ending with the molt of the primaries in the winter; soon after the wings are molted, or from February to May they have a partial prenuptial molt, including the body plumage, the tail, and some of the scapulars and wing coverts.

_Food._--Hudsonian curlews are mainly shore feeders; on the beaches and sand flats they pick up various insects, worms, small mollusks, and crustaceans, often probing for the sand fleas in the wet sand; on the mud flats they find similar animal food. I have also often seen them on the marshes, or even on high, dry pasture lands, such as are frequented by golden plover and Eskimo curlews, where they find grasshoppers, spiders, beetles, and other insects. In South Carolina we saw them at low tide on the oyster banks and on the mud banks riddled with holes of fiddler crabs, on which they were doubtless feeding. In the Magdalen Islands I have seen them on the uplands and among the sand dunes, where they were evidently eating crow berries (_Empetrum nigrum_). They are also said to eat blueberries, dewberries, and various seeds. E. W. Hadeler tells me that he once saw them feeding on the bodies of light-colored millers; the beach was lined with these moths, some dead and others alive, and the curlews did not like to leave this abundant supply of food.

Mr. Mackay (1892_b_) says:

They feed on fiddler crabs, grasshoppers, and the large
gray sand spiders (_Lycosa_) which live in holes in
the sand among the beach grass adjacent to headlands,
huckleberries, which they pick from the bushes, and beetles
(_Lachnosterna_, _Scarabaeidae_), all of which are usually
mixed with coarse gravel. When a flock of these birds is
on the ground where they have been feeding they become
scattered, 25 or 30 birds covering 15 or 20 yards’ space.
At such times they do not appear to be particularly active,
moving about in a rather slow, stately manner, although I
have once in a while seen them run.