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).