Numenius phaeopus
Order Charadriiformes
Family Scolopacidae
Subfamily Numeniinae
Other names: Hudsonian Curlew
Adult.— Top of head blackish, with a central whitish stripe; line over eye white; line through eye brown; rest of upper parts and tail brown, speckled with white; throat and belly white; neck and breast thickly streaked with dusky. Bill long and curved.
The Hudsonian Curlew is a rather uncommon migrant along the coast in May, and again in August and September. It occurs on mud-flats and on sandy beaches, either at the edge of the water or walking in the shallow pools, picking up food from the water with the head apparently held sidewise. It often stands when undisturbed, with one leg uplifted and crooked, or squats with its breast on the sand. It also frequents grassy hills near the sea. In spring the curlew utters a sweet mournful cry, like the syllables kur-lew; its ordinary call-note and cry when startled sounds like pip-pip-pip-pip. The general brown tone of the plumage and the long curved bill make it impossible to mistake the Jack Curlew for anything except a smaller species, the Eskimo Curlew, which was formerly common, but is now extremely rare.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)