Eskimo curlew

Eskimo curlew
Specimen in Laval University Library
Conservation status
Critically endangered, possibly extinct (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Scolopacidae
Genus:	Numenius
Species:	N. borealis
Binomial name
Numenius borealis (Forster, 1772)
Breeding range of Eskimo curlew. Dark blue: known range, blue: probable range, pale blue: potential range.

The Eskimo curlew or the northern curlew is one of eight species of curlew, and is classed in the genus Numenius. It was one of the most numerous shorebirds in the tundra of western Arctic Canada and Alaska, with approximately two million birds killed per year in the late 1800s. Having not been seen in over 30 years, the Eskimo curlew is now considered possibly extinct. The bird was about 30 cm (12 in) long and fed mostly on berries.

The Eskimo curlew is one of eight species of curlew, and is classed with them in the genus Numenius. It used to be placed in the separate genus Mesoscolopax.Numenius is classed in the family Scolopacidae. Other species in that family include woodcocks, phalaropes, snipes, and sandpipers. Scolopacidae is a Charadriiform lineage.

The species was described by Johann Reinhold Forster in 1772. The generic name has three possible etymologies. One is that it comes from the Greek "noumenios". "Noumenios" means "of the new moon", the thin beak of this curlew being compared to a thin crescent moon. A second possibility is that the genus name is derived from the word numen, meaning "nod", and referring to this species head being bent forward and down. The final possibility is that Numenius is a Latinized form of the Greek noumenios, which was the word Diogenes Laertius used to refer to a species of curlew. The specific name "borealis" is Latin for "northern".

This species has many common names. It has been named the prairie pigeon, fute, little curlew, doe-bird, and doughbird. These last two names come from its fatness during early migration south.