The Eskimo curlew (Numenius borealis), also known as the northern curlew, is a species of curlew in the family Scolopacidae. It was one of the most numerous shorebirds in the tundra of western Arctic Canada and Alaska. Thousands of birds were then killed per year in the late 1800s. As there has not been a reliable sighting since 1987 or a confirmed sighting since 1963, the Eskimo curlew is considered Critically Endangered or possibly extinct. The bird was about long and fed mostly on insects and berries. Taxonomy 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 Laërtius 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 its early migration south. Description Eskimo curlews are small curlews, about 30 centimeters in length, weighing approximately 360 g, and having a wingspan of 70 cm. Adults have long dark greyish legs and a long bill curved slightly downward. The upperparts are mottled brown and the underparts are light brown. They show cinnamon wing linings in flight. They are similar in appearance to the Hudsonian curlew, the American subspecies of the whimbrel, but smaller in size. In the field, the only certain way to distinguish the Eskimo curlew is confirmation of its unbarred undersides of the primaries. The call is poorly understood, but includes clear whistling sounds. The Eskimo curlew forms a species pair with the Asian little curlew, Numenius minutus, but is slightly