320 PE.ECOCIAL GRALLATOEES — LIMICOLiE. 



in their spring migrations in April. They came in company with the Common Golden 

 Plover, and seemed to feed in the same manner and on the same food. They were 

 found thinly scattered among the Plovers, and were wild and hard to shoot. They 

 were generally very lean. They appeared there about the 4th of April. 



Mr. J. A. Allen met with a single stray representative of this species in Western 

 Kansas, near Fort Hays, in May. Dr. Cooper mentions finding this Curlew appar- 

 ently breeding in the vicinity of Fort Benton, where its young ones were taken by 

 him while they were still in the down ; but he saw none on the Columbia Plains. 



Mr. Boardmau informs me that this species is found in the vicinity of Calais, 

 where it is more abundant than the Hudsonicus, although not usually very numerous. 

 It is occasionally found in flocks about the last of August. At this time it is very 

 common in the Bermudas. It is usually much more abundant on the coast of Maine 

 wlien there have been easterly storms about the 20th of August, and is then seen 

 in remarkable flights ; but, except in stormy weather, it is never noticed inland. In 

 some seasons this bird is rare in Massachusetts ; in others it is very abundant. It 

 is of very irregular occurrence, and probably is more common when easterly winds 

 prevail during the last third of August. 



A single specimen of this Curlew was taken by Mr. H. W. Elliott on the Prybilof 

 Islands in June, 1872. 



Eichardson states that he found this Curlew frequenting the Barren Lands, within 

 the Arctic Circle, in summer, where it feeds on grubs, fresh-water insects, and the 

 fruit of the Ew2)etrum nigrum. He describes its eggs as being of a pyriform shape 

 and of a Siskin-green color clouded with a few large, irregular spots of bright umber- 

 brown. The Copper Indians believe that this bird and some others betray the 

 approach of strangers to the Eskimo. On the 13th of June, 1822, Kichardson dis- 

 covered one of these Curlews sitting on three eggs, on the shore of Point Lake ; 

 when he approached the nest, the female bird ran a short distance, crouching close 

 to the ground, and then stopped to observe the fate of her treasures. Hearne, in his 

 " Journey to the Arctic Ocean," refers to this species as being exactly like the larger 

 one in color, shape, and nearly everything else except size. He adds that these two 

 species also differ from others in their manner of life, as they never frequent the 

 water's edge, but always keep among the rocks and dry ridges, feeding on berries and 

 small insects. The flesh of this bird is generally much more highly esteemed by the 

 dwellers on Hudson's Bay than that of the larger species, but it is by no means so 

 numerous in that quarter. Hearne did not meet with this species farther north than 

 Egg River. 



Audubon, in his account of this Curlew, confirms the statements made more than 

 a century ago by Hearne, relative to its habits and the way in which they differ from 

 those of the Hudsonims. He was told by IVEr. Oakes, of Ipswich, Mass., that during its 

 short stay in that section, in the early autumn, this bird may be met with on the high 

 sandy hills near the sea-shore, where it feeds on grasshoppers and on several kinds of 

 berries. On this food it becomes very fat, is excellent eating, and acquires the name 

 of "Dough-bird" in consequence. He never met with it after leaving Massachusetts, 

 except on one occasion ; this Avas on one of the islands on the coast of South Caro- 

 lina, at the dawn of a fine day, when a dense flock of this Curlew passed to the 

 southward, near enough to enable him to ascertain the species. On the 29th of July, 

 18.3.3, these birds made their first appearance in Labrador, near the Harbor of Bras 

 d'Or. They came from the north, and arrived in immense numbers. Flock after flock 

 passed close to his vessel, and directed their course to the sterile mountainous tracts 

 in the neighborhood. Their stay on the coast seemed to be occasioned solely by the 



