326 



GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



Range. — North America. Breeds from central British Cohmibia, southern 

 Saskatchewan and Manitoba to northeastern Cahfornia, northern New 

 Mexico and northwestern Texas; winters from central California and 

 southern Arizona south to Guatemala, and on Atlantic coast from South 

 Carolina to Florida, Louisiana and Texas; formerly migrated north to 

 Massachusetts and rarely to Newfoundland ; now a straggler east of the 

 Mississippi, north of Florida; casual in West Indies. 



History. 

 Probably the Long-billed Curlew was common in migration, 

 irregularly if not annually, on the coast of New England as 

 late as the earlier part of the last century. Old gunners who 

 have now "passed over the divide" have told me that the 

 bird was plentiful in the days of their youth, and a few are 

 still living who say that they have seen it common here. Mr. 

 John R, Floyd of Rowley assures me that the bird was common 

 in 1840 on Plum Island River in Essex County, and Mr. Charles 

 L. Perkins of Newburyport says it was common there in his 



Fig. 17. — First primary and axillars of Long-billed Curlew (after Cory). 



youth, Mr. Thomas C. Wilson of Ipswich has not seen one 

 in his thirty years' experience, but the older gunners there 

 tell him that it frequently was seen at times during the 60's 

 and early 70's. Old gunners say that it was common on the 

 marshes of South Sandwich about 1850. Mr. James P. Hatch 

 of Springfield says that about forty years ago (1868) it was 

 common on the plains from Eastham to South Wellfleet, 

 Cape Cod, but he has seen none for thirty-five years. There 

 is always much liability to error in these statements, as some 

 adult specimens of the Hudsonian Curlew have a longer bill 



