418 GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



occurred during their migrations, great numbers landed on 

 the Bermuda Islands. Easterly storms brought similar flights 

 to the coast of New England, and less frequently, perhaps, to 

 the shores of the middle and southern States, where, ornithol- 

 ogists believe, they were rarely if ever as abundant as in 

 Massachusetts. 



We know nothing definite of their migrations in the early 

 days of the colony, but since the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century comparatively few have been seen on our shores 

 in fair weather. Whether they kept at sea, resting on the 

 ocean when weary, or continued their flight until they reached 

 that great mass of floating weed called the Sargasso Sea, 

 where seafaring birds find food, we can only conjecture; but 

 in some way they reached the West Indies and later South 

 America, where they spread over the continent, sweeping on 

 even to Patagonia, thus coursing nearly the length of two 

 continents. Returning in spring, they were seen rarely if 

 ever on the Atlantic or its coasts; but they reappeared in 

 Texas and other gulf coast States in March and April, and 

 swarmed over the prairies and through the Mississippi valley 

 region, reaching the fur countries by the interior route. 

 They were accompanied in their migrations by the Golden 

 Plover. The name " Dough-bird " applied to this Curlew is 

 an old one, antedating American ornithologists, and was used 

 to denote an extremely fat and delicious fowl. It was given 

 occasionally to species of similar habits, as the Godwits; but 

 the Eskimo Curlew is the true Dough-bird of New England. 



Cape Cod and Nantucket often were overrun by Dough- 

 birds, and they landed in enormous numbers all along the 

 Massachusetts coast. The shores and islands of Boston har- 

 bor were favorite resorts. During the first years of the nine- 

 teenth century Noddle Island (now East Boston) was owned 

 by Mr. H. H. Williams, who often invited his friends there to 

 shoot; and Mr. William H. Sumner (1858) says that he has 

 seen " that kind of Plover called Dough-birds," from their 

 superlative fatness, alight upon the island " fifty years ago " 

 in a northeast storm, in such large flocks and so weary that 

 it was " as difficult for them to fly as it is for seals to run." 



