SPECIES EXTINCT OR EXTIRPATED. 425 



in Labrador during the month of September. He was told 

 by the settlers that the Curlews appeared in numbers until 

 about 1892, after which no large flocks were seen. Townsend 

 and Allen (1906) quote Captain Parsons to the effect that the 

 birds were abundant in Labrador until thirty years ago (1876). 

 He often shot a hundred before breakfast and the fishermen 

 killed them by thousands. There was, he said, a great and 

 sudden falling off in numbers about 1886. Mr. William P. 

 Nye at Cape Charles, Labrador, told a similar story, but 

 placed the sudden decrease at about 1891. Dr. W. T. Grenfell 

 says that they became scarce in Labrador in the 80's, and that 

 in 1892 he saw only two flocks of any size. In 1906 he heard 

 of a few dozens being killed, but did not see one.^ 



At last ornithologists awoke to the fact that one of the 

 most useful, valuable and highly esteemed game birds of 

 America was disappearing. For the last five years all my 

 correspondents who mention this species have reported it 

 as either extinct or nearly so. Preble says (1908): "It has 

 become practically exterminated, although formerly enor- 

 mously abundant and fairly common up to 1890." ^ 



Stone (1908) says: "Now apparently almost extinct." ^ 



Mr. Harry Piers, curator of the Provincial Museum of 

 Halifax, Nova Scotia, writes me that during a period of close 

 observation of birds from 1888 to the present time he has 

 made but one record, a specimen in the Halifax market, 

 September 11, 1897, which apparently has been lost. He 

 has been unable to secure a specimen for the Provincial 

 Museum. 



Ornithologists have found the bird rare or wanting every- 

 where in North America since 1900. 



The diminution of this species on the Massachusetts coast 

 during the latter part of the nineteenth century may be seen 

 by the records furnished by Mr. George H. Mackay. These 

 refer in part to Cape Cod and in part to Nantucket, includ- 

 ing, in some years, the birds taken or seen on Martha's Vine- 



1 Townsend, C. W., and Allen, G. M.: Birds of Labrador, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. 

 XXXni, 1906-07, pp. 356, 357. 



2 Preble, E. A.: North American Fauna, No. 27, Biol. Surv., U. S. Dept. Agr., 1908, p. 332. 



3 Stone, Witmer: Birds of New Jersey, An. Kept., N. J. State Mus., 1908, p. 142. 



