our most beautiful as well as useful birds of this family is now s;'>'"g o" ■» 

 California and in other western States where these species are found. As I pointed 

 out above, we have a number of species of these partridges in the aforesaid region, 

 and I very well remember the accounts of their immense covies, which explorers 

 and naturalists brought back in their journals during the early 60's. Mr. James 

 Jenkins, who was my instructor in taxidermy in 1866 and on, had collected a beau- 

 tiful series of the plumed partridge in California : he told me that he had seen over 

 a thousand of them in a single flock, and that they were extremely abundant in 

 certain ])arts of that state. 



The Eskimo Curlew {Numenius borealis) 



By W. Leon Dawson 



Length 12 to l-i;<2 inches. 



Range: Breeds on the Ijarren grounds of northern Mackenzie: winters in 

 Argentina and Patagonia. 



The Eskimo curlew is an interesting example of the rapidity with which a 

 game bird, apparently numerous enough to defy fate, may be suddenly swept off 

 the face of the earth. Forty years ago, and even less, as many witnesses besides 

 myself can testify, Eskimo curlews might often be found in the markets of Boston, 

 New York, and other large eastern cities, and apparently no one then had a sus- 

 picion that the species was nearing its end. Audubon, speaking of his experience 

 in Labrador in 1833, likened the numbers of this curlew to the flocks of passenger 

 pigeons, and as late as 1860 Packard noted a flock in Labrador which was perha])s 

 a mile long and nearly as broad. Not many years ago the fishermen of Labrador 

 and Newfoundland were salting them down by the barrelful for winter's con- 

 sumption. Because of its uncommon fatness and the excellence of its meat, it 

 was generally know in New England as the "dough bird." No doubt these qual- 

 ities were the chief cause of the curlew's extinction. Thus the very qualities 

 that should have insured the perpetuation of the species for the benefit of pos- 

 terity led to its destruction by our improvident selves. The bird is spoken of here 

 as extinct since, to all intents and purposes, it is so, although a few probably still 

 survive. The lesson to be drawn from the destruction of the curlew and the pas- 

 senger pigeon is that in the case of any given game bird we cannot tell exactly 

 when the danger line is crossed and the safety of the species begins to be threat- 

 ened. The untimely end of the curlew and pigeon shows that it is the part of 

 wisdom to apply the brakes before the bottom of the hill is reached — in other 

 words, to adopt effective preventive measures before it is too late. 



Greater abundance atones for the smaller size of this curlew in regions 



442 



