98 BULLETIN 14 6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Its large size, its long, curving bill, the flash of cinnamon in its 

 wings, and above all, its loud, clear, and prolonged whistling notes 

 are bound to attract attention. In its former abundance this species 

 must have been a most striking feature of the western plains, as it 

 flew in large wedge-shaped flocks in full cry. The last of the great 

 open prairies are rapidly disappearing; and with them are going 

 the curlews, the marbled godwits, the upland plover, the longspurs, 

 and a host of other birds that can not stand the encroachments of 

 agriculture. 



The long-billed curlew formerly bred over a large portion of 

 central North America, including all of the prairie regions, at least 

 as far east as Michigan and Illinois, and probably Ohio. But, with 

 the settling of the country and the disappearance of the prairies, it 

 has been gradually driven farther and farther west, and even there 

 into a more and more restricted range. It seems to me that we can 

 hope for its survival only on the maintenance of large, open range? 

 as grazing lands for cattle where it still continues to breed. 



It was apparently quite common as a migrant in New England 

 up to about the middle of the last century. The birds seen here 

 were probably migrants from the more eastern prairies. The num- 

 erous citations given by Edward H. Forbush (1912) show its gradual 

 decline, until now it is only a rare straggler anywhere on the Atlantic 

 coast. In Audubon's time it was abundant in winter and as a migrant 

 on the coasts of Florida and South Carolina. I have never seen 

 one during my various seasons in Florida and Arthur T. Wayne 

 (1910) says: 



Since 1885 is has been supplanted by the Hudsonian curlew {N. hudsonicus) , 

 which is still exceedingly alnuidant during the spring and autumn migrations. 

 From 1879 to 1885, amerlcanus was to be found in the immediate vicinity of 

 Charleston, but its numbers steadily diminished year after year until at the 

 present time it is so rare that it is seldom seen ; in fact I have not seen one 

 since September 23, 1899. Audubon, in his Birds of America, states, upon the 

 authority of Doctor Bachman, that this curlew " breeds on the islands on the 

 coast of South Carolina, and it places its nests so close together, that it is al- 

 most impossible for a man to walk between them without injuring the eggs." 

 It may appear hypercritical to question Doctor Bachman's statement that this 

 species bred on the coast islands, but the eggs were not described by either 

 Audubon or himself, and as far back as 1879 there were no eggs of N. americanus 

 in the Charleston Museum, while the eggs of the "Stone Curlew" {Catoptro- 

 phoriis semipalmatus) were well represented and were classified as eggs of the 

 long-billed curlew, I have been unable to obtain any evidence, even from the 

 "oldest inhabitants," that this species ever bred anywhere on the South 

 Carolina coast. 



Dr. Thomas S. Roberts (1919) says of its status in Minnesota: 



As late at least as 1883 it was still breeding in southern Jackson County 

 (J. W. Preston) and Gleason saw a single bird of this species near Euclid, 



