128 BULLETIN 146;, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



When he was a boy 10 or 12 years old, are indicative. The birds would arrive 

 about the time the later willows began to bloom (latter April), being present 

 tn force for a week or 10 days only, for by the time all of the wild plum blossoms 

 had fallen (middle May) the birds were gone. Usually the heaviest flights oc- 

 ?urred coincident with the beginning of corn-planting time, and enormous flocks 

 Df these birds would settle on the newly plowed fields and on the dry burnt-off 

 prairies, where they searched industriously for insects. These flocks reminded 

 the settlers of the flights of passenger pigeons and the curlews were given the 

 name of " prairie pigeons." They contained thousands of individuals and would 

 Dften form dense masses of birds extending for a quarter to a half mile in 

 length and a hundred yards or more in width. When the flock would alight the 

 birds would cover 40 or 50 acres of ground. 



Dr. E. W. Nelson (1887) called this "tliemost abundant curlew in 

 northern Alaska, especially along the coasts of Bering Sea and Kotze- 

 bue Sound." At Saint Michael a number were seen passing north on 

 May 12, 1878. He says that they were " always more numerous than 

 hudsonicus, and sometimes flocks of 150 or more" were seen. But 

 Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1900) looked for it in vain about Kotzebue 

 Sound. 



Nesting. — For all that we know about the nesting habits of the 

 Eskimo curlew, we are indebted to Koderick MacFarlane, who foimd 

 this species breeding abundantly on the barren grounds east of Fort 

 Anderson and up to the Arctic coast. He collected some 30 sets of 

 eggs there between 18G2 and 1866. He says in his notes that " this 

 curlew never, in this quarter at least, breeds in wooded tracts, the 

 barren grounds proper being the real habitat of the species during 

 6he season of nidification." It is " very difficult to find the nests " as 

 the birds " get off long before our approach, while the eggs nearly 

 resemble the grass in color." Some birds were seen to leave the 

 nests. The nests are described as mere hollows in the ground, " lined 

 with a few decayed leaves " and sometimes having " a thin sprin- 

 kling of hay." The birds " generally ascend in the air in a straight 

 line after getting off the nest." 



Eggs. — The normal set was evidently four eggs, but MacFarlane 

 sent home several sets of three. The eggs are rather pointed ovate 

 in shape and have very little gloss. Many eggs closely resemble 

 certain types of Franklin gull's eggs. The ground colors vary from 

 browns to olives, the latter predominating. The olive colors run 

 from " buffy olive " or " citrine drab " to " olive buff," and the brown 

 colors from " light brownisli olive " to "buckthorn brown." Some 

 eggs are boldly marked with heavy blotches, which are sometimes 

 confluent about the larger end; more often they are irregularly 

 spotted and blotched; and some eggs are sparingly marked. The 

 markings are in dark browns, "bister," "bone brown," "buffy 

 brown," and blackish brown, with underlying spots and blotches of 

 various shades of " brownish drab." The measuremens of 36 eggs 



