26 Proceedings of the 



at Albany Fort, Hudson Bay. Pennant- in 1785 and Hearne" in 

 1795 both erroneously referred to the larger congener of this 

 bird, the Hudsonian Curlew (Nmncnius hudsonicus), as the "Es- 

 kimaux Curlew," though the latter author recognized two species 

 of curlew as abundant about Hudson Bay from 1769 to 1772, the 

 smaller of which was undoubtedly the present species. In 1790 

 Latham* formally described the Hudsonian Curlew and referred 

 the Eskimo Curlew to the same genus, but confusion between the 

 two species continued up to the earlier years of the nineteenth 

 century, and the bird described by Wilson' in 1813 as the "Esqui- 

 maux Curlew" was in reality the Hudsonian, the species right- 

 fully entitled to the name he used being unknown to him. The 

 Hudsonian Curlew is a large bird, about seventeen inches long, 

 with a bill about four inches long, a whitish stripe in the middle 

 of the top of the head and the long flight feathers of the wing 

 barred with bufify ; the Eskimo Curlew is two to five inches 

 shorter, with a bill only slightly over two inches long, the crown 

 unstriped and the flight feathers of the wing unbarred. 



In the spring migration this curlew passed through the interior 

 of the United States, in the Mississippi valley, rarely if ever oc- 

 curring on the Atlantic ocean or its coasts. It first appeared in 

 the United States in Texas and Louisiana during early to middle 

 March. In central Texas Brown*^ noted it at Boerne. Kendall 

 county, March 9, 1880. as a rather common migrant, while in 

 northern Texas at Gainesville. Cooke county, it arrived on the 

 average March 17, according to Ragsdale, while its earliest date 

 was March 7, 1884". In the adjacent county. Wise, it was noted 

 as late as April 2, 1884. while at Caddo, Oklahoma, a short dis- 

 tance across the Red River from Gainesville, in 1884 it was noted 

 March 25 and was abundant on April 2^. In Louisiana, where it 

 was a common migrant", the last records are for March 17 and 



^Pennant. T. Arctic Zoology, ii. 1785. 



"Hearne, S. A journey from Prince of Wales' Fort in Hudson's Bay to 



the Northern Ocean, 179.5. 

 *Latham, J. Index Ornithologicus, ii. p. 712, 17!tO. 

 ^Wilson, A. American Ornithology, vii. 18i:>. 

 'Brown, N. C Bull. Nuttall Ornith. Club. vii. p. 42. 1882. 

 'Cooke. W. W. Bull. ?>;i. Bureau of Biological Survey, pp. 74-76. 1910. 

 "Cooke. W. W. Bull. 2. Division of Economic Ornithology, p. 98. 1888. 

 'Beyer, G. R., Allison, A., and Kopman. H. H. Auk, xxv, p. 179, 1908. 



