Nebraska Ornithologists' Union 29 



brown. The young began hatching about July 12, leaving the nest 

 as soon as hatched and hiding away in the grass if alarmed^ ^ 23_ 



Late in July and early in August the curlews had completed 

 their domestic duties, and began congregating in flocks prepara- 

 tory for their long southward migration. Their first movement 

 was from the Barren Grounds southeastward to the eastern shores 

 of Labrador, where they massed in immense swarms. July 29, 

 1833, while Audubon was near the harbor of Bras d'Or, Labra- 

 dor, he found these curlews coming in from the north in such 

 dense flocks as to remind him of the flights of the Passenger 

 Pigeon^^. In 1838 Tucker recorded these birds as exceedingly 

 abundant, occurring in vast flocks on the Labrador coast^-''. In 

 1860 Dr. Packard noted a flock which was perhaps a mile long 

 and nearly as broad, and the sum total of their distant notes re- 

 sembled the wind whistling through the rigging of a ship, or at 

 times sounding like the jingling of many sleigh bells^". Dr. Coues 

 in the same year noted their arrival at Indian Tickle Harbor, Lab- 

 rador, August 16, I860'. Norton recorded their arrival at Houl- 

 ton Harbor, Labrador, August 20, 1891'^. Here they found an 

 abundance of food and gorged themselves until they became ex- 

 tremely fat. During latter August the bulk of the curlews crossed 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and 

 from there struck out to sea, heading toward their South Ameri- 

 can winter home. The records at Cartwright, Labrador, cover 

 the period from July 28 to October 242*5. 



During this long flight, if the weather was fair and fine, little 

 was seen of the curlews from the time they left the Newfound- 

 land and Nova Scotia shores vmtil they reached the Lesser An- 

 tilles, nearly 2,000 miles away. A few flocks would land for a 

 few days on the Bermuda Islands, according to Jardine''', and if 

 southerly storms prevailed great numbers of them would land. 



"Baird, S. F., Brewer. T. and Ridgway. R. Water Birds of North .Amer- 

 ica, i. p. 318, 18S4. 



"Audubon, J. J. Birds of .\merica, vi. p. 45, 1843; Orn. Biog., iii. p. 69 

 and V, p. 590, 1835. 



"■'Tucker, E. W. Five months in Labrador and Newfoundland in 1838, 

 p. 110, 1839. 



"'Townsend, C. W. and Allen, G. M. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., xxxiii, 

 pp. 356-357, 1900-1907. 



