Xcbi-asha Oniitltologists' Union 39 



flocks were usually much smaller than the enormous flights seen 

 at Omaha. usua!l\ consisting of 30 to 100 hirds. though occa- 

 sionally of considerahle size. \'oar hy year the birds decreased 

 in numbers, until b}- 187S. in which y».ar Professor Bruner 

 entered tlie services of the ( loxcnmenl. they were seen only in 

 small flocks or in(li\i(lnall\- here and there. During these eight 

 or nine years he moimted several of these curlews, three or four 

 for the University Museum (all of which have since disap- 

 peared), a pair \<n- tlic ( )maha Deaf and Duml) Tnstitutc and a 

 pair for the Union Pacific Railroad company. 



Mr. L. Sessions moved to Madison county in May. 1871, and 

 his acquaintance with the Eskimo Curlew began at that time. 

 The birds were then very abundant and could be found moving 

 about over the btirnt prairies or an occasional plowed field, in 

 search of food. The flocks were not large, about thirty or fortv 

 birds in a flock, on the average, and the banding together of 

 numerous flocks such as occurred in the South Platte feeding 

 grounds was not observed in Madison county, which furnished 

 no special attraction as to feeding grounds. During these days 

 food was somewh.at scarce in Nebraska, and many of the settlers 

 were led to look forward to this spring flight of the curlews as a 

 helpful .source of food supply. Mr. Sessions possesses a speci- 

 men of this curlew which was secured in these early days, for 

 he has not seen a living bird for many years now. nor has he had 

 any sent him to be mounted. 



Mr. W . A. Elwood, who as a boy hunter in the '70's shot quite 

 a number of these birds in Antelope county, states that the} 

 were numerous in flocks of thirty or forty birds, appearing about 

 the first week in May and remaining only a very short time, just 

 long enough to feed. He has not seen the bird for the ]jast 

 twenty years or more. Mr. A. J. Leach cf Oakdale remembers 

 these birds passing northward in the spring during the '70's while 

 he was plowing for corn, probably from the middle to the last of 

 April. These flocks consisted of from twenty to forty birds, and 

 they used to alight on the plowed ground and stubble lands to 

 feed. He also has not seen an Eskimo Curlew for a quarter of a 

 century past. Mr. Sanders, a guide and old hunter of Clarks. 



