328 ANNUAL BEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTlTtTTION, 1915. 



not known, hoAvever, to have actually nested either west or east of 

 the Mackenzie Barren Grounds. 



The nest of the Eskimo curlew was a mere hole in the ground 

 on the open plain lined w^ith a few decayed leaves with a thin sprink- 

 ling of dried grass in the center. The eggs were laid by the third 

 week in June. As the setting bird w^ould glide off before the nest 

 was closely approached it was a very difficult thing to find. After 

 leaving the nest the female usually soon ascended into the air in a 

 straight line. The eggs, usually four in number, were oblong oval, 

 slightly pear shaped, varying in size from 1.90 by I.-IO to 2.12 by 

 1.33, and also exceedingly variable in color, a pale green or greenish 

 gi-ay to clay colored or olivaceous drab heavily marked on the larger 

 end with shades of sepia to umber brown. The young began hatch- 

 ing about July 12, leaving the nest as soon as hatched and hiding 

 away in the grass if alarmed.^ - 



liate in July and early in August the curlew^s had completed their 

 domestic duties, and began congregating in flocks preparatory for 

 their long southAvard migration. Their first movement was from 

 the Barren Grounds southeastward to the eastern shores of Labrador, 

 w^here they massed in immense swarms. July 29, 1833, while Audu- 

 bon was near the harbor of Bras d'Or, Labrador, he found these cur- 

 lews 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 per- 

 haps a mile long and nearly as broad, and the sum total of their dis- 

 tant notes resembled 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 Har- 

 bor, Labrador, August 16, I860.® Norton recorded their arrival at 

 Houlton 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 New^foundland and Nova Scotia, and 

 from there struck out to sea, heading toward their South American 

 winter home. The records at Cartwright, Labrador, cover the period 

 from July 28 to October 24." 



1 Coues, E. Birds of the Northwest, p. 510-512, 1874. 



2 Baird, S. F,, Brewer, T., and Ridgway, It. Water Birds of North America, 1, p. 318, 

 1884. 



3 Audubon, J. J. Birds of America, 6, p. 45, 1843 ; Orn. Biog., 3, p. G9, and 5, p. 590, 

 1835. 



* Tucker, E. W. Five months in Labrador and Newfoundland in 1838, p. 110, 1839. 

 ^ Forbush, E. 11. Game Birds, Wildfowl and Shorebirds, pp. 416-432, 1912. 

 8 Cooke, W. W. Bull. 35, Bureau oi Biological Survey, pp. 74-70, 1910. 

 ' Townsend, C. W., and Allen, G. M. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 3.3, pp. 356-357, 

 1906-7. 



