THE AUK: 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF 

 ORNITHOLOGY. 



Vol. XXXIII. July, 1916. No. 3. 



FIELD NOTES ON SOME LONG ISLAND SHORE BIRDS. 



BY JOHN TREADWELL NICHOLS AND FRANCIS HARPER. 



Plates VII-XIII. 



Long Island, with its abundant and varied avifauna, has long 

 been one of the most thoroughly canvassed fields for ornithological 

 work in America. Naturally the water birds hold first place among 

 its attractions. Of the Limicolse alone, nearly fifty species have 

 been recorded, including a considerable number of European forms 

 and others of rare or accidental occurrence. Unfortunately, bird 

 students in general are rather neglectful of the shore birds, and 

 allow most of the records to be made by gunners or collectors, who — 

 at least as far as Long Island is concerned — have seldom done 

 more than publish migration data or the occurrence of unusual 

 forms. As a consequence, Giraud's work ^ of seventy-two years 

 ago, though far from exhaustive, still furnishes the fullest, and in 

 some respects the best, account that has been published of the habits 

 of most of our shore birds. ^ 



Since Giraud's time important changes have taken place in the 

 limicoline life of Long Island. The Dowitcher is no longer present 

 in the abundance of former days. The Robin Snipe, well known to 



1 J. p. Giraud, Jr. The Birds of Long Island. New York, 1844. 



2 Mr. George H. Mackay's excellent studies of a few species on the Massachusetts coast , 

 published in 'The Auk' over twenty years ago, must not be overlooked. See Vol. VIII, 1891, 

 17-24 (Golden Plover); IX, 16-21 (Eskimo Curlew); IX, 143-152 (Black-bellied Plover); 

 IX, 294-296 (Red Phalarope); IX, 345-352 (Hudsonian Curlew); X, 25-35 (Knot). 



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