1S92.] MacKay oh the Eskimo Curleiu. , I^ 



that any large numbers of them are deflected over the land by or- 

 dinary storms, very severe thunder and lightning with heavy rain, 

 or dense fogs, apparently being required to drive them from their 

 customary line of flight and force them to seek land until more 

 favorable conditions for migrating take place, for they are unus- 

 ually strong and high fliers with gi eat endurance. I believe also, 

 that it is only in exceptional years that we see a portion of the 

 principal movement of these birds while making their southern 

 migration. 



Those which do visit us almost invariably land with their boon 

 companions, the American Golden Plover, of whose flocks I have 

 frequently noticed they were the leaders, and I can scarcely call 

 to mind, as 1 write, an instance where any number of Eskimo Cur- 

 lew have landed without there being more or less Golden Plover 

 present at the same time. 



Those birds which may come cannot, if they would, remain 

 any longer than is absolutely necessary, for they are so harassed 

 immediately after landing that the moment there occurs a change 

 in the weather favorable for migration they at once depart. They 

 appear to leave the coast at Long Island. New York, and strike 

 further out to sea, and then are not seen on the Atlantic coast for 

 another yeai'. 



It is on the spring migration to their breeding grounds, while 

 passing through the United States and especially along the Miss- 

 issippi Valley, that they sufler, being unmercifully shot in many 

 places on the route, particularly in Nebraska. Like the Ameri- 

 can Golden Plover ( Charadrius dominicus^ tlie Eskimo Curlew 

 never returns in the spring to the North via the Atlantic coast.* 



Of those I have observed in New England daring a series of 

 years I may say that most of their habits closely resemble those 

 of the Golden Plover. In migration they fly in much the same 

 mi;nner, with extended and broadside and triangular lines and 

 clusters similar to those of Ducks and Geese at such times. They 

 usually fly low after landing, sweeping slowly over the ground, 



*The only Eskimo Curlew that I have ever heard of being obtained in the spring in 

 New England was shot by my friend Mr. Augustus Denton on Cape Cod, Mass., 

 about the end of May, 1873. It was a lone bird. Mr. Denton told me that he 

 always supposed it was a bird which had been wounded the previous autumn and had 

 managed to live through the winter; the reason for this conclusion was the condition 

 of the bird, it bemg very thin, and sedgy in taste when eaten. 



