60 Wayne, South Carolina Birds. [j^ 



has been extirpated by being shot, but that it has changed its route 

 of migration. Audubon, in his ' Birds of America,' Vol. VI, 

 pp. 35 and 36, states, upon the authority of Dr. Bachman, that 

 this Curlew "breeds on the islands on the coast of South Carolina," 

 and it "places its nests so close together, that it is almost impossible 

 for a man to walk between them, without injuring the eggs." 

 Later writers have also asserted that this Curlew breeds abundantly 

 on the South Atlantic coast, namely — Dr. Elliott Cones, 'Birds 

 of the Northwest,' p. 508; 'Key to N. A. Birds,' p. 645; Prof. 

 Daniel Giraud Elliot, 'N. A. Shore Birds,' p. 153; 'A. O. U. 

 Check-List,' 1895, p. 97, and Wickersham, 'The Auk,' Vol. XIX, 

 Oct., 1902, p. 353. I am of the opinion that the authors above 

 mentioned accepted Audubon's account of Dr. Bachman's state- 

 ment as a fact, and did not substantiate it by their personal ex- 

 perience. It may appear hypercritical to question Dr. Bachman's 

 statement that this Curlew bred on the coast islands, but the eggs 

 were not described by either Audubon or himself, and as far back 

 as 1879 there were no eggs of N, longirostris in the Charleston 

 Museum; while the egg of the 'Stone Curlew' (Symphemia 

 semipalmaia) , were well represented and were classified as eggs 

 of the Long-billed Curlew! I have been unable to obtain any 

 evidence, even from the "oldest inhabitants," that N. longirostris 

 ever bred anywhere on the South Carolina coast. The birds sim- 

 ply appeared in the autumn and winter, and migrated to their 

 bleeding grounds in the Northwest late in the spring. Dr. Bach- 

 man made many errors respecting the Limicola? and I may men- 

 tion a few. He stated in Audubon's 'Birds of America,' Vol. V, 

 p. 256, that Tringa canutus does not occur in South Carolina, 

 in "full plumage"; and again in Vol. VI, p. 12, he states that 

 Macrorhamphus griseus does not occur in the "spring in the vicin- 

 ity of Charleston." It is hardly worth mentioning that both 

 Tringa canutus and Macrorhamphus griseus occur abundantly 

 on the South Carolina coast during the northward migration. 

 Both of these species attain the highest possible plumage before 

 they start on their long journey to the Arctic Regions. In 1885, 

 Mr. Brewster and the writer collected a very fine series of Tringa 

 canutus, in the month of May on Sullivan's Island, S. C. Macror- 

 hamphus griseus is in full nuptial plumage by April 2S, and it is 



