110 General Notes. [j a u n k 



Baird's Sandpiper in Massachusetts. — While at Chatham, Mass., 

 I obtained a specimen of Baird's Sandpiper (Pisobia bairdi) which was 

 shot October 18, 1910, on Monomoy Point. The identification was verified 

 by Mr. C. J. Maynard, of West Newton, who now has the skin. — Mrs. 

 E. R. Jump, West Newton, Mass. 



Eskimo Curlew. — It is rather with a sense of reluctance that I send the 

 following record, knowing the suspicion which is bound to arise but, being 

 an enthusiastic gunner myself, I think it may prove of some interest to 

 that very small body of ornithologists who know anything about shore 

 birds. The record is that of the much discussed Eskimo Curlew. It is 

 only within the last year that I realized that this species was nearing 

 extinction. Such a blunder, however, I consider excusable when I take 

 up any recent text-book or list and find this species still mentioned as our 

 most abundant curlew. I understand, however, that the last record of 

 this species from Long Island was in 1884, or 26 years ago. It seems 

 incredible that for 20 years the absence of this species should have passed 

 without remark, unless it be explained, as the present record must be, on 

 the grounds that every gunner supposed these birds were common enough 

 but that he had never happened to see one. 



In 'The Auk,' Vol. XXI, p. 79, I recorded a flight of Hudsonian Godwit 

 on the 31st day of August, 1903. That was the morning after a heavy three 

 days' storm, and on that day a friend of mine, an experienced gunner, shot 

 an Eskimo Curlew at Quogue, L. I. I paid small attention to it at the 

 time, believing it to be a fairly common bird. There can be little doubt 

 that this record is correct. I understand that the record in 'The Auk,' 

 Vol. XXI, p. 289, of a bird of this species shot on Sept. 14, 1902 is in- 

 correct. However, it is a strange coincidence that Dr. Braislin, on the 

 same page, refers to one shot from a flock of about 15 as they were passing 

 along the beach, near Zach's Inlet on August 29, 1903. The storm con- 

 tinued on August 30, clearing on the 31st, when the flight above noted took 

 place at Quogue, the birds coming from the west. Zach's Inlet is about 

 40-50 miles west of Quogue, so that it would seem that Dr. Braislin's 

 record and mine would fit in rather well together. There seems to me no 

 doubt that this bird was a specimen of the Eskimo Curlew. — Frederick 

 Wm. Kobbe, New York City. 



Kalm's Articles on the Passenger Pigeon. — In ' The Auk ' for October, 

 1910, Dr. A. H. Wright published 'Some early records of the Passenger 

 Pigeon' (pp. 428-443) and has referred to Kalm's Travels l wherein Kalm 

 promises to "speak of them more particularly in another place" but Dr. 

 Wright was unable to find "another place." The elusive articles by 

 Kalm are practically unknown and Coues failed to find one of them but 

 recorded, in the 'Bulletin' of the United States Geological and Geographical 



1 The original of Kalm's Travels was published in Swedish in 1753-'61. 



