52 Wild Bird Guests 



The Esquimau curlews nested from Alaska to 

 Labrador, the favorite breeding place being the 

 Barren Grounds of Northwestern Canada. They 

 wintered in Argentina and Patagonia, and every 

 fall the birds appeared in almost unbelievable 

 flocks in Labrador and Newfoundland and the 

 Magdalen Islands, where the fishermen killed 

 great numbers and salted them down in barrels. 

 The curlews then proceeded to Nova Scotia 

 where they left the land and headed for South 

 America by way of the West Indies. On the 

 Magdalen Islands and perhaps elsewhere they 

 roosted in dense masses on the high beach, and 

 men armed with sticks and carrying lanterns to 

 dazzle the birds slaughtered them by wholesale. 

 Nor did they receive any better treatment on 

 the New England coast, where after buffeting a 

 cold northeast storm until they were exhausted, 

 they alighted in misplaced confidence to rest. 

 Their arrival was the signal for men and boys to 

 chase and beat them down with clubs, or for the 

 market-hunters and other gunners to shoot them 

 as long as one remained on shore. In 1872 they 

 were killed in such numbers on Cape Cod that 

 the 'boys sold them as low as six cents apiece. 

 Even at such prices some of the market-hunters 

 sold hundreds of dollars worth. It is little won- 

 der that the curlews at last learned to shun 



