THE HUDSONIAN CURLEW 



By A. C. BENT 



THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES 

 Educational Leaflet No. 62 



A striking case of the survival of the fittest is seen when we compare 

 the relative abundance of the three common species of North American 

 curlews today with their status fifty years ago. Whereas, at that time, 

 the Hudsonian Curlew was the rarest of the three, it is now by far the 

 commonest. The vast flocks of Eskimo Curlews that formerly frequented 

 the Labrador coast every summer or visited the New England coast at 

 frequent intervals, have all disappeared. They were tame and unsuspi- 

 cious, were easily decoyed, and were therefore slaugh- 

 tered in enormous numbers on their feeding-grounds ; Declining 

 and when autumn came they made a long migratory 

 flight over the ocean from Nova Scotia to South America, in the course 

 of which many undoubtedly perished in stormy weather. 



The Long-billed Curlew, once so common all over the interior prairie 

 regions, and even on the Atlantic Coast, has gradually been driven west- 

 ward and northward, until it is now occupying a comparatively restricted 

 range. It is so large and conspicuous a species that it has been much 

 sought after by gunners, and, as it is not particularly shy, it has suc- 

 cumbed to persecution ; moreover the cultivation and settlement of the 

 prairies have driven it from, or destroyed, its favorite breeding-grounds. 

 The Long-billed will probably be the next of the curlews to disappear, 

 perhaps within the near future. 



The reasons for the Hudsonian Curlew's success in the struggle for 

 existence are not hard to find. Its breeding-grounds are in the far North, 

 where it is never disturbed ; it has no dangerous mi- 

 gration-route ; it does not, ordinarily, migrate in very Qualities 1 

 large flocks, which are susceptible to vicissitudes of 

 weather and great slaughter at the hands of gunners; but, above all, it 

 is a shy, wary, wily bird, quite capable of taking care of itself and well- 

 fitted to survive. Like the Crow, it is more than a match for its enemies. 

 There is no bird that has been more universally persecuted than the 

 Crow, every man's hand is against it, yet it is as abundant as ever. 



The Hudsonian Curlew, Jack Curlew, Short-billed Curlew, or Jack, 

 as it is variously called, has often been mistaken by gunners for each of 

 the other species, and some confusion seems to have existed, in regard 

 to it, among the early writers on ornithology. Wilson does not seem to 

 have recognized this species at all, or to have confused it with the Eskimo 

 ( urlcu ; and Xuttall's remarks are not altogether clear on the subject. 



