GAME BIRDS AND LARGER NON-GAME BIRDS 159 



although they occur as both spring and fall migrants in 

 British Columbia. 



The Least Sandpiper is a common migrant from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific. 



The Solitary Sandpiper is a summer resident in New 

 Brunswick, northern Quebec, the Prairie Provinces, and 

 British Columbia. 



The Upland Plover or Bartramian Sandpiper is a bird of 

 the open prairie, and is a common sununer resident in the 

 Prairie Provinces, where its chief breeding-centre is in 

 western Manitoba and eastern Saskatchewan. Without the 

 complete protection it is now afforded, it was doomed to 

 complete extermination at no distant date, owing to the 

 excessive destruction it has suffered at the hands of the 

 market gunner. With adequate protection the melodious 

 call of this bird, as it migrates northward in the spring, 

 will continue to please the ears of bird-lovers. 



The Greater and Lesser Yellowkgs may be hunted during 

 their fall migration. On the Atlantic coast it is a common 

 migrant in spring and fall, and frequents the shores of 

 tidal marshes. It is also a common migrant in Quebec, 

 Ontario, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan. In British Co- 

 lumbia, it is an abundant resident in the winter along the 

 coasts. The lesser yellowlegs is reported to be more abun- 

 dant than the former species. It is found throughout the 

 same range and breeds in large numbers in the Barren 

 Grounds. 



The Curlews. — The history of the Eskimo curlew resem- 

 bles somewhat that of the passenger pigeon. Formerly one 

 of our most abundant shore-birds, and although fairly com- 

 mon up to 1890, it is now almost extinct. Its disappearance 

 has been chiefly due to unrestricted market hunting in the 

 United States, particularly during its northward migration 

 in the spring. It bred in the northern Barren Grounds, 

 and in the fall travelled southward along the Labrador and 



