446 The Water-fowl Family 



weather prevented us from quite reaching the 

 destination. The shelter of a native shanty was 

 thankfully accepted. It proved to be an instance, 

 though, of " into the fire," for the house was flea 

 infested, and but little better than the storm out- 

 side. At the first sign of morning I left the place 

 with the idea of climbing a high bluff just beyond. 

 It was a straight cliff some two hundred feet high, 

 rising from the edge of the bay, and tapering off 

 into low hills from the summit. Long before 

 reaching the top I could hear curlew whistling, 

 and soon a flock passed by in sight ; after circling 

 about the steep slope they settled in the grass. 

 In a few minutes a small bunch of birds came 

 within range, and at the report of the gun a per- 

 fect cloud of curlew rose, breaking up into small 

 flocks as they filled the air. To my surprise the 

 birds were mostly Eskimo curlew. It was a ques- 

 tion only of a short time before the last cartridge 

 had been spent, and the shooting had been so 

 rapid there had been no chance to pick up the 

 dead birds ; of these about two-thirds were Eski- 

 mos. Later in the morning we started out with 

 powder and shot enough to last, but the curlew 

 had gone, not a single one was left; and though 

 repeatedly this hill was visited, we never after- 

 ward saw anything there but a few Hudsonian 

 curlew. Toward the end of September the 

 Eskimo curlew is regularly found as a straggler 



