SPECIES EXTINCT OR EXTIRPATED. 421 



The Rev. Herbert K. Job records a flight of Eskimo Cur- 

 lews and Golden Plover on Cape Cod, August 30, 1883, and 

 remarks (1905) that such a flight " may never be seen again." ^ 

 His words were prophetic. That was the last great flight that 

 landed on the Cape. 



A " cloud " of them was seen on the Magdalen Islands in 

 1890.2 -j^jjjs ^ag perhaps the last large flock of the Eskimo 

 Curlew that has been recorded in the east, although the fish- 

 ermen of Labrador reported smaller flights for a few years 

 longer. 



The decrease of the Dough-birds in Massachusetts during 

 the last century may be explained in part by the continual 

 persecution that they suffered here. The arrival of these 

 birds was the signal for every gunner and market hunter on 

 the coast to get to work. The birds were rarely given any 

 rest. Nearly all that remained on our shores were shot, and 

 only those that kept moving had any chance for their lives. 

 As a consequence of this continual persecution, the birds 

 probably learned to avoid the New England coast; and most 

 of those that were driven to land by storms left the moment 

 the weather was favorable for a continuance of their flight. 

 Often they came in at night and went in the morning. 



Peabody (1839) regarded the bird as " sufficiently common 

 in Massachusetts," and says that it is "valued as game;" 

 and Giraud (1844) says that it is seen every season in New 

 York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The 

 great flights about Boston disappeared early in the nineteenth 

 century. Sumner writes (1858) : " None are now to be seen 

 where once they were so abundant, and even the market 

 offers but few at fifty cents apiece." Turnbull (1869) gives it 

 as a rather rare transient (eastern Pennsylvania and New 

 Jersey). C. J. Maynard (1870) says that it is not uncommon 

 in Massachusetts during migration. E. A. Samuels (1870) 

 states that it visits New England, but only in small numbers. 

 Dr. Elliott Coues (1874) states that it migrates through the 

 Missouri region in immense numbers in May; and that in 



» Job, Herbert K.: Wild Wings, 1905, pp. 207, 208. 



2 Sanford, L. C, Bishop, L. B., and Van Dyke, T. S.: The Water-fowl Family, 1903, pp. 445, 

 446. 



