422 GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



Labrador it is seen in flocks of from three birds to three 

 thousand. 



Dr. J. A. Allen (1879) considers it a common migrant 

 in Massachusetts. Gurdon Trumbull (1888) says that this 

 species appears on the more eastern uplands of Cape Cod 

 in August or September, " and if severe storms prevail, it 

 arrives in very large numbers." This should have been writ- 

 ten in the past tense. 



At first sight it may seem difficult to reconcile all these 

 statements with that of Sumner, made in 1858; but his asser- 

 tion referred mainly to Boston harbor, with the conditions of 

 which he was familiar, and Curlews were still fairly common 

 on less frequented parts of the coast long after the great 

 flocks had disappeared from the neighborhood of Boston. In 



1888, however, Stearns and Coues considered it " singular " 

 that this species was not common in New England. 



A diminution of the species was noticed next in the west. 

 The birds no longer came in their usual numbers. A warn- 

 ing note was sounded by Charles B. Cory (1896), who said: 

 "It is becoming less common every year." This diminution 

 had been gradual and progressive for years, but attracted 

 little attention until it became rapid and marked. Mr. J. D. 

 Mitchell, who is familiar with southern Texas, writes: "They 

 used to visit the prairies in immense flocks, but it has been 

 many years since I have seen a flock." Pressed for details, 

 he writes that his earliest recollections of these birds date 

 back to 1856. From that time to 1875 they came every 

 spring in immense flocks on the prairies; after that they dis- 

 appeared. In 1886 he saw several small flocks in Calhoun 

 County, and in 1905 he saw three birds feeding with four 

 Black-breasted Plover in Victoria County. These are his last 

 records. Mr. A. S. Eldredge says that this Curlew came 

 through the region about Lampasas, Tex., in 1890, in flocks 

 of fifteen or twenty. In 1902 he killed one bird, —the only 

 one that he saw. Prof. Geo. H. Beyer writes that the Eskimo 

 Curlew disappeared very gradually in Louisiana. The last 

 records he has for the species are March 17 and March 23, 



1889. Prof. W. W. Cooke knows of no record of the species 



