SPECIES EXTINCT OR EXTIRPATED. 429 



It has been suggested that possibly toward the last some 

 great storm at sea may have hastened the end. No storm 

 ever blew that was far-reaching, severe or continuous enough 

 to have threatened the extinction of these birds when they 

 were numerous, and bred from Hudson Bay to Alaska, when 

 their flights passed down the Atlantic coast in August and 

 September, with stragglers continuing until after the middle 

 of November. Their numbers were too great, and they were 

 extended over too large a part of the earth's surface, to be 

 swept out of existence at one fell stroke. There is no evi- 

 dence that this species ever was overwhelmed by any storm. 

 It seems to have been well fitted to cope with the elements at 

 sea. The species that are most exposed to storms on the 

 ocean are the two Phalaropes, which migrate almost entirely 

 at sea. By breeding mainly in high latitudes and keeping 

 mostly off shore in their migrations they have escaped the 

 gunner, and have held their own better than other birds of 

 this order. If storms at sea exterminated the Curlews, why 

 have they not destroyed the Phalaropes, which are far more 

 exposed to them, and the Golden Plover, which travelled 

 with the Curlews.? There could have been no possibility of 

 the destruction of the Dough-bird by a storm until it was 

 reduced to a remnant of its former numbers, and driven by 

 inhospitable man to seek a refuge at sea. But if such a 

 catastrophe had happened, it would have made no difference 

 in the end. The bird was doomed. It was merely another 

 victim to man's rapacity and greed, as all large shore birds 

 eventually must be, unless protected by law and public sen- 

 timent from their otherwise inevitable fate. 



In addition to the notes given by Mr. Mackay, there are 

 a few more eastern records made within the last twenty 

 years : — 



1890. — A flock of about twenty, at Eagle Hill, Ipswich, autumn; nearly 

 all killed by T. C. Wilson (C. W. Townsend, Birds of Essex County). 



1890. — One shot by Alfred Swan at North Eastham, September 28; speci- 

 men preserved. Species seen or taken in New York State every year 

 from 1885 to 1891 except 1888 (E. H. Eaton, Birds of New York). 



1893. — One seen at Ipswich by Walter Faxon (C. W. Townsend, Birds 

 of Essex County). 



