16 NORTH AMERICAN SHOREBIRDS. 
shores of Labrador (Coues). During the following two weeks they 
crossed the Gulf of St. Lawrence and made their long ocean flight 
and by the end of another fortnight they were at the winter home in 
Argentina (Sclater and Hudson). Dates of arrival along this course 
are: Indian Tickle Harbor, Labrador, August 16, 1860 (Coues); 
Houlton Harbor, Labrador, August 20, 1891 (Norton); Nantucket, 
Mass., average August 29, earliest August 18, 1898 (Mackay); Bar- 
bados, West Indies, August 27,1886 (Mannie); Amazon River, Sep- 
tember 4, 1830 (Pelzeln); Concepcion, Argentina, September 9, 1880 
(Barrows) Some dates of the last seen are: Fort Churchill, Kee- 
watin, September 1, 1884 (Bell); Newfoundland, to end of Septem- 
ber (Reeks) ; Saybrook, Conn., October 13, 1874 (Merriam); Barba- 
dos, West Indies, Navember 4, 1886 (Manning): Many curlews 
migrated south along the west coast of Hudson Bay, before they 
turned east to the Atlantic and some of these seem to have wandered 
occasionally southward and given rise to such records as Kingston, 
Ontario, October 10, 1873 (Fleming); Erie, Pa., September 17, 1889 
(Sennett); and a few fall records around Lake Michigan. 
The Eskimo curlew is rapidly approaching extinction, if indeed 
any still exist. In the early sixties MacFarlane found them breeding 
abundantly on the Barren Grounds near Fort Anderson, while Coues 
reports thousands passing south along the Labrador coast:in the fall; 
in the early seventies Coues found them equally, abundant, passing 
north through South Dakota in the spring. Ten years later they, 
were still common in their winter home in Argentina, and, natural- 
ists who visited the Labrador coast at this time record them as 
present, in flocks but not in numbers as seen by Coues, By 1889 
only a few flocks were seen, and within the next half dozen years the 
flights ceased. During the last fifteen years the species has been 
recorded only a few times and apparently only three times in ‘the 
ten years previous to 1909: Tuckernuck Island, Massachusetts, eight 
birds August 24, 1897 (Mackay) ; Nantucket, Mase, two, August 18, 
1898 (Mackay) ; ‘northeastern coast of Labrador, about a dozen the 
fall of 1900 (Bigelow). ‘The latest records are those of two birds 
shot August 27, 1908, at Newburyport, Mass. (Thayer), and one. 
September 2, 1909, at Hog Island, Maine (Knight). The disappear- 
ance of the Eskimo curlew has given rise to much ‘speculation as to 
the probable cause. A simple explanation is that during recent 
years, especially since 1880, its former winter home i in Argentina has 
been settled and cultivated, while its spring feeding grounds in 
Nebraska and South Dakota have been converted into farm Jand. 
[European Curlew. Numenius arquatus (Linn. ). 
This Eastern Hemisphere species breeds from Great Britain to, southern, Russia, 
the White Sea, and the Ural Mountains. It winters in Great Britain. and occurs at 
this season from the Mediterranean to the south end of Africa. 
‘It is probable that one specimen of this curlew was collected on Long Island in 
1853—its only North American record. ] 
