FIELD-DAYS IN CALIFORNIA 



but common on our beach, and though I have 

 now and then seen them, I have no knowledge 

 of my own touching their table manners. 



And the same must be said of the godwits. I 

 have watched them sinking their prodigiously 

 long bills for their full length into the sand, but 

 have never seen what sort of comestibles they 

 bring up. They visit us oftener than the sickle- 

 bills, but in nothing like the numbers of the 

 Hudsonian curlews. 



It is not many years since we had on both our 

 coasts a third species of curlew, the Eskimo, so 

 called, or the dough-bird. Wonderfully fat we 

 are told the birds were, so that they would burst 

 open when they fell ; greatly esteemed for the 

 table, as a matter of course, and, equally of course, 

 much sought after by pot-hunters. Now they are 

 all dead. The sharpest-eyed of us will never see 

 another. Possibly the Hudsonians have heard of 

 their smaller brethren's fate (though I don't really 

 consider this so very likely), and have taken the 

 lesson to heart. May their shyness double itself, 

 say I. If it does, we have only to buy stronger 

 field-glasses. And the game will be worth it. 



Both species of North American turnstones, 



the ruddy and the black, may be found hunting 



up and down the beach in the course of their too 



infrequent semiannual visits, and a pleasing show 



36 



