90 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



This splendid bird has, I am afraid, diminished in numbers in the last fifteen 

 years. In the original Memoir I said it was " an apparent, but I am inclined to 

 think, only an apparent, exception to the rule that the shore birds are all decreas- 

 ing in numbers," and went on to explain that the Long-billed species was so much 

 more common in proportion to the Hudsonian in former days up to the seventies, 

 that the latter species was considered rare. The following quotations from 

 Wayne's'^ " Birds of South Carolina " put a different light on the subject and are 

 of great interest. They confirm the statements of Maynard who found the Long- 

 billed Curlew " not uncommon " at Ipswich between 1867 and 1872, and the Hud- 

 sonian Curlew " very rare." Wayne says of the Hudsonian Curlew : " This species 

 supplanted the Long-billed Curlew between the years 1883 and 1885, for previous 

 to these dates the former species was rare, but it gradually became more abundant 

 each year until it established itself firmly in great numbers. The result was that 

 the Long-billed Curlew was driven from its accustomed range by a smaller species, 

 in the struggle for existence." 



He says that the Long-billed Curlew "is now almost extinct on the South 

 Carolina Coast, while it once swarmed in countless multitudes. Since 1885 it has 

 been supplanted by the Hudsonian Curlew (N. hudsonicus) , which is still exceed- 

 ingly abundant during the spring and autumn migrations. ... I do not think that 

 americanus has been exterminated by being shot, but that it has changed its route 

 of migration." 



I once watched a large bird of this species, probably a female, feeding on the 

 mud-flats of Clark's Pond. It probed with the bill partly open sometimes forcing 

 it half its length into the mud. Later the bird flew up into the pasture on the hills 

 and pursued and ate grasshoppers and other insects. 



129 [266] Numenius borealis (J. R. Forst.). 



Eskimo Curlew; "Dough-bird.'' 



Transient visitor, accidental in the spring, very rare in the autumn. August 

 24 to September 15. 



An extraordinary record is the following : " Eskimo Curlew in Massachusetts. 

 — I am informed by Mr. E. H. Ives, of Boston, that a flock of about fifty Eskimo 

 Curlew {Numenius borealis) was seen last spring (May 17, 1916) at Chut-Head 

 Sands, near the mouth of the Rowley River between the towns of Ipswich and 

 Rowley, Mass. 



1 Wayne, A. T. "Birds of South Carolina." Contrib. Charleston Mus., no. i, pp. 55, 

 57, iQio. 



