426 



GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



yard and Tuckernuck Islands. These notes, condensed from 

 various numbers of the Auk, follow: — 



1858 to 1861. — Some birds each 

 year. 



1862. — No birds. 



1863. — An immense fligiit. 



1864. — No birds. 



1865. — No birds. 



1866. — A few; no flight. 



1867. — No flight. 



1868. — A few; no flight. 



1869. — A few; no flight. 



1870. — A few scattering birds. 



1871. — No birds. 



1872.' — Two flights; fifty birds seen 

 in one flock on Nantucket. 



1873. — Some birds. 



1874. — No birds. 



1875. — No birds on Nantucket, a 



few on Cape Cod. 



1876. — Some birds. 



1877. — A flight; 300 birds seen. 



1878. — Over 100 birds seen. 



1879. — No birds. 



1880. — A few shot on Nantucket. 



1881. — Some landed; fifty seen. 



1882. — About twenty-five birds. 



1883. 

 1884. 

 1885. 

 1886. 

 1887. 

 1888. 

 1889. 



1890. 

 1891. 



1892. 



1893. 

 1894. 



1895. 

 1896. 



1897. 



1898. 



■ A large flight, August 26. 



■ A few landed. 



■ Eight shot on Nantucket. 



■ A few landed. 



■ A few shot on Nantucket. 



■ A number landed; one shot. 



■ A number landed September 



11, a few shot later. 



■ Fifteen birds reported. 



- Small flocks seen on Nan- 



tucket and Tuckernuck. 



• Ten birds killed on Nan- 



tucket and Tuckernuck, 

 eight in Prince Edward 

 Island. 



- One shot on Nantucket. 



- No birds. One in Boston 



market. 



■ No birds. 



• None in markets, and none 



on Massachusetts coast. 

 •None killed; eight seen on 

 Nantucket. 



■ Two seen. 



There has been much speculation regarding the cause of 

 its disappearance, and all sorts of reasons except the real one 

 are advanced by gunners. The usual explanations, that the 

 birds had " changed their line of flight," or that they " do 

 not come any more," for various trivial local reasons, have 

 been put forward. 



Dr. C. W. Townsend writes: "About fifteen years ago the 

 Curlews in Labrador rapidly diminished in numbers, and now 

 [1906] a dozen or two or none at all are seen in a season. 

 The fishermen there thought that the shooters were not to 

 blame for this, but that the birds had been poisoned by the 

 farmers in the west, because they ' troubled their cornfields.' " 

 This tale, no doubt, arose because of the fact that the western 

 farmers, years ago, poisoned blackbirds in their cornfields by 



