432 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



one old Prince Edward Island gunner remarked, "They 

 would not go out of a field until they were all killed." He 

 might have added, — and not even then, unless carried out. 

 In later years, on the Massachusetts coast, this species was 

 not always so tame; but most of those which remained for 

 any time upon these shores were gathered in by the gun- 

 ner sooner or later. In flight the smaller flocks sometimes 

 assumed a V-shaped formation, but the great flocks were 

 simply masses or extended lines. These flocks often per- 

 formed beautiful evolutions, swinging about as if at command, 

 sometimes in " open order," again compactly massed. They 

 always appeared to follow some temporary leader; and Nel- 

 son says that the small flocks frequently were led by a single 

 Hudsonian Curlew, as small shore birds sometimes are pre- 

 ceded by one of a larger species, the little fellows seemingly 

 depending on its superior sagacity and watchfulness to keep 

 them from danger. When driven in by a storm, the Eskimo 

 Curlews usually alighted facing the wind on the sheltered side 

 of a grassy hill or in the open field, sometimes on the beach 

 or in the marsh; but they were attracted particularly by hill 

 pastures near the coast. 



In Massachusetts their food consisted very largely of 

 terrestrial insects, beetles, grasshoppers, crickets and ants; 

 also earthworms. They were among the most useful of birds 

 in their migrations in the west, as they were very destructive 

 to the young of the Rocky Mountain locust, formerly the 

 scourge of the plains. Dr. Coues says that while feeding the 

 great flocks kept up a conversational chattering, like a flock 

 of Blackbirds. In Prince Edward Island they have been seen 

 following the furrow and searching for worms, as they did in 

 the west.^ 



In Labrador they gathered to feed on the wild berries, 

 chief of which was the Empetrum nigrum, called curlewberry 

 or " gallowberry " by the natives, but generally known as the 

 crowberry. There they also fed on snails; and Mr. Berteau 

 states that they ate " sea lice and infusoria found on sandy 

 beaches." 



1 Mackay, George H.: Auk, 1896, p. 182. 



