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Atlantic, the Esquimaux Curlew cannot be admitted into the European avifauna, except as a very 

 rare straggler, having only been procured in the British Islands, doubtless driven thither by adverse 

 weather when migrating. Mr. Harting records four instances of its occurrence in Great Britain : — 

 one near Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, 6th of September, 1855, this being the specimen referred 

 to by Yarrell ; one near Aldeburgh, Suffolk (Hele) ; one near Woodbridge, Suffolk, now in the 

 possession of Mr. Hilling, of Woodbridge ; and one purchased in Dublin, in the flesh, 21st of 

 October, 1870, now in the collection of Sir Victor Brooke, Bart., this last having been shot 

 in Sligo. Sir Victor Brooke exhibited this specimen at a Meeting of the Zoological Society, 

 where we had an opportunity of examining and comparing it with skins from North America in 

 Dresser's collection. 



This diminutive Curlew has occurred in Greenland, which may, to some extent, explain its 

 presence in this country ; but it has only been met with twice there. Professor Bernhardt, in 

 his notes on the birds of Greenland, published in 'The Ibis' for 1861, writes (p. 10) that "the 

 Royal Museum possesses two specimens of this little Curlew, which indeed were not received 

 directly from the Museum's own collectors, but bought at second-hand here in Copenhagen. I 

 have no doubt about their Greenland origin ; and they are, I believe, the only specimens ever 

 obtained there. One of them was brought from Greenland in 1858, and is said to have been 

 shot at Julianshaab ; about the other I know no particulars." Canon Tristram has lent us a 

 specimen for examination which he himself shot on the Bermudas, where this species occurs. 

 Its true home is America, where it is found during the breeding-season in the extreme north, 

 and at the approach of autumn migrates southwards, returning again to the north in the spring. 

 Captain Blakiston speaks of it as frequenting barren lands within the Arctic circle during the 

 summer season, and states that it has been obtained on the Mackenzie river [Bernard Boss) ; 

 and one specimen was recorded in the Faun. Bor.-Am. as having been procured from the 

 Rocky Mountains. Dresser met with it in Texas, near San Antonio de Bexar, in the early 

 spring ; Mr. Salvin records it from San Gerdnimo, in Central America, whence a single specimen 

 was sent home by Mr. R. Owen ; Natterer found it in Brazil, at Ypanema Lagoa do Campo 

 largo in September and October, at Xavier in October, and procured eleven examples on the 

 Amazon in September ; according to Darwin it occurs at Buenos Ayres ; and Lichtenstein obtained 

 it from Montevideo. We are indebted to our friend Dr. Elliott Coues for a resume of the 

 information published in America respecting this species, as well as some excellent original 

 notes, the result of his own observations. In a letter to Dresser Dr. Coues writes as follows : — 



" Sir John Richardson says, ' This Curlew frequents the barren lands within the Arctic 

 circle in summer, where it feeds on grubs, freshwater insects, and the fruit of Empetrum nigrum. 

 Its eggs, three or four in number, have a pyriform shape and a siskin-green colour, clouded with 

 a few large irregular spots of bright umber-brown. . . . On the 13th of June, 1822, I discovered 

 one of these Curlews hatching on three eggs on the shore of Point Lake. When I approached 

 the nest she ran a short distance, crouching close to the ground, and then stopped to observe 

 the fate of the objects of her care ' (F. B.-A. ii. p. 378). This is the only note on the breeding 

 of the bird I have at hand ; it shows the highly boreal summer resort of the species, like that of 

 most limicoline Grallce. Mr. Dall, indeed, remarks upon its occurrence at Fort Yukon, further 

 observing that it has not been found south or west of that point ; but he omits to give the 



