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vision they become very fat, affording an agreeable change in the diet of ' salt-horse,' ' hard-tack,' 

 and 'slum-gullion' that the average voyageur to Labrador endures." 



Audubon, who met with the Curlew in numbers in Labrador, writes that " wherever there 

 was a spot that seemed likely to afford a good supply of food, there the Curlews abounded, and 

 were easily approached. By the 12th of August, however, they had all left the country. In 

 Labrador they feed on what the fishermen call the Curlew-berry, a small black fruit growing on 

 a creeping shrub not more than an inch or two in height, and so abundant that patches of 

 several acres covered the rocks here and there. When the birds were in search of these feeding- 

 grounds they flew in close masses, sometimes high, at other times low, but always with remark- 

 able speed, and performing beautiful evolutions in the air. The appearance of a man did not 

 seem to intimidate them ; for they would alight so near us, or pass over our heads at so short a 

 distance, that we easily shot them. While on wing they emitted an oft-repeated whistling note ; 

 but the moment they alighted they became silent. They ran swiftly along, all in the same 

 direction, picking up the berries in their way, and when pursued would immediately squat in 

 the manner of a Snipe or Partridge, sometimes even laying the neck and head quite flat on the 

 ground, until you came within a short distance, when, at the single whistle of any one of the 

 flock, they would all immediately scream and fly off, rambling about for awhile, and not unfre- 

 quently realighting on the same spot. Now and then, however, their excursion would last a long 

 time ; they would rise high in the air, make towards the sea, and, as if aware of the unfavourable 

 state of the weather for pursuing their southward course, would return. They continued to 

 arrive at Bras d'Or for several days, in flocks which seemed to me to increase in number. I saw 

 no Hawks in their rear ; and I was the more astonished at this, as at that period Pigeon-Hawks 

 and other species were pretty abundant. They rose from the ground by a single quick spring, 

 in the manner of a Snipe, when they would cut backward, forward, and all around, in a very 

 curious manner, and would now and then pause in the air, like a Hawk, remaining stationary for 

 a few moments, with their head meeting the wind, when immediately afterwards they would all 

 suddenly alight. In calm and fair weather they were more shy than at other times. While on 

 their passage across the Gulf they flew high, in close bodies, and with their usual speed, by no 

 means in regular lines, nor in any order, but much in the manner of the Migratory Pigeon, now 

 and then presenting a broad front, and again coming together so as to form a close body. Those 

 which we procured were extremely fat and juicy, especially the young birds, of which we ate a 

 good many. Mr. Jones, an old settler of Bras d'Or, and his son shoot a great number every 

 season, which they salt for winter food. They informed us that these birds pass over the same 

 tract about the middle of May, on their way northward, and that they never found them breeding 

 in their neighbourhood. Little difference could be observed at that season between the males 

 and females, or between the old and young birds." Audubon, having remarked that they feed 

 on berries, states that they also eat grasshoppers. In Labrador they are called " Dough-birds," 

 owing probably to their fatness ; but this name is also applied to several other birds. 



In Dresser's collection is an egg of this Curlew, received from the Smithsonian Institution 

 of Washington, U.S., with particulars — to the effect that it was taken, during McFarlane's expe- 

 dition, on the Barren Grounds east of Anderson River, Arctic America, on the 12 th of June, 

 1864, and the parent bird shot; the nest was composed of withered leaves, placed in a depression 



