190S.] 



BIRDS. 



331 



Although this widely distributed species is found in suitable locali- 

 ties throughout the wooded portion of the region, Richardson, for 

 some reason, did not note it. at least during his earlier journeys. 

 Ross found it abundant along the Mackenzie, collecting it at Fort 

 Simpson.^ MacFarlane found it abundant along Anderson and 

 Lockhart rivers.^ Seton records the bird from Clinton-Colden and 

 Aylmer lakes, where it was observed in mid-August, 1907.^ The 

 catalogue of the birds in the Xational Museum records specimens 

 from Peace River, Slave River, Fort Resolution, Fort Rae, Big 

 Island, Fort Xorman, Great Bear Lake, and Peel River. Eggs were 

 sent to the Smithsonian from Lesser Slave Lake by Strachan Jones 

 in 1868, and from Pelican Lake, eastern Saskatchewan, by H. 

 ^lacKay, who took them there in June, 1891. 



In 1896 J. Alden Loring found the species common and breeding 

 during the early summer all along the trail from Edmonton to Jas- 

 per House, on July 15 discovered a nest containing four eggs 15 

 miles south of Henry House, and during the late summer and early 

 autumn found the bird common on all the streams and lakes between 

 Jasper House and Smoky River. 



Numenius americanus Bechstein. Long-billed Curlew. 



A mounted specimen, catalogued as having been taken at Fort 

 Simpson some years ago, is in the museum of the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany at Fort Simpson. This curlew inhabits the northern plains 

 and seldom wanders north of their borders. 



Numenius hudsonicus Lath. Hudsonian Curlew. 



A male was taken at my camp on Great Bear Lake east of Leith 

 'Point September 30, 1908. This bird, the only one observed, had 

 been feeding on the berries of Empetrum nigrum. 



Ross recorded this species from Great Slave Lake, where he regarded 

 it as rare ; ^ and the bird catalogue of the Xational Museum records 

 a specimen from Big Island. Eggs were brought to MacFarlane by 

 the Eskimo from the Barren Grounds to the westward of the lower 

 Anderson River, and have been described by Coues.^ In notes sent 

 to the Smithsonian MacFarlane records one seen at Fort Anderson 

 May 29, 1865. A mounted specimen taken at Fort Simpson some 

 years ago is in the museum at that place. 



«Xat. Hist. Rev., II (second ser.), p. 285, 1862. 

 ^ Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XIV, p. 428, 1891. 

 f'Auk, XXV, p. 70, 1908. 



<^Nat. Hist. Rev., II (second ser.), p. 290, 1862. 

 e Birds of the Northwest, p. 494, 1874. 



