CURLEW 
191 
species; less pink and more olive-brown. The colour characters are especially con- 
spicuous on the underwing surface in flight. The Eskimo Curlew is too rare a bird today 
and too similar to be separated from the Hudsonian in life, by field observation. 
Distribution. North and South America. Breeds on the northwest coast of Alaska 
and the coast of Mackenzie east to Hudson Bay. Migrates through the big lakes of 
Mackenzie and eastern Canada and along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Not noted, 
as yet, in the interior of British Columbia and only a few times in the Prairie Provinces. 
266. Eskimo Curlew, le courlis des Esquimaux. Phaeopus borealis. L, 13-50. 
The smallest of our curlews, almost identical in general form and colour with the Hudsonian. 
Figure 272 
Specific details of Eskimo Curlew; scale, §. 
a, barred axillaris; b, crown without median stripe; 
c, profile of head; d, plain first primary. 
Distinctions. Like the Hudsonian but smaller, crown mottled but without well- 
defined median stripe, primaries plain without saw-tooth pattern, and axillars barred 
(Figure 272, compare with 270 and 271). This combination of characters is determinative. 
A curlew with bill under 2-25 is probably this species. 
Field Marks. Like a very small Hudsonian Curlew, but too rare today to be recorded 
on field identification. 
Distribution. North and South America. Breeds on the Barren Grounds of Mac- 
kenzie, migrates through eastern Canada and dowm the Mississippi Valley. We have no 
actual records for our Prairie Provinces, but these curlews have been taken on Great 
Slave Lake and were once numerous in Missouri River region. 
Once noted for their vast numbers, and Audubon compared the flocks 
with those of Passenger Pigeons. Now nearly extinct. No doubt market 
hunting in the southern States was an important factor in their depletion, 
as they were marketed from the Gulf Coast regions by the hundreds of 
dozen brace. As in many such cases the bird seemed to disappear suddenly, 
about 1892, and it was not until it was practically gone that any general 
alarm was expressed concerning it. We often do not note the gradual 
depletion of any species, or if we do observe it we are prone to ascribe it to 
local instead of general conditions and it is not until many observers begin 
to compare notes that the true conditions are realized. All species have 
their bad and good seasons, epidemics, and other periodical setbacks. When 
there is a large natural reserve of numbers, such checks make no permanent 
inroad on the strength of a thriving species, but when a steady, even, 
though slow, reduction is in progress, checks, normally of minor importance, 
become catastrophic. 
76916—131 
