Occurrence of the Whimbrel ( Numenius phoeopus) off the coast of Nova 
Scotia. — In October, 1907, I secured an adult female specimen of this 
small European Curlew which has an interesting history. On May 23, 
1906, it came aboard the steamship ‘Bostonian’ when she was westward 
bound and not far to the southward of Sable Island, Nova Scotia or, to 
quote the manuscript record literally, in “Lat. about 43° N., and Long. 60° 
W.” “There had been a northeast gale for five days,” which perhaps 
accounts for the occurrence of the bird so far to the westward. For two 
days previous to its capture it had been seen following the steamer. When 
it sought refuge on her decks it was utterly exhausted and very much 
emaciated, being, indeed, “nothing but skin and bones.” “The men on 
board tried” to revive it “with food (probably corn beef and hard tack) .... 
but it died a short time before the steamer reached port.” Her Second 
Officer, S. A. Cornwell by name, took it in the flesh to D. B. Mackie of 
Malden, Massachusetts, by whom it was skinned, sexed and mounted and 
from whom I afterwards purchased it, through the kind offices of Dr. 
Lombard C. Jones, also of Malden. I am further indebted to the latter 
gentleman for the above data, all of which I have compiled from letters 
written by him to Mr. Walter Deane in 1907, and from one addressed to me 
personally, that has come within the past week. 
It would perhaps be not wholly unreasonable to maintain that the record 
just given entitles the Whimbrel to a place in New England lists; for the 
bird to which it relates had apparently flown unaided to within six hundred 
miles of the sea coast of New Hampshire, in about the latitude of Ports- 
mouth, and similar instances of “casual occurrences” have been accepted 
on no better evidence than this. In any case the specimen furnishes a 
definite and perfectly satisfactory North American record of a European 
species which, if I am not mistaken in my recollection, has been found pre- 
viously on this side of the Atlantic only in Greenland, where it is said to 
have been taken a dozen times or more. — William Bbewster, Cambridge, 
Mass. Auk 26, Apr-190© r?o-/9C 
