354 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
sort but nine and a half) and the wings extended are longer by five 
inches.” It is very possible that this may have been a Hudsonian 
Curlew. 
Numenius borealis (Forst.). 
Eskimo Curlew; “The Curlew”; “The C’lew.” 
Formerly an abundant but now a very rare autumn transient visitor; 
July 28 to October 24. 
The Eskimo Curlew was formerly the most characteristic bird of 
Labrador, where it was found in great multitudes during the autumn 
migrations. 
Cartwright makes frequent reference to them in his journal, and 
recorded their arrival and departure for many years. Thus on August 
26, 1770, at Charles Harbor, he writes: “On some low hills, partly 
barren, and the rest covered with small bad spruce-bushes were many 
large flocks of curlews feeding on the berries, which were very plentiful 
there; but could kill only one. The berries of the Empetrum Nigrum, 
and likewise some delicious blue berries which grow on a small shrubby 
plant, called Ground Whortle, both of which are now ripe, are what 
the curlews delight to feed on. These not onlv make them uncom- 
monly fat, but also give their flesh a most delicious flavor.” In 
another place he indulges in rhyme: 
“When August comes if on the Coast you be, 
Thousands of fine Curlews, you’ll daily see.” 
The dates he gives of arrival and departure are as follows: August 
4 to September 10, 1770; August 3, 1771; August 5 to October 2, 
1772, and one which he shot near Chateau on October 24, 1772; 
August 4, 1774, at Alary Harbor; August 6 to September 18, 1776; 
July 28, 1777, this date he notes as being a few days earlier than usual; 
October 3, 1778; August 3, 1779; September 9, 1783; August 1, 
1785; August 2, 1786. He gives no record of their appearance in 
the spring, and as he was constantly in the field with gun in hand it is 
probable that he would have noticed them if they were ever to be seen 
at that season. It is well known that these curlews go north by the 
Mississippi valley route. As Cartwright generally killed single birds 
with his rifle, by knocking their heads off, his influence on their num¬ 
bers could not have been very great. 
