What Do You Know About The Eskimo Curlew?

This valuable game bird once ranged all along the Atlantic coast of North America, and wherever found it was prized for the table. It favored the meadow and field to the coast appearance, and was the friend of the plovers of the moorland, particularly the fair-haired plover. "About 1872," says Mr. For bush, "there was a great flight of these birds on Cape Cod and Nantucket. They were everywhere; and enormous numbers were killed. They could be bought of boys at six cents apiece. Two men killed $300 worth of these birds at that time."

In 1908 Mr. G.H. Mackay affirmed that this bird and the blonde plover had reduce 90 per cent in fifty years, and in the previous ten years of that era 90 per cent of the residue had left. "Now (1908)," says Mr. for bush, "ornithologists believe that the Eskimo curlew is practically extinct, as only a few specimens have been recorded since the beginning of the twentieth century." The very last record is of two specimens collected at Waco, York County, Nebraska, in March, 1911, and recorded by Mr. August Elche. Of course, it is possible that other individuals may still survive; but so far as our knowledge extends, the species is absolutely dead.