PROCEEDINGS of the
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES
of Philadelphia, 1861
August 13th. Dr. Leidy in the chair. Nine members present. The following papers were presented for publication: “On Three New Forms of Rattlesnakes” by Robert Kennicott. ′Notes on the Ornithology of Labrador,” by Elliott Coues. . . .
The Esquimaux curlew arrived on the Labrador coast from its more northern breeding grounds in immense numbers, flying very swiftly in flocks of great extent, sometimes many thousands. . . . The pertinacity with which they cling to certain feeding grounds, even when much molested, I saw strikingly illustrated on one occasion. The tide was rising and about to flood a muddy flat of perhaps an acre in extent, where their favorite snails were in great quantities. Although six or eight gunners were stationed on the spot and kept up a continual round of firing upon the poor birds, they continued to fly distractedly about over our heads, notwithstanding the numbers that every moment fell. They seemed in terror lest they should lose their accustomed fare of snails that day. . . .
By order of the LIBRARY AND PUBLISHING COMMITTEE, the following proceedings of the BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY for 1906-7 are published. . .
Paper No. 7—Birds of Labrador. By Charles W. Town-send, M.D., and Glover M. Allen . . . Numenius Borealis (Forster), Eskimo curlew. Formerly an abundant but now a very rare autumn transient visitor in Labrador.
When August comes if on the Coast you be, Thousands of fine Curlews, you′ll daily see.
Packard writes of the curlew as follows: “On the 10th of August, 1860, the curlews appeared in great numbers. We saw one flock which may have been a mile long and nearly as broad; there must have been in that flock four or five thousand. The sum total of their notes sounded at times like the wind whistling through the ropes of a thousand-ton vessel.
But we met with none during our visit to the Labrador coast in the summer of 1906. We talked with many residents and they all agreed that the curlew though formerly very abundant, suddenly fell off in numbers, so that now only two or three or none at all might be seen in a season. Capt. Parsons of the mailboat Virginia Lake said that they were very abundant up to thirty years ago. He often shot a hundred before breakfast, often killing twenty at a single discharge. Fishermen killed them by the thousands. . . . They kept loaded guns at their fish stages and shot into the flying masses, often bringing down twenty or twenty-five at a discharge.
To sum up the evidence, we can state that the natives of Labrador persistently harassed the Eskimo curlew but did not realise there was any diminution in their numbers until about 1888 to 1890. After 1892, but a small remnant of this formerly abundant bird has visited Labrador’s shores. . . . It is apparent that they are now a vanishing race—on the way to extinction.