Eskimo Curlew

"The beauty and genius of a work of art may be reconceived, though its first material expression be destroyed; a vanished harmony may yet again inspire the composer; but when the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again."
-- William Beebe, 1906

Gollop, J.B., T.W. Barry, and E.H. Iversen.  1986.  Eskimo curlew a vanishing
     species?  Saskatchewan Natural History Society Special Publication No. 17, 
     Regina, Saskatchewan.  160pp.

Gollop, J.B., T.W. Barry, and E.H. Iversen.  1986.  Eskimo curlew a vanishing
     species?  Saskatchewan Natural History Society Special Publication No. 17.
     Regina, Saskatchewan.  Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Online. 
     http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/curlew/index.htm
     (Version 16JUL97).

Table of Contents

Foreword

Dedication

Glimpses of the Eskimo Curlew

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Current Status

Field Identification

A Curlew By Many Other Names

Two Nest Searches for the Eskimo Curlew -- A Century Apart

Life History -- Briefly Stated

The Eskimo Curlew's Year

Breeding
Northwest Territories
Fall Migration in northern North America
Siberia, USSR	Alaska (also spring)	Ungava, Quebec	Labrador, Newfoundland	Southern Quebec
New Brunswick	Prince Edward Island	Nova Scotia	Manitoba (also spring)	Ontario
Fall Migration in southern North America
Maine	Massachusetts	Rhode Island	Connecticut	Michigan
Ohio	Pennsylvania	New York	New Jersey	Maryland
Carolinas	North Carolina	South Carolina	Georgia	Florida
Introduction to Oceanic Migration
Oceanic Migration
Bermuda	San Salvador Island	Turks Islands	Puerto Rico	Guadeloupe
Martinique	St. Vincent	Barbados	Carriacou (Grendadines)	Grenada
Trinidad & Tobago	Guyanas	British Guiana	Brazil	Peru
Bolivia	Paraguay
Winter
Chile	Uruguay	Argentina	Falkland Islands
Spring Migration (South)
Galapagos Islands	Costa Rica	Guatemala	Mexico	New Mexico
Texas	Mississippi River Valley	Louisiana Mississippi	Arkansas	Oklahoma
Colorado	Kansas	Missouri	Missouri River Drainage	Argentina Falkland Islands
Spring Migration (North)
Illinois	Indiana	Nebraska	Iowa	Wyoming
South Dakota	Minnesota Wisconsin	Montana	North Dakota	Manitoba
Saskatchewan	Alberta	Alaska (see fall)	California
North Atlantic Stragglers
Greenland	Iceland	Ireland	Great Britain

"Last of the Curlews"

Appendix 1 -- A summary of R.R. MacFarlanes's specimen notes on Eskimo Curlews collected near the Anderson River, Northwest Territories, 1862-1866

Appendix 2 -- Records of Eskimo Curlews on the Labrador coast, 1770-1786, from George Cartwright's diary

Appendix 3 -- Excerpts on curlews from "The Sportsman's Gazetteer and General Guide" by Charles Hallock, 1877

Appendix 4 -- Current common names of birds referred to in the text

Appendix 5 -- Scientific names of birds referred to in the text, based on the American Ornithologists' Union Check-list 1983

Bibliography A-L

Bibliography M-Z

List of Maps

Map 1 -- Northwest Territories, showing probable breeding area of Eskimo Curlew.

Map 2 -- Anderson River-Franklin Bay area, showing MacFarlane's overland collecting route.

Map 3 -- North America showing migration routes, monthly distribution and breeding range of the Eskimo Curlew. Inset: 1915 map of Eskimo Curlew range (Cooke 1915b).

Map 4 -- South America showing monthly distribution of Eskimo Curlew reports and potential wintering area.

Map 5 -- Range of crowberry, Empetrum nigrum ssp. hermaphroditum, in North America.

Map 6 -- Some Eskimo Curlew locations on the Labrador coast, mainly those of George Cartwright, 1770-1786.

List of Figures

Figure 1 -- Reproduction of MacFarlane's specimen note for Item #1800.

Figure 2 -- Eskimo Curlew, Galveston Island, Texas, 1962. Photo.

Figure 3 -- Another Eskimo Curlew, Galveston Island, Texas, 1962. Note differences in the bill. Photo

Figure 4 -- Little Curlew near Santa Maria, California, 6 October 1984. Photo.

Figure 5 -- Whimbrel near Churchill, Manitoba. Photo.

Figure 6 -- Side views of Eskimo Curlew and Whimbrel. Front views of Eskimo Curlew, Little Curlew and Whimbrel. Drawing.

Figure 7 -- Eskimo Curlew and Whimbrel in flight from below. Drawing

Figure 8 -- Legs of Little Curlew (left) and Eskimo Curlew (right). Whimbrel like Little Curlew (Seebohm 1888). Drawing.

Figure 9 -- Clearing on the east bank of the Anderson River where Fort Anderson stood, 1861-1866. Photo.

Figure 10 -- Lac Rendez-vous, where "lowland" route from south met "upland" route. Trail east to Franklin Bay started at point on left of photo.

Figure 11 -- Franklin Bay (left)

Figure 12 -- Horton River ar junction of West River. Photo.

Figure 13 -- Eskimo Curlew habitat on grass, sedge and dryas "barrens" between Swan River and the Smoking Hills. Photo.

Figure 14 -- Single Eggs of, from left to right, Eskimo Curlew, Whimbrel and Long-billed Curlew. The label for the Eskimo Curlew egg indicates that it is one of two collected on 23 June 1863--apparently a transcribing error because MacFarlane gave no such data. Photo.

Figure 15 -- Eskimo Curlew feeding habitat hear Cartwright, Labrador. Photo.

Figure 16 -- Two 19th-century Massachusetts shorebird decoys from the collection of Ron Swanson. Red Knot in front of Eskimo Curlew. Photo.

Figure 17 -- Mud flats near Rio de la Plata, near La Plata, Argentina. Photo.

Figure 18 -- Pampas in southern Argentina. Photo.

Figure 19 -- Pasture on Galveston Island, Texas. Photo.

Figure 20 -- Frame from television special, "Last of the Curlews." Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Figure 21 -- Habitat near the collection site of Specimen #1800: "10 miles west of Rendezvous Lake...". Photo

Figure 22 -- Habitat near the colletion site of Specimen #1810: "found in a barren plain NE of this lake." Photo.

Figure 23 -- Carwright Harbour, Labrador, in foreground; Curlew Hill, highest hill, center, behind settlement. Photo.