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DATES: JANUARY 20, 1913, AUGUST 14*, SEPTEMBER*** 15*, 25*, OCTOBER 8-9 (Swenk 1916; Greenway 1958; Wedderburn 1859; Hay [1878]).

"This bird is not so wary as the last [Whimbrel], but is still very difficult to approach....l...succeeded in killing a very fine specimen at Mangrove Bay*, Somerset; and at the same time, three golden plover, one sanderling, and four turnstones, which were all feeding close together" (Wedderburn 1859:41).

Hay ([1878]:235) describes a migration which passed over the islands 8-9 October 1849: "The evening of the 8th being stormy and boisterous, with heavy rain.. I...was out by a little after two o'clock in the morning....Under the shelter of some hay on the Island of St. George's, I remained for several hours watching the wonderful flight passing over the Island, in a direction nearly due south....The incessant beat of many thousands of wings, the wild cries and sounds of many voices, told me a mighty host was passing rapidly overhead. Among the various cries, I distinctly recognized Wildduck, Plovers, Snipe, Curlews, Tattlers, and many other Tringidae [shorebirds]."

"A good number accompanied the Golden Plover on their arrival in September, 1874, and several were killed along the north shore" (Reid 1884:241)

There are reports of two oceanic flights five years apart which were associated with both Bermuda and Barbados. Were it not for the fact that one author reports the northern parts of both, they could be the same event. While the reference is to plovers, it is likely that curlews were also involved. Hurdis (1859:73) mentions a migration on 10 September 1846, described to him the following day. While the schooner G.O. Bigelow under Edwin Jones was "off the east end of these islands [Bermuda]...hundreds of flocks of plover were seen passing over the vessel to the southward, and numerous flocks could be heard passing in the same direction during the night." Hapgood (1887:17-18) reports: "One of the memorable events recorded in the almanac of the Island [Barbados] is 'Sept. 12th,1846, great flight of plovers.' The U.S. Consul at that place writes us in reference to this matter...'By all accounts the island was covered with them. They were killed in the streets with sticks.'" Presumably these reports are about the same flight.

The second flight is reported by Hurdis for about 12-13 September 1851: "Edwin Jones, master...of the schooner 'G O. Bigelow'...informed me...[on November 25th, 1851, that] the vessel being then between five and six hundred miles east of these Islands [Bermuda], great multitudes of birds, which he took to be plovers, were observed passing over the vessel in a southerly direction, for two days. These birds he describes as flying in flocks, some of which amounted to many thousands, others to considerably less, diminishing in number to parties of fifty and thirty. He also states that during the whole of the intervening night, these flocks could be distinctly heard passing over the ship." This flight is also described by Hay, who continued: "A portion of this flight Mr. Jones believes to have been driven upon the Island of Barbadoes, shortly afterwards, having been checked on their course by a southerly gale, on which occasion the birds were so numerous that thousands were shot down, and many killed with stones" (Hay [1878]:237).

"These great migratory columns of plover do not appear to cross the ocean, to the westward of the Bermudas, a few flocks only being met with in that direction" (Hurdis 1859:75).

Agriculture may have affected the birds in Bermuda also: "A letter from a reliable gentleman (W.W.D.) residing on one of the Bermudas, informs us `the plover and curlew, before the country was so broken up for agricultural purposes, were quite plenty in large flocks about the marshes and valleys, but now they are quite scarce....They always show themselves after a strong westerly gale'" (Hapgood 1887:21).

"Both Hughes [1750] and Schomburgk [1848] give this bird the local name of `Shivering Curlew'" (Clark [1906]:255).

Sprunt and Chamberlain (1970:640) reported a bird "shot in Bermuda in 1965" which may well be the Barbados specimen because it is in the same collection-Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. (See below.)

OTHER LOCALITIES: Spanish Point* (Wedderburn 1859).

One report, based on little evidence-an interpretation of the migrating birds mentioned in Columbus' log of 6-11 October 1492 (Tooke 1961:287; see Oceanic Migration above). This island is about 450 km (270 mi.) northwest of the Turks Islands, the most westerly Caribbean record, and about 800 km (480 mi.) west of the main documented route for Eskimo Curlews.

Hapgood (1887:20) quoted from a letter by "C.W.H." of Turk's [sic] Island: " 'Golden plover, sometimes in large numbers' a few upland plover and curlew also arrive here from the North regularly about the end of August or 1st of September, and remain with us generally from four to six weeks, although a few stragglers stop a little longer.'"

Bond (1950:44) lists it as "recorded in Guadeloupe?..." He does not mention the island in his 1965 edition, but in his 1971 "List of Vagrants" he has this curlew for "Guadaloupe." The American Ornithologists' Union Check-list for 1957:185 does not list the island but that of 1983:184 does, as "casual."

There are two specimens without data (Hahn 1963:190). Bond's treatment of curlew occurrence here is the same as for Guadeloupe. AOU check- lists for 1957 and 1983 do not mention the island for this species.

Clark ([1906]:255) states: "The Eskimo Curlew has never been recorded from St. Vincent although it doubtless occurs there."

"These, as well as most Curlieus, often come in great flocks" (Hughes 1750 in Clark [1906]:255). "Arrives about the end of August, but passes more frequently in September" (Feilden 1889:498).

DATES: AUGUST 27, SEPTEMBER 4*,1963, 5*, NOVEMBER 4 (Cooke 1910; Feilden 1889).

The circumstances of their arrival are given by Hapgood (1887:18-19) in "the following extract from the History of the Island....'lf during this period a southerly wind and rain prevails, they alight, whereas fine weather tempts them to continue their progress....[A] partial list of the migrants that come to the islands [includes]...Numenius borealis.'"

5 September 1888: "Immense numbers passed over the island, though comparatively few alighted. The same day great flights of Golden Plover...and Longlegs...arrived; I saw over a hundred of each of these species shot at one stand by a single gun" (Feilden 1889:498).

About acquisition of the latest record for the island: "At sunset, September 4,1963, a lone Eskimo curlew, flying at the head of a flock of shore birds, was shot down by a hunter on the coast of Barbados....
"On finding that the victim was not the familiar whimbrel, the hunters gave the large, buff-gray bird with a long, curving bill to Capt. Maurice B. Hutt...who...placed the bird in his deepfreeze." It was discovered some 17 months later by James Bond (M.W. Bond 1965:314, 316).

"Comes in with the Plovers, but remains for only a few days" (Wells 1902:245; based on six years' observation, incl. 1888 and 1896). "On September 5, 1904, I saw two birds of this species on a mudflat near Harvey Vale, Carriacou, in company with great numbers of Yellow-legs (T. flavipes)" (Clark [1906]:255).

Concerning habitat, Wells writes, under Golden Plover: "Large numbers of this game bird used to visit the island, but now that the pastures are being neglected and allowed to be overgrown with accacia [sic], they are becoming fewer every year..."

No other information is given and his publication covers the islands from Grenada north through the Grenadines (incl. Carriacou) to St. Vincent, inclusive.

The specimen was taken 22 September 1891 (Hahn 1963:183). Sharpe (1896:369) lists a report by Wells prior to 1887

"Leotaud...says this bird in his time was so rare in Trinidad that he could only obtain one specimen, a male shot in September far from the sea on a fairly dry savannah, where, however, there was an extensive 'marre.' Kirk lists it as a migrant to Tobago" (Belcher and Smooker 1935:289).

Local distribution-coastal fringe....Eskimo Curlews come into the colony much more infrequently than the Whimbrel and are known under the same local name (Translation from Penard and Penard 1910:270).

The one specimen was collected before 1922 (Hahn 1963:183).

While the following excerpt mentions only plover, curlews may well have been included: " .Captain B., who is an intelligent gentleman as well as an enthusiastic sportsman, was at Demerara [Georgetown] with his ship about the end of September, 1877. While lying there his friends invited him to participate in a plover shooting excursion. In fact, he had several days of the grandest sport in this line he has ever witnessed. Another voyage was made the next year to the same place, but he arrived six weeks later....'Why, Captain' you are too late! Had you been here a month earlier you would have had splendid shooting' as there was an extraordinary "flight" of birds, but now they are all gone!' Further enquiry satisfied him that in September and October there is a 'flight' at Guiana, just the same as there is at Labrador, Newfoundland, Cape Cod and the Barbadoes" (Hapgood 1887:25-26).

DATES: SEPTEMBER* 4*, 24***, OCTOBER', 7***, 1826, NOVEMBER 3*, 11*; undated*** (Hahn 1963).

Bent (1962:135) states: "The northern limits of the winter range are not known, but probably extended rarely to Brazil ( Ypanema*******)"-for which there are seven specimens from 24 September through October to 11 November (Hahn 1963).

OTHER LOCALITIES: Amazon River*, Xaiser. [=Xavier] (Hahn 1963).

"The same species has recently been obtained in Southern Peru and Chili [sic], and is well described by Philippi and Landbeck...as N. microrhynchus" (Sclater and Salvin 1873:456). Thus in 1866 the Eskimo Curlew was incorrectly described as this new species on the basis of one or more specimens.

"Winter in vast numbers on the plains Paraguay" (Blake 1977:565). "Wintered...through Paraguay" (AOU 1983:184, presumably based on Blake).

There are two specimens' one without a date, one labelled October 9 (Sharpe 1896:371). We assume that the two listed by Hahn (1963:190) are the same birds. Schauensee (1970:79) did not give Paraguay as a wintering area. Apparently there is no direct evidence of winter occurrence.