The fate of this species should be a lasting lesson to the world at
large. Any wild bird or mammal species can be exterminated by commercial
interests in twenty years time, or less.

THE ESKIMO CURLEW,_--Numenius borealis_, (Forst.). This valuable game
bird once ranged all along the Atlantic coast of North America, and
wherever found it was prized for the table. It preferred the fields and
meadows to the shore lines, and was the companion of the plovers of the
uplands, especially the golden plover. "About 1872," says Mr. Forbush,
"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."

Apparently, that was the beginning of the end of the "dough bird," which
was another name for this curlew. In 1908 Mr. G.H. Mackay stated that
this bird and the golden plover had decreased 90 per cent in fifty
years, and in the last ten years of that period 90 per cent of the
remainder had gone. "Now (1908)," says Mr. Forbush, "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 Eiche.
Of course, it is possible that other individuals may still survive; but
so far as our knowledge extends, the species is absolutely dead.

* * * * *

In the West Indies and the Guadeloupe Islands, five species of macaws