The Bird Department 



r.v A. A. AIJ.KX, Ph.D. 

 .Issistaiit I'fofcxsor of Ontithologw Cornell Ihiivcrsity. 



OUR VANISHING SHORE BIRDS 



of it. ISut the number of true sportsmen is relatively 

 small, and the numljer of lumters who realize that to kill 



W 11 F^X our forefathers first turned their atten- the sandpit. The professional hunter tires into their 

 tion to the hunting uf birds either for food densely massed ranks as they swing by to see how many 

 for sport, it is recorded that the\- found the he can kill at a single shot, 

 woods from .Maine to Florida teeming with wild turkeys; This flocking habit has helped the near extinction of 



the air filled with clouds of wild pigeons, the lakes and other species as well, although the true sportsman, how- 

 marshes covered with waterfowl, and the shores ani- ever great the temptation luay be, never takes advantage 

 mated with countless thousands of snipe and plover. 



Today the turkey, in its wild state, is unknown except in 

 a few remote and inaccessible 

 l>laces; the last passenger pigeon 

 died a year ago in the Cincinnati 

 zoo ; the geese and the ducks are 

 so reduced in numbers that one 

 species, the Labrador duck, has 

 not been seen in fortv-tive years, 

 and another, the wood duck, has 

 been practically exterminated 

 over a large part of its range. 

 The same is true of the shore 

 birds. Tile Eskimo curlew is 

 .ilmost extinct : the long-billed 

 and Hudsonian curlews, the 

 avocet, the stilt, and the godwits 

 are found only in siuall num- 

 bers, and even amongst the 

 smaller species single birds now 

 grace the shores where once 

 great flocks assembled. 



The cause is not difficult to 

 discover. The cutting of the forests and the increase a dozen birds at a shot pro\ides insufficient sport for the 

 in the numbers of hunters were sufficient to destroy the great reduction in the supply of game is still smaller, 

 turkey ; the gregarious habit of the passenger pigeon, \\'ith these birds the sport of hunting is reduced to a 



■■S.\.\I) I'lCKPS" IX rLICIIT 



These liirds, tlie least and semi-palmated sand pipers fly in sucli flocks as shown in the photograph. Tliis 

 flocking hal)it has caused the near extinction of many species. Frequently a large number of a flock 

 are killed at a single shot by an unscrupulous gunner. 



making possible the slaughter of countless thousands on 

 the breeding grounds, annihilated this species : the auto- 

 matic gun, the market hunter, the greed of the sports- 

 men, and the shooting of mated birds in the spring of 

 the year wiped out the waterfowl. At this point the vast 

 army of gunners, having no other game to hunt, ecjuipped 



minimum, the lust of killing raised to a maxiiuum, and 

 economy ranks lower than did forest conservation with 

 the earlv settlers. Far better that the temptation of 

 shooting iiUo these flocks l:)e removed froiu the unscrupu- 

 lous and that these birds be protected for all time. 



Among the "shore birds," however, there are two 



with automobiles so that no place is inaccessible, turned species, the Wilson's snipe and the woodcock, which do 



loose on the shorebirds, and little wonder is it that the not have this flocking habit and wdiich, except for their 



snipe and plover decreased and are now rapidly disap- small size, fulfill all the requirements of first-class game 



pearing. First the larger species gave way before the birds. Thev lie close and unseen by the hunter until, with 



onslaught and now the smaller, until even the little "sand a startling call or whir of the wings, they bolt into the 



peeps" that trot along the beaches and chase the receding air on an erratic course which requires all the hunter's 



waves are not safe from destruction. The small boy skill to intercejit. Even when traveling in scattered 



with his newly acquired rifle, and the amateur with his flocks, they get up singly so that only one bird can be 



shotgun pick them off as they stand in a row asleep on killed at a shot, thereby yielding the greatest amount of 



911 



