240 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



tells me that at that time he saw in Georgetown a line of 

 wheelbarrows, loaded with Woodcock, brought into the 

 market by negroes, but the birds were so emaciated that the 

 dealers refused to purchase them. The Woodcock were so 

 weak and bewildered that some were chased and caught, 

 others were knocked down with sticks. They probably came 

 to the sea-coast from higher or more northern lands, seeking 

 food. Laws prohibiting the killing and sale of these birds in 

 the south after January 1 would save many which now are 

 slaughtered needlessly. 



Some of my correspondents give no reason for the decrease 

 of Woodcock, but the majority of the gunners attribute it to 

 man, and mainly to overshooting; many of them, however, 

 are inclined to blame their brothers of the north and south for 

 the diminution of the birds. Mr. C. A. Clark, the Lynn natural- 

 ist, says "fifteen years ago woodcock were quite common in 

 my locality, but have been falling off very fast since that time, 

 and I have scarcely seen one here the past three or four years. 

 They need a close season for at least five years." Mr. Lawton 

 W. Lane of Lynn writes: "The woodcock is getting to be a 

 bird of the past. In 1907 I kept a record of the birds which I 

 started. I started forty-one, of which I killed thirty-eight. 

 I write this not to tell of my great shooting, but to show the 

 cause of the decrease of this bird. It is gunned all over the 

 country in the same way, and is not a very hard bird to shoot, 

 with a good dog." Dr. L. C, Jones of Maiden writes that 

 three men from Maiden, on a trip to Maine, killed one hundred 

 and eight, and that a gunner in Nova Scotia had killed two 

 hundred and seventy-five. The sportsmen and gunners of 

 southern New England and the middle States probably kill 

 as many Woodcock north and south as any one; they cer- 

 tainly get their share. North Carolina now (1910) has a law 

 limiting the bag of Woodcock to twelve a day. 



The draining of swamps and swales, both north and south, 

 is slowly but steadily decreasing the natural breeding places 

 and cover for the Woodcock. Mr. How^ard M. Douglas of 

 Plymouth thinks that perhaps the making into cranberry 

 bogs of many bog holes in Plymouth County where Woodcock 



