296 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



coast, hunted with great activity (Samuels, 1870), Very rare 

 migrant (Maynard, 1870). Rare in migration (J. A. Allen, 

 1879). A rare bird in New England (Stearns and Coues, 1883). 

 Hovers around the wounded, and the pursuer sometimes bags 

 the entire flock; the great and increasing army of sportsmen 

 will probably exterminate the bird before many years have 

 passed (Samuels, 1897). This and the Long-billed Curlew 

 probably show evidence of relentless persecution more than 

 any others of our shore birds; in places where flocks of thou- 

 sands were not an uncommon sight, now rare (Sanford, Bishop 

 and Van Dyke, 1903). Mr. Alfred E. Gould writes (1908) that 

 he saw great flocks of this species in the Lynn marshes more 

 than forty years ago, and three correspondents claim to have 

 killed one or two within thirty years in Massachusetts. All 

 but two of my Massachusetts correspondents who mention 

 this bird say that it has decreased in numbers in New England 

 and New York. 



Its large size and its excellent quality for the table fully 

 explain its present scarcity. Also, it has a very tender feeling 

 for its companions, and if one be wounded its fellows hover 

 about it in distress, until the gun has decimated their ranks. 

 Ordinarily, however, it is very wary and difficult of approach. 

 Like most of the large shore birds it is in great danger of ex- 

 tinction. Elliot says that, like all the waders, they are met 

 with yearly on our eastern coast in diminished numbers. 

 "While with us it is a bird of the salt marsh and the borders 

 of ponds. 



Since the above was written reports have been received 

 regarding a flock of fifty or more large birds, apparently God- 

 wits, that was seen at Chatham, Mass., in 1910. Undoubtedly 

 these birds were not of this species but were Hudsonian God- 

 wits, as Mr. S. Prescott Fay records a flight of that species in 

 August and September, 1910. Reliable records were secured 

 of twenty-five birds shot on seventeen different dates. Single 

 birds were seen or taken; two were seen in one case, and in 

 other cases ten and thirty or thirty-five were seen. These 

 birds were all Hudsonian Godwits, an unusual flight.^ 



« Fay, S. Prescott: Auk, 1911, pp. 257, 258. 



