BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 249 



Worcester, we might reasonably look for a few. Nevertheless, 

 Mr. Henry T. Whitin of Northbridge says, "practically extinct; 

 have not seen one in years." One might anticipate finding 

 them common east of Worcester, on the meadows near the 

 sources of the Sudbury and the Assabet, but Hon. Joseph S. 

 Gates of Westborough says laconically, "very few left." Mr. 

 Elmer M. Macker of North Grafton says, "a few years ago 

 one was shot occasionally^ but for the last four or five years 

 not one has been seen." In the eastern counties, as we approach 

 the sea-coast and the fresh-water marshes and meadows 

 along the rivers, the numbers of Snipe increase a little, but even 

 there many people find them rapidly disappearing. On Cape 

 Cod, where Woodcock generally are rare. Snipe sometimes are 

 common, though usually decreasing and never very abundant. 

 The Snipe naturally supplements the Woodcock by occupying 

 the country where the Woodcock is absent. The Woodcock 

 is a bird of timbered runs on the hills and wooded swamps in 

 the valleys, while the Snipe occupies mainly open meadows 

 and marshes. 



On Nantucket, where there are practically no Woodcock, 

 Snipe sometimes are found in some numbers, although the 

 island is far out in the Atlantic. In one day recently one man 

 killed sixty Snipe on Nantucket, all in one meadow or marsh. 

 He was an old hunter, an excellent Snipe shot, knew the ground 

 perfectly and killed every bird that he could. It will probably 

 be some time before any one will kill sixty birds in a day again 

 on that island. This shows the necessity of a daily bag limit. 

 Had he been obliged to go six days, or even three, to that spot 

 to kill an allowance of ten or twenty birds per day, some of 

 them would have gotten safely away, — or some other gunner 

 would have had a chance. 



In scanning my reports from other regions it would seem 

 that while Snipe still are plentiful in many parts of the south 

 their numbers are decreasing from Canada to Texas, and in 

 many States the depletion appears to be about as steady as in 

 New England. Wayne, in his Birds of South Carolina, just 

 published (1910), says that he doubts if there is a State in the 

 Union where the Snipe is found in larger numbers. This looks 



