BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 329 



of the safety of its companions that when one or two were shot 

 down, the rest, though greatly alarmed, returned and flapped 

 about above their stricken comrades, diving toward them and 

 urging them to flight, until so decimated by the gunner that 

 only a remnant of the flock remained alive. This explains the 

 destruction of this bird, along the Atlantic coast. There are 

 very few gunners who, in the excitement of a scene like this, 

 would fail to shoot so long as a bird remained within range, and 

 it is to this lack of self-restraint on the part of the gunner, 

 and to the settlement of its prairie breeding grounds, that we 

 owe the destruction and approaching extinction of this great 

 and curiously formed wader. It is decreasing fast in the in- 

 terior, where it breeds, and on the Gulf coast of Texas, where 

 it still winters. As it is not known to visit South America, 

 the American people alone are to blame for its destruction. 

 Its future is in our hands. Soon it will disappear from the 

 Atlantic seaboard. 



Unless we take immediate action to save this Curlew, it will 

 be unknown to our children's children. It will be shameful if 

 this generation permits the extermination of this great, unique, 

 harmless and useful bird ! It should be protected throughout 

 the United States and Canada. Nothing less than this will 

 restore it to the shores of the Atlantic, or prevent its rapidly 

 approaching extinction. Nothing more than this can be done 

 by legal enactment; and it is probable that this never will be 

 done unless the protection of all migratory birds is put in the 

 hands of the federal government, where it should have been 

 placed long ago. Anything that can be done with voice and 

 pen to bring about that consummation will tend to secure 

 suflficient protection for this and many other waders which are 

 doomed to extinction under the haphazard methods of legis- 

 lation and law enforcement which now prevail in many States. 

 Wilson says that the long bill of this bird is used in probing 

 into the holes of the small crabs, on which it feeds, and that it 

 takes worms and sea snails, such as are found in marshes; 

 also berries and insects, and that it is very fond of bramble- 

 berries, for which it searches the fields and uplands. 



