550 GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



crease it tends to contract its range, or to occupy only that 

 portion of it that is most suitable to its purposes. The bird 

 which Turnbull names to exemplify this change of flight is 

 the Whooping Crane, which once inhabited the entire con- 

 tinent and migrated up and down the Atlantic coast as well 

 as through the interior. The individuals along the Atlantic 

 coast were first killed off, then those farther west, until now 

 the species is nearing extinction. That is the manner in which 

 the line of flight of the Whooping Crane was changed. It is 

 of no avail to argue that the bird was so shy that it could not 

 have been killed off, but must have been driven to the west. 

 The fact remains that it is now so rare everywhere that it is 

 exceedingly difficult to get a specimen for a museum or zoologi- 

 cal garden. Nevertheless, there is no rule without some ex- 

 ception. The Passenger Pigeon was obliged, by its great 

 numbers, periodical scarcity of food and constant persecution, 

 to change its location and its flight line frequently. Cross- 

 bills are very erratic in their flights, Robins are great wan- 

 derers, but I do not recall other remarkable exceptions to this 

 rule among land birds. It is noted often that a certain species 

 of Duck will be scarce in a locality for a year, or more. If this 

 scarcity is quite general and only temporary, it is looked upon 

 as probably the result of a poor breeding season; but if the 

 scarcity continues, it usually is assigned by the gunner to a 

 "change in the line of flight." 



We get our idea of the flight of birds largely from the 

 number which stop in our vicinity. Thousands of birds of a 

 certain species may pass over or by us unseen and unnoticed. 

 Wilson says that a vessel loaded with wheat was wrecked near 

 the entrance of Great Egg Harbor, N. J. The wheat floated 

 out in great quantities, and in a few days the "whole surface 

 of the bay" was covered with Ducks of a kind unknown to 

 the people and never seen by them before. The gunners of 

 the neighborhood had great sport shooting these Ducks for 

 three weeks, and they sold them at twelve and one-half cents 

 each. They finally learned that the birds were Canvas-backs, 

 which they might have sold for from four to six times that sum. 

 Probably the Canvas-back passes near this coast every year. 



