Since birds perform such invaluable service, every effort should be made to 

 protect the birds we now have and to increase their numbers. This can be 

 done in several ways ; (a) by furnishing nesting boxes for certain sp)ecies to 

 nest in, as swallows, martins, wrens, woodpeckers, great-crested flycatchers, and 

 others; (b) by planting berry-bearing shrubs about the farm or orchard as food 

 for the birds in winter; (c) by the establishment of bird sanctuaries, where 

 birds may be reasonably safe from their natural enemies and be permitted to live 

 and breed in absolute security as far as man is concerned. 



Here, again, the National Government, taking the lead, has set apart no 

 less than 64 bird refuges in various parts of the United States. These for 

 the most part are rocky, barren islands of little or no agricultural value, but of 

 very great usefulness in the cause of bird protection. The e.xample thus set 

 is now being followed by certain States, as Oregon and Wisconsin. Several 

 private citizens also have acquired islands for the purpose of making bird pre- 

 serves of them; others not only prevent the destruction of wild life on their 

 forested estates, but go much farther, and endeavor in various ways to increase 

 the number of their bird tenants. 



Spotted Sandpiper {ActUis macularla) 



Length, about 6 inches. The "tip up," with its brownish gray upper parts 

 and white under parts and its teetering motion, is too well known to need descrip- 

 tion. 



Range : Breeds in northwestern Alaska and in much of northern Canada 

 south to southern California, Arizona, southern Texas, southern Louisiana and 

 northern South Carolina; winters from California, Louisiana and South Carolina 

 to southern Brazil and Peru. 



The little "tip up," as it is appropriately named, from its quaint nodding 

 motion, unduly favors no one section or community but elects to dwell in every 

 region suited to its needs from Alaska to Florida. It is doubtless more widely 

 known than any other of our shore birds, and as it takes wing when disturbed, its 

 "wit, wit" comes to us from beach, river side, and mill pond, from one end of the 

 land to the other. It is the only shore bird that habitually nests in cornfields 

 and pastures, and its handsome buff eggs spotted with chocolate are well known 

 to the farmer's boy ever>'where. Much is to be said in favor of the food habits 

 of the little tip up, as the bird includes in its diet army worms, squash bugs, cab- 

 bage worms, grasshoppers, green flies and crayfishes. Having thus earned a right 

 to be numbered among the farmers' friends, the bird should be exempt from per- 

 secution. The tiny morsel of flesh afforded by its plump little body, when the 

 bird has been shot, is in no sense an adequate return for its services when alive 

 and active in our behalf. 



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