eastern dowitcher 113 



times, as they are almost as tame and unsuspicious as the little peep. 

 When the flats are covered at high tide these birds resort to the salt 

 marshes or meadows, where they rest and sleep; in such places they 

 often lie very close and flush singly, much after the manner of 

 Wilson snipe. 



Game. — Dowitchers, or " brown backs," as they are called on Cape 

 Cod, have been popular game birds, and immense numbers have been 

 shot in past years. Audubon (1840) says that "it is not at all un- 

 common to shoot 20 or 30 of them at once. I have been present when 

 127 were killed by discharging three barrels, and have heard of many 

 dozens having been procured at a shot." Edward Sturtevant says 

 that a market hunter near Newport, Rhode Island, shot 1,058 

 dowitchers during the years from 1867 to 1874. Their popularity 

 and their tameness nearly caused the extermination of the species. 

 Mr. John C. Gaboon (1888) wrote then: 



They have decreased very fast during the last five years, and where we saw 

 a flock of several dozens then we now see them singly or in bunches not exceed- 

 ing 10 or 12. They are the least shy of any of the shore birds, and it is due 

 to this fact that they have decreased so fast. They are easily decoyed, 

 and although they fly swiftly their motion is steady and they keep closely 

 together. They alight in a compact bunch, and the gunner usually shoots into 

 them before they scatter out. Many are killed by a single discharge, and those 

 that remain spring up with a sharp whistle and fly a short distance away, when 

 hearing what they think to be the call of a deserted comrade they wheel about 

 and come skimming bravely back to the murderous spot where they were first 

 shot at. Again they are shot at, and again the remaining half dozen are loath 

 to leave their dead and dying companions, and return to share their fate. 

 One or two may escape, and as they drop silently down on some lonely sand spit, 

 sad relics of their departed companions, what sorrowful thoughts must be theirs 

 as they wait for their comrades that will never come. 



Since that time the species has been saved by removing it from the 

 game-bird list, and it has increased considerably until now it is 

 again a fairly common bird. Whey flying in flocks it is too easily 

 killed to offer the sportsman much of a thrill, but when flushed singly 

 on the meadows it has more of a sporting chance for its life. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Chiefly eastern North America, islands of the Caribbean 

 Sea and central South America; casual in Greenland, Alaska, the 

 British Isles, and France. 



Breeding range. — The dowitchers which have been found breed- 

 ing in Alberta, from Little Red Deer River to Fort Assiniboine, are 

 intermediate between griseus and seolopaceus, but nearer the former. 

 Eggs have also been taken at Hayes River Flat and just south of 

 Little Slave Lake, which are probably of this form. The breeding 



