WOODCOCK 19 
naturalist as Dr. A. K. Fisher published in one of the 
Year Books of the Department of Agriculture an ac- 
count of Two Vanishing Birds, one of which was 
the woodcock. Until within a few years summer shoot- 
ing of woodcock has been permitted in a number of 
States, a practice which resulted in the practical de- 
struction of almost all the birds breeding and reared 
in certain territories. So much shooting at a time 
when the birds were but recently from the nest and 
many of them able to fly only short distances, was 
extremely destructive. The birds were so gentle and 
at that season fly so easily that summer shooting was 
really a sport for children rather than for men. 
If kept up long enough, this would have resulted in 
the extermination of the bird over considerable areas, 
or in such a reduction in its numbers that some natural 
change, which under ordinary circumstances might 
be wholly harmless, might almost wipe the bird out 
of existence. For many years far-seeing persons have 
recognized this danger and have been laboring faith- 
fully to have the practice of summer shooting stopped. 
It is only within a comparatively short time that their 
efforts have been successful. 
Besides this danger, to which the woodcock were 
formerly exposed over much of the country, was an- 
other which destroyed them by wholesale, although 
such destruction came only at very long intervals. 
This was the occurrence of periods of severe cold in 
their southern wintering grounds. Though such cold 
periods do not come often, yet orange growers in 
