THE SHOREBIRDS OR WADERS 147 



In England, plover eggs are gathered yearly in large 

 numbers and sold in the markets without apparently 

 causing a diminution in the number of these birds. In 

 America the naturalists and sportsmen agree that the 

 upland plover, and some of the other waders, are nearing 

 extinction. 



Preserves for upland game and for wild ducks un- 

 doubtedly will save these birds just as the English pre- 

 serves have saved the English woodcock and other wad- 

 ers. Since it is evident that it cannot be long before 

 there will be no shorebird shooting for anyone, all preju- 

 dice against the individual handling and preservation of 

 game should vanish. There is no danger of our having 

 too many preserves ; the country is too big. The danger 

 is that we will not have enough of them in time to save 

 the vanishing game. 



The woodcock is one of our most valuable wild food 

 birds, and it is especially interesting to sportsmen. Al- 

 though it is an easy matter to restore the grouse, quail 

 and many of the most desirable species of wild fowl and 

 to make them more plentiful than they ever were on suit- 

 able ground, it is impossible to purchase woodcock and 

 turn them down in the covers where they have been ex- 

 tirpated or even to feed them as upland game is fed on 

 game farms and preserves. Many naturalists and sports- 

 men seem to believe that nothing can be done to save this 

 interesting bird excepting to enact additional laws re- 

 stricting the sport of cock shooting and prohibiting the 

 sale of the birds as food. Some entertain the opinion that 

 the woodcock is doomed to extinction. 



In the year book of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture for 1901, Dr. A. K. Fisher, the ornithologist 



