THE SHORE BIRDS. 199 



instances are comparatively few, and it is only where 

 there are large bodies of water that shore birds gen- 

 erally are likely to be found. Unless large, these 

 birds are not conspicuous, and while nearly all have 

 pleasant, piping notes, they cannot be considered as 

 musical. To the world at large they are of interest 

 as excellent eating; if not that, they are ignored. 

 They are extremely entertaining, however, to the 

 naturalist, and whoever is fond of seeing the birds 

 that Nature has designed for certain localities in 

 those localities, will regret that many such are yearly 

 becoming less abundant. This is particularly true 

 of many " shore birds," and what Turnbull, in his 

 beautiful volume on " Birds of East Pennsylvania," 

 has said of "Birds which have disappeared " will bear 

 repeating. 



" Since the eastern provinces have become more densely populated 

 many of the larger and more wary species of birds have changed 

 their course of migration, and now reach the arctic regions by a route 

 taking them towards the interior of the continent ; and there are also 

 some formerly known as summer visitants which have now a more 

 southern limit. Parrots, for example, are at the present day [this 

 was written in 1868] rarely found north of the Carolinas ; while Wild 

 Turkeys, which were once abundant, although still to be met with in 

 suitable localities, are now in very limited numbers. In a rare tract 

 printed in 1648, entitled 'A Description of New Albion,' a name 

 at one time applied to this part of the country, we read of four or 

 five hundred Turkeys forming a single flock. The Pinnated Grouse 

 is another interesting bird which has become nearly extinct [quite so 

 now] in East Pennsylvania, and entirely so, it is believed, in New 

 Jersey. The Whooping Crane may also be said to have disappeared, 

 not even a straggler having been seen for some years. It likewise 

 seems to have been once very plentiful, for we read in Hakluyt's 

 ' Voyages,' ed. 1589, fol. 729, that Captain Philip Amadas and his 

 fellow-adventurers, who visited and explored the coast in 1584, 



