64 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



birds of small or very moderate size, that frequent 

 the shores of all bodies of open water, large and 

 small, salt and fresh, and also many regions of open 

 plains and prairies. The group embraces the 

 plovers, curlews, sandpipers, phalaropes, avocets, 

 dowitchers, woodcock and snipe; in all about sixty 

 North American species. On the farms and prairies 

 of the eastern half of the United States, the species 

 most commonly seen thirty years ago were the 

 killdeer plover, jack-snipe and curlew. 



Until about four years ago, the shore-birds were 

 regarded as of value only for food, and on that 

 basis they have long been relentlessly pursued. In 

 1911, a circular issued by the Department of Agri- 

 culture, written by Prof. W. L. McAtee, brought 

 prominently to notice the astonishing fact that the 

 shore-birds are of immense value as insect de- 

 stroyers, performing services that are not per- 

 formed by any other birds. This revelation has 

 completely changed the status of these universally 

 persecuted birds, and created a demand for their 

 adequate protection. 



From Professor McAtee's circular No. 79, we 

 quote the following significant paragraph: 



Throughout the eastern United States, shore-birds are fast 

 vanishing. While formerly numerous species swarmed along 

 the Atlantic coast and in the prairie regions, many of them 

 have been so reduced that extermination seems imminent. The 

 black-bellied plover, or beetle-head, which occurred along the 

 Atlantic seaboard in great numbers years ago, is now seen 



