THE DANCE IN THE ALDER SWALE 107 



swale. The woodcock soon will be among the ex- 

 tinct birds. Like all birds, the woodcocks have 

 many natural enemies ; they are one of their own 

 worst enemies in building so early that snows and 

 frosts destroy the eggs, and in places where April 

 freshets sweep them away. Yet in spite of all 

 this, they would flourish were it not for the pot- 

 hunter. They might be hunted during the weeks 

 of the fall migration, as some states allow, and 

 still flourish, but not in July, before the young are 

 on the wing, as a few states still allow. 



From everywhere over their wide range, be- 

 tween the Atlantic coast and the line of the Mis- 

 sissippi River, the woodcocks are disappearing. 

 Once gone, they can never be restored, largely be- 

 cause of their peculiar food, which makes them 

 migratory, and which cannot be supplied them as 

 grain can be supplied to the quail and to other 

 game birds. The dangers of their migrations, 

 and those which beset their nesting-places, the 

 fewness of their eggs, their limited and easily 

 hunted haunts, are causes which are making rap- 

 idly toward the extinction of the woodcocks. 



Already these noble birds have gone from my 

 little alder swale. There has been no love-dance 

 over the alders since those of my woodcock many 



