GAME BIRDS AND LARGER NON-GAME BIRDS 157 



to be the finest of game-birds; certainly no bird affords bet- 

 ter sport. But so long as it was butchered in the Southern 

 States during its winter sojourn, Uttle advantage was gained 

 from the protection it received in Canada, where its chief 

 breeding-grounds occur. The serious decrease in numbers 

 has been chiefly due to excessive slaughter in the Gulf and 

 Southern Atlantic States. We are informed that a single 

 hunter in Louisiana killed 69,087 birds from 1867 to 1887, 

 or an average of 3,500 snipe a winter. Cooke, in his valu- 

 able article on "Our Shorebirds and Their Future"* states: 

 ''Fortunately, the breeding grounds of most of the Wilson 

 snipe are in Canada, where the birds are protected by law 

 and custom throughout the nesting seasons. Moreover, 

 their nesting sites are on land that will not for many years, 

 possibly not for several generations, be used for agricultural 

 purposes. Hence, there is provided in Canada an enor- 

 mous favourable breeding area for these game birds, a 

 region which formerly supported a snipe population many 

 times more numerous than at present, and which will 

 return to us in the United States each fall a liberal increase 

 on whatever numbers we may allow to cross our northern 

 border in spring." The Federal migratory bird regulations 

 in the United States and the keener sense of responsibility 

 in this phase of bird protection now displayed in the ad- 

 ministration of game-laws in the States concerned, would 

 indicate a more hopeful future for this excellent game- 

 bird. 



In Canada the snipe breeds in all the provinces, and 

 northward to the Mackenzie delta, and in Yukon and 

 Alberta. 



The Plovers. — With the exception of the black-bellied and 

 golden plovers, all the plovers, such as the killdeer, semi- 

 palmated, and piping plovers, are protected for a period of 



* Year Book of the United States Department of Agriculture for 1914t PP- 

 275-294. 



