158 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 



five years under the Migratory Birds Convention. All the 

 plovers are valuable to the agriculturalist, as they feed on 

 grasshoppers, cutworms, white grubs, and other pests of 

 our field and garden crops. The black-bellied plover is a 

 fall migrant in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick; in Quebec 

 and Ontario it appears both in spring and fall, but in the 

 Prairie Provinces it is a spring migrant. It breeds on the 

 Arctic coast, and winters from Cahfornia southward to 

 Brazil and Peru. 



The golden plover breeds along the Arctic coast from 

 Alaska to the northwest coast of Hudson Bay, including the 

 Barren Grounds. In the fall it travels southward to spend 

 the winter chiefly in Brazil and Argentina. It is a common 

 migrant in the fall in the eastern provinces, and in the 

 Prairie Provinces it appears as a migrant in both spring 

 and fall. Formerly the golden plover was perhaps the 

 most abundant of all the shore-birds, vast flocks sweeping 

 northward and southward across the continent in their 

 long migratory j ourneys. But excessive hunting has reduced 

 them to but a small fraction of their former numbers. 

 Audubon estimated that in the annual slaughter that he 

 witnessed in 1821, near New Orleans, about 48,000 plovers 

 were killed in one day. 



Sandpipers. — This group includes about half of the shore- 

 birds. They are chiefly small birds frequenting the edges 

 of stream, river, lake, and sea. In spite of their small size 

 they have been killed in thousands to satisfy the palates of 

 the epicures. Now all species, with the exception of the 

 greater and lesser yellowlegs, are protected for five years. 

 Among the conamon^r species may be mentioned the fol- 

 lowing: 



The Semipalmated Sandpiper. — This is a common migrant 

 in the fall along the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of St. 

 Lawrence. In the western provinces they appear in the 

 spring on their journey to their northern breeding-grounds, 



