BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 241 



used to feed has a tendency to drive them away. Similar 

 conditions now exist in Barnstable and Bristol counties. Mr. 

 John S. Nicholson of Hyannis notes this fact; but as the 

 Woodcock feeds on the worms and insects on cultivated lands 

 not all its feeding grounds ever will be destroyed. Many good 

 Woodcock grounds have been flowed in making reservoirs for 

 water supply. Forest fires drive out or destroy breeding birds. 

 In some cases they do not return for years after a fire. A 

 deal of Woodcock cover has been cut off in recent years in 

 eastern Massachusetts, and has not been allowed to grow up 

 again; but, on the contrary, many isolated, abandoned farms 

 in western Massachusetts have grown up to brush, and alders 

 have been allowed to grow along the runs in the pastures, 

 therefore the cutting of cover has affected the birds little 

 except locally, mainly in eastern Massachusetts. The vast 

 network of telephone, telegraph and trolley wires that is now 

 stretched over the country is perhaps a greater menace to the 

 Woodcock than to any other bird. Many years ago Audubon 

 observed that the Woodcock migrated at night, and flew very 

 low. Few birds, perhaps, except Rails and Cuckoos, habitually 

 fly at so low a level. These birds fly at night and strike the 

 wires. Probably, in time, those which barely touch these wires 

 learn to avoid them, but those which strike them with the 

 breast, neck or head never see daylight again; many hundreds 

 of these birds have been picked up under the wires. Thousands 

 of Woodcock undoubtedly perish in this w^ay annually. Many 

 correspondents speak of this. I have talked with old gunners, 

 who have followed the wires in the marshes and picked up a 

 number of birds; some have been brought to me dead, with 

 characteristic wounds on head, neck or breast. One corre- 

 spondent records that a friend saw a Woodcock strike a wire 

 and fall dead. Let us hope that the W^oodcock may learn in 

 time to avoid these wires. 



All these causes for the depletion of Woodcock have very 

 little effect, however, compared with the continual hunting 

 and combing out of the covers by sportsmen and gunners with 

 dogs. I have killed Woodcock without a dog, but a man 

 without a first-class dog w^ill have difficulty in finding more 



