BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 279 



many he could kill, and no real sportsman ever thought of 

 pursuing the little birds. Now all is changed. In the present 

 scarcity of shore birds "Peeps" form a principal object of 

 pursuit in some localities, and it is not uncommon to see three 

 or four summer gunners chasing about the same number of 

 "Peeps," and sometimes even a single bird is the object of 

 their pursuit. 



The following extracts explain themselves: The most 

 common and abundant species in America; when they arrive 

 [about Boston] in company with the Semipalmated Sandpiper 

 the air is sometimes clouded with their flocks (Nuttall, 1834). 

 Abundant in migration (Maynard, eastern Massachusetts, 

 1870). Abundant during migration (J. A. Allen, 1879). The 

 Peeps still throng our shores (Chamberlain, 1891). "Peeps" 

 are with us in but a small percentage of their former multi- 

 tudes (Sanford, Bishop and Van Dyke, 1903). Common mi- 

 grant on our coast (Hoffmann, 1904). Abundant transient 

 (C. W. Townsend, Essex County, 1905). Formerly abun- 

 dant, still very common (Brewster, Cambridge region, Mass., 

 1906). Seven Massachusetts observers in 1908 reported that 

 this species had increased in their localities within their recol- 

 lection, and seventy-three reported a marked decrease. 



Wondrous tales are told of the quantities of these birds 

 killed out of the great flocks in past centuries. Old gunners 

 tell of killing "a peck" of the poor little things with two shots, 

 or of taking a bushel in a few minutes. Two charges fired into 

 them as they passed the gunner opened two holes in the 

 middle of the flock. The numerous survivors soon closed 

 ranks and came sweeping back over their dead and wounded 

 comrades, when the gunner, having reloaded, tore two more 

 clean holes in their formation, and so the slaughter went on. 

 Sometimes the flocks were "raked" when massed together on 

 the ground, and thus most of the larger scores were made. 

 Samuels says that in old times he once brought down ninety- 

 seven at one discharge of a double-barreled gun. This must 

 have been near the middle of the nineteenth century. Bourne 

 states that a century ago in Maine the "Sandbirds or Peeps" 

 were as numerous as the Wild Pigeons. They were killed 



