280 CAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



easily, he says, not manifesting the shyness that they show- 

 to-day. It was not uncommon for the boys of that date to 

 take fifty or more at a shot. John Bourne one morning filled 

 his bag with them, then took off his pants, tied up the legs, 

 filled them full and trudged home, well satisfied with his 

 morning's work. Think of this, ye Peep shooters of the 

 twentieth century, and forsake the unmanly occupation of 

 chasing little Peeps on beach and marsh. Let the beautiful, 

 harmless birdlings enjoy their lives in peace. If the present 

 rate of destruction is kept up the Peeps eventually will go 

 the way of some of their larger relatives, despite their great 

 numbers and wide dispersion over the continent. 



This is one of the shore birds which formerly remained all 

 summer on the Massachusetts coast, but there is no evidence 

 that it ever bred here. Maynard saw some at Ipswich on June 

 18, 1868. Dr. Townsend says that a few birds may be found 

 between early June and early July. 



This species breeds across most of the upper part of the 

 continent and migrates southward through it. Apparently, 

 however, some birds from the northeastern part of their breed- 

 ing range cross the sea to the Antilles and South America. 

 Formerly when the species was very abundant along the 

 Atlantic coast, it was a common visitor at the Bermudas in 

 the fall migration. To reach Bermuda these little birds must 

 have flown over seven hundred miles across the sea if they 

 went straight east from the coast of South Carolina, but as 

 the flocks visited the island annually in the fall migration and 

 never in spring, it is reasonable to believe that they followed 

 the route taken by several other species, and flew directly 

 over the ocean from Labrador or Nova Scotia to Bermuda 

 and the Antilles. The fact that the advance guard arrives at 

 the Lesser Antilles about the middle of July lends color to 

 this theory, for that is only a few days or a week later than 

 their usual arrival in New England. The species winters in 

 Chile, Peru, northern South America, Central America and 

 Mexico, the West Indies and the more southern States. It 

 goes north mainly through the interior of North America, but 

 some migrate up the coast. 



