350 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



shot by gunners, and the next season the species was as rare 

 as before. 



Notwithstanding the facts that the flesh of the Killdeer is 

 of Httle value as food, and that it is one of the most useful 

 insectivorous birds of the garden and field, it has been almost 

 exterminated in Massachusetts by shooting in spring, while 

 it was preparing to nest, and in summer before the young 

 were able to fly. Quite a colony of Killdeers was in existence 

 near Springfield until after the beginning of this century; but 

 it was exterminated by shooting in July and August. Mas- 

 sachusetts has presented to the world the singular spectacle 

 of legalizing the extermination of a beautiful and useful species 

 of practically no food value. It was lawful to shoot this bird 

 in spring until recent years and in summer until 1909, when it 

 had become nearly extinct in the State. Then the passage of a 

 law protecting it at all times was secured. This, together with 

 a statute for the protection of wild-fowl in spring, which was 

 passed the same year, may save the bird from extirpation in the 

 Commonwealth. Within the past two years a few instances of 

 its breeding in Hampden, Middlesex and Bristol counties have 

 been reported. This year (1910) a pair of Killdeers built a 

 nest almost under the walls of a gunning stand and reared 

 a brood unmolested. This species still breeds in some num- 

 bers in New York and New Jersey, and even in Connecticut 

 and Rhode Island, where it has been better protected by 

 the farmers than in Massachusetts. This Commonwealth is 

 well within its range, for it breeds north to Quebec, and there 

 is hope that if it is protected at all times by law in Massa- 

 chusetts for a long term of years it may become common 

 again on our farms and gardens. 



The Killdeer is one of the most beautiful and attractive of 

 the Plovers, and, contrary to the general rule among shore 

 birds, it is more numerous in the interior than along shore. 

 As soon as the ice breaks up in the rivers and lakes the Kill- 

 deer's cry is heard — the harbinger of spring. It makes its 

 home on low-lying farms. It frequents meadows and cul- 

 tivated lands, where it feeds on destructive insects and worms. 

 In some localities it is recognized among the farmers, as one of 



