128 SHORE BIRDS 



circular, No. 79, on "Our Vanishing Shorebirds," the Amer- 

 ican people were totally unaware of the enormous value of 

 those birds as destroyers of insects. For example: 



9 species (of phalaropes, sandpipers and plovers) feed on mosquitoes. 

 2 species feed on the Texas fever tick ! 

 4 species feed on horse-flies, both larval and adult. 

 7 species feed on crane-flies. 

 6 species devour great quantities of locusts. 

 24 species feed on grasshoppers. 

 2 species feed on the cotton- worm. 



6 species make a specialty of the very destructive weevils. 



7 species eat the bill-bug. 



9 species devour beetles of several very destructive species. 

 6 species devour the destructive crawfishes of the South. 



Now, these facts are of much more than forgetful interest. 

 They concern the family market-basket and the grocer's bill. 

 Every insect that destroys any portion of a farm crop of 

 the United States thereby raises to us the cost of living; 

 and the American people can take that fact or leave it. 



For two hundred years the hunters and sportsmen of 

 America have been regarding the shore birds solely as game 

 birds, measurable only in food ounces on the table. First, 

 they began to slaughter the large species, but as the supply 

 diminished rapidly before the semi-annual gauntlet of guns 

 the standard of shooting ethics sank lower and lower. In 

 1900 the bottom of the scale was reached. It was about that 

 time that "sportsmen" began to shoot sandpipers, tor food! 

 As a food proposition, the sandpiper is in the sparrow class. 



From the interior of the United States about ninety -eight 

 per cent of the shore birds have disappeared, possibly forever. 

 Along the great semi-annual migration routes, particularly 



