246 



PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



wounded comrades, they will remain hovering over the spot 

 where they have fallen, till the irresistible shot has decimated 

 in the most wholesale manner their well-organized ranks. 



Cobb Island, near the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, is 

 one of their most favored haunts ; in fact, all the islands 

 and beaches along the coast of New Jersey were little less 

 frequented, but, from being easier of access to the dwellers 

 in the neighboring large cities, the birds of late years have 

 betaken themselves to the less -frequented resting-place. 



AMERICAN CURLEW. 



However, they are soon threatened with expulsion from 

 Cobb Island ; for a hotel for the accommodation of sports- 

 men has been built upon its sterile shores, and the Atlantic 

 breakers that guard its surf-beaten coast listen, with mur- 

 muring dissatisfaction, to the constant repeated echoes of 

 the report of fire-arms, which are decimating the graceful 

 beauties that in years gone by were permitted in peace to 

 glide over the bosom of old Father Ocean. 



