22 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



death. The great majority were so emaciated that 

 they were practically feathers, and, of course, were 

 unable to withstand the cold. One man killed two 

 hundred pairs in a few hours. I shot a dozen birds. 

 Late Tuesday afternoon I easily caught several birds 

 on the snow and put them into a thawed spot on the 

 edge of a swift-running stream in order that they 

 would not perish, but upon going to the place next 

 morning I found one frozen. These were fearfully 

 emaciated and could scarcely fly. Two birds were 

 killed in Charleston, in Broad Street. It will be many 

 years before this fine bird can establish itself under 

 the most favorable conditions." 



Mr. Wayne gives a list of sixteen species which he 

 found frozen to death, among them such hardy birds 

 as the meadow lark and hermit thrush. He goes on 

 to say: 



"Bluebirds and pine warblers were decimated. 

 Mocking birds, cardinals, Florida towhees, Carolina 

 wrens and all woodpeckers escaped." 



It must take any species many years to recover from 

 a wholesale sweeping off of its individuals, such as took 

 place on this occasion, and if such a destruction of the 

 woodcock took place all along a section of its winter 

 home, as did in South Carolina, it is not strange that 

 this species should have been regarded by naturalists 

 as a vanishing bird. 



For many years in Louisiana, and possibly in other 

 portions of the Southern States where the conditions 



