150 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



The Bobolink is entirely too rare here to be generally taken for a 

 game bird, in fact is entirely unfamiliar to many hunters. Among 

 Ducks the Wood Duck, Shoveller, Gadwall (Gray Duck) and Mallard are 

 the common species. While Pin-tailed Duck and the Teal are often 

 taken, Hooded and the Red-breasted Mergansers, though too strong 

 and "fishy" to be generally eaten, yet are often offered for sale at game 

 houses. The Golden Plover is only occasionally taken, while in spring 

 the Snipe {Gallinago delicata) , Wilson's Snipe, locally known as 

 Jack Snipe and the Totanus melanoleiicus, Stone Snipe of Yel- 

 low Shanks are often quite common. The Rail, too, is occasionally 

 taken in the spring. The common Wild Goose is rather common in the 

 late fall and winter. 



It is generally felt by all serious-minded persons, many lovers of the 

 sport as well as all true friends of the birds, that some law to entirely 

 protect all birds for two years or more, should be passed, and that the 

 present laws should be more strictly enforced to save many birds from 

 the fate of the Passenger or Wild Pigeon, that has so completely dis- 

 appeared, when we are told that they were once so plentiful that they 

 were knocked down by clubs and carried off in bags and even wagon- 

 loads. Also that the trees were so crowded with them that they often 

 broke down with their weight, and as they flocked to the roosts the 

 whole sky was darkened with them as with a thunder-cloud. 



