BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 263 



History. 



This is the largest of the beach Sandpipers. Its breeding 

 grounds almost encircle the pole, and it is known on the shores 

 of every continent. No bird undertakes a more extensive 

 annual pilgrimage than this species, for it has been found in 

 northern Grinnell Land, at latitude 82° 44', and it goes south 

 to the Straits of Magellan, not far from Cape Horn. It 

 migrates principally along the Atlantic coast, both spring and 

 fall, but in the spring, numbers of the species arrive in Texas, 

 Louisiana and other southern States, going north through the 

 Mississippi valley region, and they are found in migration on 

 the Pacific coast. August is the principal month of autumnal 

 migration along the Atlantic coast. The adult birds appear 

 first, in July, and the young follow. This is the general rule 

 with shore birds. In migration this species formerly reached 

 the shores of New England in immense numbers. 



The following abridged extracts indicate its decrease: 

 They seem like a diminutive army marshalled in rank and 

 spreading their animated lines (Nuttall, Massachusetts, 1834). 

 Seen in large flocks (Peabody, Massachusetts, 1839). Com- 

 mon spring and autumn (Turnbull, eastern Pennsylvania and 

 New Jersey, 1869). Seen on shore in flocks of eight or ten 

 (Samuels, New England, 1870) . Common spring and autumn 

 (J. A. Allen, 1879). A common bird on New England shores 

 spring and autumn (Chamberlain, 1891). An uncommon 

 migrant along coast (Howe and Allen, Massachusetts, 1901). 

 Now annually seen in fewer numbers (Knight, Maine, 1908). 



The Knot had decreased considerably near Boston before 

 the middle of the last century. Mackay states that before 

 1850 they were more numerous at Chatham, Nauset, Well- 

 fleet and Billingsgate on Cape Cod, and on the flats around 

 Tuckernuck and Muskeget islands, than in all the rest of New 

 England combined. Their numbers were so large on Cape 

 Cod that estimates were useless. There was then no railroad 

 to the Cape. The birds were slaughtered in great numbers 

 at night by "fire-lighting." Thoreau refers to this in his 

 Cape Cod. One man, carrying a lantern prepared for the 



