Mississippi Eiver, the woodcocks are disappear- 

 ing. Once gone, they can hardly be restored, 

 largely because of their peculiar food, which 

 makes them migratory, and which cannot be 

 supplied them as grain can be supplied to the 

 quail and to other game-birds. The dangers of 

 their migrations aud those which beset their 

 nesting-places, the fewness of their eggs, their 

 limited and easily hunted coverts, are causes 

 which are making rapidly toward the extinction 

 of the woodcocks, and which would greatly add 

 to the difficulty of their restoration. 



Already these noble birds have gone from the 

 swale. There has been no love-dance over the 

 alders since those of my woodcock many springs 

 ago. The trees have been swept from the hill- 

 side, the little stream has shrunken, and rush and 

 sedge are now cropped close by the cattle. But 

 the birds were not driven away. 



They were shot. 



The night that my woodcock whizzed past on 

 his spring return to the swale, another bird 

 sailed low over the yard on his way back from 

 the swale. But his passing had lately become a 

 nightly occurrence. It was little Aix, a tame 

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