GAME-BIEDS 243 



and inland waters. Ten years ago those rem- 

 nants were meager indeed — a mere fraction of 1 

 per cent, of what they were a century earlier. 

 Now, however, under the stimulus of revised State 

 legislation and Federal protection, they show 

 signs of recuperation; and it is possible that 

 within another decade their numbers will be suffi- 

 ciently recovered to preclude the possibility of 

 extinction which so recently threatened. 



The Tragedy of the Shorebirds 



Shorebirds in America have followed the same 

 trail as water-fowl. Their destruction was even 

 more rapid than that of ducks, being accomplished 

 in a much shorter time. The birds are compara- 

 tively small and therefore for years were consid- 

 ered unworthy of the expenditure of powder and 

 shot. But, with the decrease of the supply of 

 water-fowl and a proportionate enlargement of 

 the army of market hunters and sportsmen, their 

 doom was sealed. 



There was a time, scarcely a generation ago, 

 when the yellowlegs, black-breasted plover, golden 

 plover, and curlews very nearly rivaled in num- 

 bers the great hosts of ducks. The Atlantic and 

 Pacific coasts, Nova Scotia to Georgia, and Alaska 

 to southern California, from July to November, 

 literally swarmed with their southward-moving 



