WATER BIRDS 



By far the most characteristic frequenters 

 of the beach are the shore birds, a charming 

 group in plumage, habits and call notes, a 

 group that includes sandpipers and plovers. 

 Up to half a dozen years ago the piping plover 

 bred regularly in the dunes and laid its eggs 

 in the sand. It belongs to a dying race, and 

 although it is protected by law at all seasons, 

 I fear this is not sufficient to stop its path to 

 extinction. So long as the law permits the 

 shooting of other plovers of the same size and 

 the small sandpipers, one cannot expect the 

 ordinary gunner to discriminate, as in fact he 

 is unable to do, and the piping plover is shot 

 with the rest. Only by stopping all shooting, 

 or by the creation of bird refuges, can the 

 tendency to extinction of this and other shore 

 birds be prevented. Would that the Ipswich 

 dunes, beaches and marshes could be made a 

 bird refuge ! It would be the greatest blessing 

 to the birds and to bird-lovers alike, and inci- 

 dentallj^ to sportsmen elsewhere. At present 

 a land owner prohibits the shooting of shore 

 birds around the shores of a smaU pond at 

 Ipswich Great Neck. The results are extraor- 

 dinary and are well worth imitation, for the 

 shore birds resort there in great numbers, both 



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