246 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 
wounded comrades, they will remain hovering over the spot 
where they have fallen, till the irresistible shot has decimated 
in the most wholesale manner their well-organized ranks. 
Cobb Island, near the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, is 
one of their most favored haunts; in fact, all the islands 
and beaches along the coast of New Jersey were little less 
frequented, but, from being easier of access to the dwellers 
in the neighboring large cities, the birds of late years have 
betaken themselves to the less-frequented resting-place. 
She we 
AMERICAN CURLEW. 
However, they are soon threatened with expulsion from 
Cobb Island; for a hotel for the accommodation of sports- 
men has been built upon its sterile shores, and the Atlantic 
breakers that guard its surf-beaten coast listen, with mur- 
muring dissatisfaction, to the constant repeated echoes of 
the report of fire-arms, which are decimating the graceful 
beauties that in years gone by were permitted in peace to 
glide over the bosom of old Father Ocean. 
o 
