Game Birds, Wild-fowl and Shore Birds. 



INTRODUCTION. 



America, a Country of Game Birds. 



North America, at the time of its discovery, probably con- 

 tained more game birds in proportion to its size than any other 

 land. One hundred and seventy distinct species of game birds 

 are found on this continent, and the list might be considerably 

 extended by adding other birds which, although not considered 

 as game, have been used for food. The check list of the Amer- 

 ican Ornithologists* Union (1910) gives twenty -four species and 

 subspecies of Doves and Pigeons ; six of Turkeys ; forty-two of 

 Grouse; nineteenof Bob-whites, etc.; sixteen of Plover; seventy 

 of Snipe, Sandpipers, Godwits, etc.; twenty-six of Rails and 

 Cranes, etc. ; and seventy-four of edible web-footed wild-fowl, 

 — -all of which (excluding some necessary duplications) might 

 be included in the list of North American game birds. 



Game birds bred in countless numbers throughout the region 

 now known as the United States and Mexico, when America 

 first became known to Europeans. In autumn, winter and 

 spring the migratory species swarmed in this region in num- 

 bers unprecedented in the experience of man in any land. 

 The shape and situation of the continent and islands of North 

 America are such as to provide in the temperate and northern 

 portions an immense breeding ground for migratory birds, and 

 to congest them in the southern part during the fall, winter 

 and early spring. The general conformation of the North 

 American continent is that of a triangle, with its base lying in 

 the arctic regions and its apex south of the tropic of Cancer. 

 The distance across the northern part of the continent, meas- 

 uring from the easternmost point of Newfoundland to the 

 northwestern shores of Alaska, is more than four thousand 

 miles, and from the eastern point of Greenland to the western- 



