Five Well^novn Game P>irds. 



By HARRY C. OBERHOLSER. 



THE last few years have witnessed an unprecedented revival of interest in game 

 and game protection ; and as one of the direct results, there has arisen an 

 apparently ever-increasing demand for more and accurate information. 

 With the purpose of presenting an account of a few of the better known and more 

 widely distributed of our water birds and shore birds, five have been selected for 

 special treatment here, as follows : The canvasback duck, the dowitcher, the greater 

 yellowlegs, the black-bellied plover and the American golden plover. While of 

 necessity this description must be 

 brief and of course very far from 

 exhaustive, it is aimed to give 

 the salient facts of each bird's life 

 history, around which further de- 

 tails quite naturally group them- 

 selves. It is entirely superfluous 

 to state that not of even the most 

 common bird does the naturalist 

 claim to possess full information ; 

 and should this article perchance 

 stimulate some one to closer and 

 further investigation it will have 

 fulfilled its purpose. 



Tfye Canvasbac^. 



So well and so widely known 

 that its very name has passed into 

 an epicurean proverb, the canvas- 

 back needs no introduction. Of 

 the fickleness and caprice of popu- 

 lar favor this duck is a most illus- 



ir i -, A TILLER OF THE SOIL— THE WOODCOCK 



tnous example ; for, while it occu- 



