39 
uncommon, fourteen rare, and the rest merely accidental or 
casual. Most of those now considered common were for- 
merly very abundant, as were also some which are now rare. 
Nearly all the larger species are now either uncommon, rare 
or casual. Some of them are nearly extirpated or driven off 
our coasts. A few of the accidental species never were com- 
mon here, but the others probably were. The common smaller 
species have been saved from total destruction, some by 
their small size, which makes shooting them of little profit, 
and some by not consorting together in large flocks. For 
these reasons mainly, perhaps, the “ peeps ” or smaller sand- 
pipers, the smaller plovers and the spotted and solitary sand- 
pipers are still common, although the “ peeps,’’ sanderlings 
and small plovers were once very much more abundant 
than now. Turnstones are still not uncommon, both in 
spring and fall. The black-bellied plover, or heetlehead, a 
bird formerly migrating along our coast in enormous num- 
bers, has decreased rapidly since the middle of the last cen- 
tury. In 1842 three men shot one hundred and twenty-one 
birds May 24, and one hundred and fifty May 25, on Tucker- 
nuck Island. In 1870 a law was passed prohibiting the shoot- 
ing of these birds in the spring migrations. The law was 
repealed in 1871, hut afterward re-enacted, and since then 
the species has increased somewhat. Mr. Mackay says that 
never for the last fifteen years have there been so many of 
these birds as during 1903 and 1904, and that there is now a 
notable increase of young birds each fall. The golden plover 
has not benefited much by this law. The abundance of the 
Eskimo curlew and the golden plover is largely governed by 
the amount of spring shooting done in the Mississippi valley, 
as most of these birds come north by that route. “ The 
golden plover is now practically eliminated from the east,” 
says Mr. Mackay. 1 This was once one of the most abundant 
of our migrating birds, coming at times in enormous flights, 
and fairly glutting the markets. Mr. Henry Shaw tells me 
that at one time, probably soon after 1860, a great flight of 
these birds swarmed over the fields south of Worcester, and 
1 In 1906 and 1907 the golden plover was seen in increasing numbers in the fall migra- 
tions. Possibly the laws, recently enacted, prohibiting spring shooting in the Mississippi 
Valley States are having a beneficent effect on this species. 
