314 
FOREST AND STREAM 
July, 1921 
BIRDS OF NATURE S TIDES 
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 305 ) 
ITHACA WINS 
6 IN A ROW 
Paul Earl won the championship of So. 
Carolina in 1921, 1920 and 1919. 
James Staple won in 1918, 1917 and 
1916. Another World’s record for Ithacas. 
Any man can break more targets with an 
Ithaca 
CATALOGUE FREE 
Singles, $75.00 up. Doubles, $45.00 up. 
ITHACA GUN CO. ITHACA, N. Y. 
BOX 25 
G. E. LEWIS & SONS 
HIGH-CLASS GUNS AND RIFLES 
HAVE A WORLD-WIDE REPUTATION 
FOR THEIR EXCELLENT WORKMAN- 
SHIP AND SHOOTING POWERS. 
Our “Ariel” Gun, 12-bore, from 6 lb. 
weight, fully nitro-proved, is a luxury to 
sportsmen in a hot climate — or unable to 
carry a full-weight gun. 
MAGNUM 12 BORES — for long shots 
at Wild-fowl. Effective range 100 yards. 
Our 16 & 20 bore EXPRESS GAME GUNS, as 
recommended by many well known Game 
Shots, give very high velocity with ex- 
cellent patterns. 
New Illustrated Catalogue Now Ready. 
GUN AND RIFLE WORKS, 
32 and 33, Lower Loveday Street, 
BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND 
ESTABLISHED 1850. 
Robert H. Rockwell 
40 E. 63rd St. Brooklyn, N. Y. 
tide comes up there really is nowhere 
for a shore-bird to go. 
This last summer while cruising on 
the Sound we lay over a day in a small 
gravel harbor which has been dredged 
just back of Lloyd’s Point. From here 
we saw the jack curlew go by, a flock 
of four, and then two individuals some 
distance apart but within sight and 
hailing distance of one another, appar- 
ently steering a steady course from 
headland to headland along the Sound. 
A small representation of other mi- 
grant species passed up, sufficient to 
indicate that their absence in general 
was because the ground was unfavor- 
able, not because it was isolated. Aside 
from a few of the omnipresent spotted 
sandpiper or teeter, the only species 
well represented there was the ring- 
neck plover. Compared to other mem- 
bers of the group the ringneck is of 
small size, wide-ranging, versatile, and 
a tidal bird. It was doubtless a com- 
bination of these characters which 
made the little harbor a stopping place 
for about twenty-five of them, various- 
ly scattered, eight or ten frequently in 
one flock. Their small size rendered 
them content on narrow feeding- 
grounds where frequent intruders 
would have been objectionable to a yel- 
lowleg, for instance. The wide-rang- 
ing habit minimized the disadvantage 
of distance separating this from other 
equally agreeable localities. Their 
versatility enabled them to fully utilize 
the changes of the tide. With tide go- 
ing out, they were attracted by some 
more-or-less-dead marsh sod recently 
uncovered by the falling water, which 
projected from the gravel along one 
piece of steep harbor shore. At low 
water they were seen feeding on the 
mud of a short creek in the small 
marsh adjoining. As it approached 
high one early morning, I watched a 
little flock through binoculars from our 
anchorage, that was working the 
water’s edge at a receding point of the 
gravel barrier between harbor and 
Sound. There they stood about at high 
water, resting, and incidentally in just 
such scattered arrangement as a fowler 
would use in placing his artificial de- 
coys to attract the attention of passing 
birds. 
V 
Each year the far northern sum- 
mer frees vast stretches of shal- 
low coastal water from ice. For 
a short season innumerable inland 
pools and swamps dot the arctic tundra 
north of the limit of trees. It is not 
surprising that a considerable part of 
the world’s shore-birds make an an- 
nual pilgrimage to these favorable 
grounds to lay their eggs and raise 
their young. Students of bird migra- 
tion wonder what there is in the far 
north to induce birds to leave the per- 
petual plenty of the tropics and nest 
in arctic and sub-arctic regions. Cer- 
tainly such highly developed habits of 
migration have their origin far back 
in the history of the species and are 
now inherited from generation to gen- 
eration. But there is one ever-pres- 
ent factor the importance of which 
should not be lost sight of, and that 
is the long days of a high latitude sum- 
mer. In the case of the shore-birds 
we have added to this a limitless ex- 
panse of new water in which they can 
wade. 
When the summer is over and the 
autumn sun dips to the south again, 
it is simple enough why northern breed- 
ing birds follow it. They must do so 
or perish in the cold of the winter to 
come. It is not so much the cold it- 
self (against which their feathers af- 
ford wonderful protection) , but the co- 
related shortage of food. For most 
northern breeding shore-birds there is 
no favorable wintering ground north 
of the winter limit of ice and snow. 
One finds some spending the winter 
about the capes of the Carolinas, more 
on the Gulf Coast and in Florida, but 
many go still farther south, far south 
of the Equator. The Argentine is a 
favorite resort. These birds are all 
strong and swift on the wing. Dis- 
tance means little to them and they cov- 
er wide stretches of ocean in a single 
flight. When they once start coming 
south with the shortening days they 
arrive almost simultaneously in tem- 
perate and in tropical localities. Long 
Island, New York, is situated in a lati- 
tude where few breed. The piping 
plover, kildeer, spotted sandpiper and 
woodcock are the only breeding species. 
Still fewer remain through the cold 
winter. A scant remnant of the flocks 
of sanderlings whose feeding ground 
along the wash of the surf is still open, 
are almost the only ones that regularly 
do so. The great majority of individ- 
uals and species occur only as birds of 
passage, passing northward in spring 
and southward in fall. The grounds 
where many of these individuals are 
to breed, however, lie so far to the north 
that they are not free from ice until 
well into the summer and it follows 
that the peak of abundance of north- 
bound birds in this latitude does not 
occur until later in May. Many have 
not passed until the end of the first 
week in June. The main flight of knots 
sometimes does not go through until 
June. 
A remarkable thing about the re- 
turn of migration is how early in the 
season southbound birds reappear far 
from any locality where they might 
have nested. By the first week in July 
certain species, notably the jack curlew 
and least sand-piper, are with us again. 
These early arrivals are invariably 
adults. An explanation may be looked 
for in the shortness of the summer 
season in high latitudes. If the birds 
have not arrived on their nesting 
grounds and started house-keeping 
when the sun reaches its farthest north, 
it is probably too late for them to raise 
In Writing to Advertisers mention Forest and Stream. It will identify you. 
