Shore Birds of Cape Cod. 
Joh n C . O ahooh . 
Red-breasted Snipe, Macrorhamphus griseus 
; (Gmel.) Brown-baek on Cape Cod. A com- 
mon spring, summer, and autumn migrant. 
The first arrivals in the spring reach the Cape 
as early as May 1. and become common about 
May '20. Only a few stragglers are seen after 
June 1. In the summer migration the first ones 
arrive at Cape Cod about July 5. Several old 
Cape gunners say that they always go for them 
at Monoinoy Island the 12th of July. They are 
the most common from July 15 to July 25. A 
few continue to arrive until the middle of 
Augusr., and by the last of that month none are 
seen about the Cape. One thing that I have 
noticed, is that there are very few young birds 
of this species seen. Unlike the other shore 
birds in the fall migration, a very great major- 
ity of these birds seen on the Cape are adults. 
These birds go on to the flats to feed as soon 
as the tide ebbs oft' sufficient to allow them to 
wade about. They follow the tide out in the 
manner of sandpipers, wading belly deep in the 
water, sticking their long, probe shaped bill 
into the grass and mud for the numerous 
marine bugs, worms, and soft shell fish that 
they feed upon. Often several are seen in com- 
pany with a flock of small sandpipers running 
( about on the sand flats, and are easily distin- 
guished from their smaller companions by their 
| slower motion, larger size and length of bill. 
| As soon as the tide flows, they fly to the salt 
’ marshes or meadows and stop until the next 
! ebb tide. They seldom go on to the high 
beaches with the curlew, plover and sandpiper 
that go there to roost at high tide. 
They have decreased very fast during the 
last five years, and where we saw a flock of 
several dozen then, we now see them singly, 
or in bunches not exceeding ten or twelve. 
They are the least shy of any of the shore birds, 
and it is due to this fact that they have de- 
| creased so fast. They are easily decoyed, and 
although they fly swiftly, their motion is 
steady and tiiey keep closely together. They 
alight in a compact bunch, and the gunner 
usually shoots into them before tiiey scatter 
out. Many are killed by a single discharge, 
and those that remain spring up with a sharp 
whistle and fly a short distance away, when 
hearing what they think to be the call of a de- 
| serted comrade, they wheel about and come 
! skimming bravely back to the murderous spot 
where they were first shot at. Again they are 
shot at, and again the remaining half dozen are 
loath to leave their dead and dying compan- 
ions, and return to share their fate. One or 
two may escape, and as they drop silently 
down on some lonely sand spit, sad relics of 
their departed companions, what sorrowful 
thoughts must be theirs as they wait for their 
comrades that will never come. When scattered 
on the meadows they lie very close, and when 
flushed their actions are similar to the Wilson’s 
Snipe. They can swim very fast, and I have 
several times got a good wetting by follow- 
ing a wounded one into deep water. 
O.&O. XIII. Aug. 1888 p.f il-US. 
