HAUNTS AND HABITS. 
3 
sporting literature and. knowledge of birds. The works of 
Baird, Brewer, Coues and the rest will ever stand as proud 
monuments of their labors anti successes. Much more is to 
be done. The field is still open. May we not hope the 
future will raise up laborers worthy to wear the mantle of 
their predecessors and to carry forward the work so nobly 
begun ? 
We puzzled over this matter of the shore birds for many 
years, trying to aiscover some satisfactory theory that would 
account for their movements and idiosyncracies. Why 
should certain species divide, one part going up the valley of 
the Mississippi and the other via the Atlantic coast, to their 
Northern breeding grounds ? Why should some numerous 
species all together follow the former and others the latter 
route ? Again, why do some of them proceed by .the one 
route and return by the other ? The inquiry seemed to lead 
to the conclusion that golden plover, Esquimaux curlew, 
summer yellowlegs, and a few other species, did take the 
broad valley of the “Father of Waters” for a highway 
northward in spring, but that the great mass of the adults 
did not return by the same road. A few of each species of 
young, or such as do not breed, may return by the route in¬ 
dicated. Then it was ascertained that the above-named 
species did not appear on the Atlantic coast in spring-time, 
but that all of them were abundant in autumn, both old and 
young. With the birds, as with ourselves, food supply is of 
the most vital importance. If we study the habits of these 
birds in relation to their food we shall find, to some extent, 
that the species that travel up the Mississippi Valley are of 
the class that run about on the fields and prairies, and pick 
up such worms, grubs and insects as are found on the surface 
of the ground, while those that follow the seashore feed 
mostly on such marine worms and insects as lie buried in the 
moist sand or mud, which must be obtained by plunging in 
the bill and wrenching the savory morsel from its hiding 
place. But in order to study carefully the habits, food and 
peculiarities of the shore birds we must be among them, or 
with them—must seek some locality where they can easily 
