H 
tr*' 
+ ft: 
Before dawn the duck hunters set out their flocks of decoys within range of the points where their blinds are hidden in the sedge or rushes, and 
when the ducks begin to fly in the hazy half light of early morning the boom of guns is heard far over the marshes 
The Slaughter of the Wild Fowl 
THE MIGRATIONS OF THE SHORE BIRDS AND WATER FOWL, AND THE DANGERS WHICH DESTROY 
GREAT NUMBERS ON THEIR ANNUAL JOURNEYS—PROTECTIVE MEASURES AND THEIR VALUE 
by T. Gilbert Pearson 
Secretary of the National Audubon Societies 
Photographs by A. R. Dugmore and Others 
T HE habit of migration is the most distinctive characteristic 
possessed by wild birds. Some mammals, fish and even a 
few butterflies and other insects rejoice in the migratory instinct, 
but in none of these is the 
power developed to the extent 
which we find among our 
feathered neighbors. As to the 
reason why they are driven to 
take such prodigious journeys, 
we can only surmise; but when 
we consider the persecution to 
which many of them are sub¬ 
jected at the hand of man, we 
wonder whether to some extent 
at least this power to pass over 
wide stretches of country was 
not intended as an aid in per¬ 
petuating the race. 
From the time when the hu¬ 
man race first acquired the 
means of hurling missiles, it is 
probable that birds have recog¬ 
nized man as their greatest en¬ 
emy. If we are to believe what the archeologists tell us, we must 
understand that the value of birds as an article of diet was early 
discovered, and doubtless away back in the grim beginnings of 
things man ate almost any bird 
which fell before his arrow. 
To-day, however, in most coun¬ 
tries only certain forms are re¬ 
garded as legitimate game 
birds, and it is.held to be un¬ 
sportsmanlike to kill any 
others. Of the twelve hundred 
or more species and varieties of 
birds inhabiting North Amer¬ 
ica, something over two hun¬ 
dred are considered legitimate 
game for the hunter, and at 
least seven-eighths of these are 
what are termed migratory 
birds. It is significant, too, that 
nearly all of these are species 
which secure their living either 
from the beaches, marshes or 
open water, and they are usu- 
Crouched in a brush and seaweed “hide” on the beach the shorebird 
hunter attracts the birds by decoys and imitating their calls 
(203) 
