Shore Bird Migration. 
Bulletin 35 of the Biological Survey, of 
which H. W. Henshaw is chief, has just been 
issued and deals with shore bird migration and 
distribution. It was compiled by Wells W. 
Cooke. 
Of the millions of shore birds that used to 
hurry along the ocean beaches on both sides of 
the continent, or search for food on the prairies 
of the Middle West, few now remain, and it 
seems that the time has come when efforts should 
be made to preserve them as they have been 
made to preserve wildfowl and smaller birds. 
Every man who in the past has loved to lie in 
the blind and see the distant specks whistled up 
to the decoys will sympathize now with a desire 
to save these birds, however reck¬ 
less may have been his slaughter 
of them in the past. 
In North America there are 
seventy-six species and nine sub¬ 
species, a total of eighty-five 
recognized forms of shore birds. 
Of these, seven do not come so 
far south as to enter the United 
States, five are found only in 
Greenland, while fifteen others 
occur on the mainland of North 
America merely as stragglers. 
There are some others that occur 
in Alaska, but not elsewhere in 
North America. Nevertheless 
there are about fifty species that 
regularly visit the United States 
during some portion of the year. 
Of these a considerable number 
breed wholly north of the United 
States, and about fifteen species, 
including the woodcock and the 
Wilson snipe, breed in both the 
United States and Canada. 
An extraordinary thing about 
the shore birds is their astonishing range; 
their forces. We believe that there are records 
—perhaps not made by ornithologists—where 
various sorts of shore birds—other than phala- 
ropes—have been seen resting on the water far 
at sea in large numbers. Certainly, two or three 
years ago, on a return voyage from Europe dur¬ 
ing the last days of May, many hundreds of 
willets were seen resting on the water several 
hundred miles off the banks of Newfoundland, 
the steamship passing among them, and causing 
only the nearest to rise to fly to a little 
distance. 
The shore birds which, during the fall migra¬ 
tion, visit the Bermudas and the Lesser Antilles 
return in spring by a different route. Along the 
Atlantic coast shore birds are more numerous in 
fall than in spring, while in the Mississippi Val- 
go precisely in the opposite direction, a thousand 
miles to the coast of Southern Alaska. 
Though many of the shore birds that breed in 
North America winter in Southern South 
America, none of them breed in their winter 
home. Yet a number of species have been re¬ 
ported as breeding near the southern end of 
South America. It is stated, however, that eggs 
have never been found. 
After his introduction Mr. Cooke takes up the 
various species of shore birds one by one, giving 
the breeding range, winter range, migration range 
of each and some facts about the spring and 
fall migration. The paper is exceedingly in¬ 
teresting and is illustrated by four plates of the 
yellowleg, upland plover, spotted sandpiper and 
killdeer, all drawn by Mr. Fuertes. 
SSM — 
• V' 
... 
— 
T~ 
■ &W A 
$ 
that 
is to say, birds that breed chiefly north of the 
Arctic circle may migrate as far as the southern 
portion of South America, for the shore birds 
are among the most wide rangers of migrants. 
Some, like the jacanas of tropical America, do 
not migrate at all, but most shore birds migrate 
each season more than a thousand miles, and 
many of them lengthen their journey to seven 
thousand miles. Mr. Cooke declares that the 
most wonderful feature of their migration is the 
enormous distance covered in a single flight, and 
in his account of the golden plover he intimates 
that many flocks of plover fly without resting 
from Nova Scotia to Northern South America, 
a distance of about 2.500 miles, and the Eskimo 
curlew is said to do the same, while other species 
make stops in the Lesser Antilles on their way to 
South America. We should be inclined to doubt 
that the golden plover flies 2.500 miles with¬ 
out resting. That their flights are very long will 
not be doubted, but on the other hand there is 
no reason why in moderate weather these birds 
should not rest from time to time on the ocean 
to renew their flight after they had recuperated 
THE EUROPEAN WOODCOCK. 
From Elliott’s “North American Shorebirds.” 
ley there is no such noticeable difference of num¬ 
bers at the two seasons. It is concluded, there¬ 
fore, that in the case of most of the species 
that migrate south along the Atlantic coast some 
pass northward in spring by way of the Missis¬ 
sippi Valley. This route was followed by the 
nearly extinct Eskimo curlew, and is still that 
of most of the golden plover. 
The Hawaiian Islands lie in the Pacific Ocean 
2,000 miles from the nearest mainland to the 
eastward and more than 3,000 miles from Asia. 
The nearest point of Alaska is about 2,000 miles 
to the north. Five species of shore birds, which 
have summered in Alaska, spend the winter in 
the Hawaiian Islands. 
Not only do shorebirds migrate to great dis¬ 
tances, but they migrate in extraordinary fash¬ 
ion. The sharptail sandpiper breeds on the 
northern coast of Siberia, crosses to Alaska in 
the autumn and then back to Asia, and by way 
of China and Japan reaches its winter home in 
Australia. Some individuals of the marbled god- 
wit migrate from their breeding grounds in the 
interior more than a thousand mi’es directly 
east to the Atlantic coast, while others used to 
To Protect European 
Woodcock. 
That woodcock are getting 
scarce in Great Britain may be 
inferred from the fact that a 
number of English sportsmen are 
advocating a universal close time 
for their woodcock, to begin Feb. 
1, or Feb. 15, and to remain in 
force until Aug. 12, or Sept. 1. 
Fairly good woodcock shooting 
is often to be had during the 
month of February at various 
points on the British Islands and 
on the continent, yet such men as 
Mr. Selous, Count Clary and 
Kingston Baker believe that the 
season on this bird should be 
greatly shortened. Summer shoot¬ 
ing is permitted, and in places 
where the birds breed regularly— 
and there are many such places in 
Britain — young ones, often very 
small, are found with the old 
birds. The condition is much the same there 
that it used to be in the United States when 
summer shooting was permitted in most of the 
Northern States. 
Comparatively few American gunners know 
the English woodcock. It is a great bird, twice 
as large as our little American whistler, and 
very different in appearance. With a generally 
similar coloring of brown and black,, the two 
birds are wholly different in aspect, for the 
European bird is much paler than the American 
one, and is barred beneath with black on a pale 
brownish or grayish ground. 
In many places in England the woodcock is 
resident. It is greatly to be desired that some 
arrangement to protect these fine birds should 
be entered into. 
Result of Destruction of Rooks in Ireland. 
In the county of Aberdeenshire, Ireland, the 
farmers have killed many rooks, and, as a con¬ 
sequence, the leatherjacket grub, which is eaten 
by rooks, has ravaged whole fields of oats. 
