Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Distribution and Migration of North American Shorebirds
Consideration of our Shorebirds (limicolae) from an economic point of view is recent. The early settlers found ducks, geese, and swans swarming in certain sections of the United States, and grouse and turkeys very abundant. The size and toothsomeness of these birds made them important objects of pursuit for food, while the shore birds were considered unworthy of notice. As the great ?ocks of ducks and geese along the Atlantic coast diminished in numbers, the attention of gunners, especially of market hunters, was turned to the shorebirds, then in countless numbers. A generation of constant harassment spring and fall has almost exterminated some of the larger species and has very greatly reduced even the smaller ones. The time has come when this indiscriminate slaughter must cease if the present remnant of the Shorebirds is to be preserved.
The range of our Shorebirds extends from ocean to ocean, so that all parts of the United States have an interest in their preservation. These birds feed naturally in the open country or along the open shore, where they are easily found and are constantly subject to attack. The prairies of the Mississippi Valley in past years formed the' great highway of spring migration. Flock followed flock in almost endless succession across the prairies of Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, over a region that of late years has passed under the plow. As this area becomes more densely populated the shore birds, once so abundant, are likely to become extinct unless active measures are taken for their preservation.
There are excellent reasons for protecting and preserving the shorebirds, Some of them, especially the several kinds of plovers.
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