The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1911-05-19
HE term shorebird Is applied to
a group of long-legged, slender
billed, and usually plainly col
ored birds belonging to the or

billed, and usually plainly col
ored birds belonging to the or
der Limicolae, writes w. L. Mo
Aztec in bulletin issued by the bureau
of biological survey, United States de-
partment of agriculture. More than
sixty species of them occur in North
America. True to their name they
frequent the shores of all bodies Of
water, large and small, but many of
them are equally at home on plains
and prairies.
Throughout the eastern United
States shorebirds are fast vanishing.
While formerly numerous species
swarmed along the Atlantic coast and
In the prairie regions, many of them
have been so reduced that extermina-
ton seems imminent. The black-bel-
lied plover or beetlehead, which oc-
Cured along the Atlantic seaboard in
great numbers years ago, Is now seen
only as a straggler The golden plover,
once exceedingly abundant east of the
great plains, is now rare. Vast hordes
of long billed dowitchers formerly win
tered in Louisiana; now they occur
only in infrequent flocks of a half
dozen or less. The Eskimo curlew
within the last decade has probably
been exterminated and the other cur
Jews greatly reduced. In fact, all the
larger species of shorebirds have suf-
fered severely.
So adverse to shorebirds are present
conditions that the wonder is that any
escape. In both fall and spring they
are shot along the whole route of their
migration, north and south. Their
habit of decoying readily and per-
sistently, coming back in fiocks to the
decoys again and again, in spite OF
murderous volleys, greatly lessons
their chances of escape.
The breeding grounds of some of
the species in the United States and
Canada have become greatly restrict
ed by the extension of agriculture, and
their winter ranges in South America
have probably been restricted in the
same way.
Unfortunately, shorebirds lay fewer
eggs than any of the other species
generally termed game birds. They
deposit only three or four eggs, and
hatch only one brood yearly. Nor are
they in any wise immune from the
great mortality known to prevail
among the smaller birds. Their eggs
and young are constantly preyed upon
during the breeding season by crows,
gulls and jaegers, and the far north
ern country to which so many Of them
resort to nest is subject to sudden cold
storms, which kill many Of the young.
In the more temperate climate Of the
United States small birds, in general,
do not bring up more than one young
bird for every two eggs laid. Some
times the proportion Of loss Is much
greater, actual count revealing a de-
struction Of seventy to eighty per
cent. of nests and eggs. Shorebirds,
with sets of three or four eggs, prob
ably do not on the average rear more
than two young for each breeding pair.
1t is not surprising. therefore, that
birds of this family, with their limited
powers of reproduction, melt away
under the relentless warfare waged
upon them. Until recent years shore
birds have had almost no protection.
Thus, the species most in need OF
stringent protection have really had
the least. No useful birds which lay
only three or four eggs should be re-
tanned on the list of game birds. The
shorebirds should be relieved from
persecution, and If we desire to save
from determination majority Of the
species, action must be prompt
The protection Of shorebirds need
not be based solely on esthetic or SEN
timental grounds, for few groups OF
birds more thoroughly deserve protec-
ton from an economic standpoint.
Shorebirds perform an important sery.
Ice by their inroads upon mosquitoes,
some of which play so conspicuous
part in the dissemination Of disease.
Thus, nine species are known to feed
upon mosquitoes, and hundreds OF the
larvae or "wigglers" were found In
several stomachs. Fifty-three per
cent. of the food of % northern phala-
ropes from one locality consisted OF
MOSQUITO larvae. The insects eaten
include the salt-marsh mosquito, for
the suppression of which the state OF
New Jersey has gone to great expense.
The nine species Of shorebirds known
to eat mosquitoes are: Northern phal-
arope, Wilson phalarope, Silt sand
piper, Pectoral sandpiper, Baird sand
piper, Least sandpiper, Semipalmated
sandpiper, Kildeer and Semipalmated
plover.
Cattle and other live stock also are
seriously molested by mosquitoes as
well as by another set of pests. the
horse flies. Adults and larvae OF
these flies have been found in the
stomachs of the dowitcher, the pee
toral sandpiper, the hudsonian godwit
and the killdeer. Two species OF
shorebirds, the hlldeer and upland
plover, still further befriend cattle by
devouring the North American fever
tick. Among other fly larvae con-
sumed are those of the crane flies
(leatherjackets).
Another group of insects Of which
the shorebirds are very fond is grass
hoppers. Severe local infestations OF
grasshoppers, frequently involving the
destruction of many acres of corn. cot
ton and other crops, are by no means