Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 121, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1911 — OUR VANISHING SHOREBIRDS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OUR VANISHING SHOREBIRDS

THE term shorebird is applied to a group of long-legged, slenderbilled, and usually plainly colored birds belonging to the order Limlcolae, writes W. L. McAtee in a bulletin Issued by the bureau of biological survey, United States department 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 vanshing. While formerly numerous species swarmed along the Atlantic coast and in the prairie regions, many of them have been so reduced that extermination seems Imminent. The black-bel-lied plover or beetlehead, which occurred 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 wintered 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 curlews greatly reduced. In fact, all the larger species ot shorebinds have suffered 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 persistently, coming back in flocks to the decoys again arid again, in spite of murderous volleys, greatly lessens their chances of escape.

The breeding grounds of some of the species tn the United States and Canada have become greatly restricted 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 northern 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. Sometimes the proportion of loss is much greater, actual count revealing a destruction of seventy to eighty per cent of nests and eggs. Shorebirds, with sets of three or four eggs, probably do not on the average rear more than two young for each breeding pair. It 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 shorebirds 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 retained on the list of game birds. The shorebirds should be relieved from persecution, and if we desire to save from extermination a majority of the species, action must be prompt.

The protection of shorebirds need not be based solely on esthetic or sentimental grounds, for few groups of birds more thoroughly deserve protection from an economic standpoint. Shorebirds perform, an important service by their inroads upon mosquitoes, some of which play so conspicuous a part in the dissemination of disease. Thus, nine species are known to feed upon mosquitoes, and hundreds of the larvae or “wiggfers” were found in several stomachs. Fifty-three per cent, of the food of 28 northern phalaropes 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 phalarope, Wilson phalarope. Stilt sandpiper. Pectoral sandpiper, Baird sandpiper, 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 larvaeof these flies have been found in the stomachs of the dowitcher, the pectoral sandpiper, the hudsonian godwit and the killdeer. Two species of shorebirds, the killdeer and upland plover, still further cattle by devouring the North American fever tick. Among other fly larvae consumed are those of the crane flies (leather jackets).

Another group of insects of which the shorebirds are very fond is grasshoppers. Severe local infestations of grasshoppers, frequently Involving the destruction of many acres of corn, cotton and other crops, are by no means exceptional. Aughey found 23 species of shorebirds feeding on Rocky Mountain locusts in Nebraska, some of them consuming large numbers. Even under ordinary conditions grasshoppers are a staple food of many members of the shorebird family.

Shorebirds afe fond of other insect pests of forage and grain crops, including the army worm, which is known to be eaten by the killdeer and spotted sandpiper; also cutworms, among whose enemies are the avocet, woodcock, pectoral and Baird sandpipers, upland plover and killdeer. Two caterpillar enemies of cotton, the cotton worm and the cotton cutworm, are eaten by the upland plover and killdeer. The latter bird feeds also on caterpillars of the genus Phlegethontius, which Includes the tobacco and tomato worms.

The principal farm crops hav*e many destructive beetle enemies also, and some of these are eagerly eaten by shorebirds. The boll weevil and cloverleaf weevil are eaten by the upland plover and killdeer, the rice weevil by the killdeer, the cowpea weevil by the upland plover, and the cloverroot curculio by several species of shorebirds.

Bill bugs, which often do considerable damage to corn, seem to be favorite food of some of the shorebirds. They are eaten by the Wilson phalarope, avocet, black-necked stilt, pectoral sandpiper, killdeer and upland plover. They are an important element of the latter bird’s diet, and no fewer than eight species of them have been found in its food.

Wireworms and their adult forms, click beetles, are devoured by the northern phalarope, woodoock, jacksnipe, pectoral sandipper, killdeer and upland plover. The last three feed also on the southern corn leaf-beetle, and the last two upon the grapevine colapsis. Other shorebirds that eat leaf-beetles are the Wilson phalarope and dowitcher.

Crayfishes, which are a pest in rice and corn fields in the south and which injure levees, are favorite food of the black-necked stilt, and several other shorebirds feed upon them, notably the jacksnipe, robin snipe, spotted sandpiper, upland plover and killdeer. Thus it is evident that shorebirds render important aid by devouring the enemies of farm crops and in other ways, and their services are appreciated by those who have observed the birds in the field. Thus, W. A. Clark of Corpus Christi, Tex., reports that upland plovers are industrious in following the plow and in eating the grubs that destroy garden stuff, corn, and cotton crops. H. W. Tlnkham of Fall River, Mass., says of the spotted sandpiper: “Three pairs nested in a young orchard behind my house and adjacent to my garden. I did not see them once go to the shore for food (shore about 1,500 feet away), but I did see them many times make faithful search of my garden for cutworms, spotted squash bugs, and green flies. Cutworms and cabbage worms were their especial prey. Afta| the young .could fly, they still kept ar work in my garden, and showed no inclination to go to the shore until about August 15. They and a flock of quails just over the wall helped me wonderfully.” To summarise: Shorebirds have been hunted until only a remnant of their once vast numbers is left. Their limited powers ot reproduction, coupled with the natural vicissitudes of the breeding period, make their increase slow, and peculiarly expose them to danger of extermination. In the way of protection a beginning has been made, and a continuous close season until 1915 has been established for the following birds: The killdeer, in Massachusetts and Louisiana; the upland plover, in Massachusetts and Vermont; and the piping plover, in Massachusetts. But, considering 'the .needs and value of these birds, this modicum of proteetlon is small indeed.