Barrow-loads Of Slaughtered Birds

The trained dog unerringly points out the woodcock's lurking place, and the bird's tameness allows the hunter to place himself in the most advantageous position for a shot: and thus the proportion of birds killed is probably greater than in the case of any other game bird. Many hunters claim more than a fifty per cent kill of woodcock started; one killed thirty-eight out of forty-one flushed. Frequently woodcock will fly only a short distance, and often they will alight within sight. They have also a liking for a particular place and often can be found in the same thicket on successive days. Most of this destruction occurs during the southward flight, mainly at the time of the bright moon of October, when the birds congregate by day in favored haunts.

What may happen to a bird like the woodcock was well shown in mid-February, 1899, when a very severe snowstorm, followed by freezing weather, occurred over most of the eastern seaboard. Great numbers of wintering and northward-migrating woodcock, then concentrated in the Carolinas and other southeastern states, were overwhelmed by deep snow and frozen feeding grounds, and perished in vast numbers from cold, starvation, and unrestricted shooting.

A reliable and careful observer, A. T. Wayne, estimated that tens of thousands were killed by so-called sportsmen on this occasion. The name of the wretch who in a few hours shot two hundred pairs of these freezing, starving, emaciated birds is fortunately not recorded. The dearth of sympathetic observers in the affected area prevented any adequate estimate of the total damage, but it was tremendous. Barrow-loads of the slaughtered birds were offered for sale. The effect was apparent for many years, but beyond the recording of the phenomenon in a few journals the tragedy was treated merely as a passing incident, and no helpful legislation seems to have resulted.

It is a sad commentary on our methods of game protection that such opportunities for destruction are almost never met by any effective restrictive measures. For hundreds of years the woodcock of Europe has been much esteemed by sportsmen, and it was after that the American bird should early claim the attention of hunters, especially after the improvement of firearms. Accounts of the abundance in early days read almost like fairy-tales, and recollections of our own boyhood experiences bring up memories of thronging autumn coves and well-tenanted breeding places that we wish might be repeated. But the effects of continuous persecution are all too apparent.

By: davidbunch

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