[Illustration: TWO MEMBERS OF THE GROUP OF SHORE-BIRDS The Killdeer Plover The Jacksnipe These, with 28 other species, destroy enormous numbers of locusts, grasshoppers, crane-fly larvae, mosquito larvae, army-worms, cut-worms, cotton-worms, boll-weevils, curculios, wire-worms and clover-leaf weevils. It is insane folly to shoot any birds that do such work! Many species of the shore-birds are rapidly being exterminated.] Even under ordinary conditions grasshoppers are a staple food of many members of the shorebird family, and the following species are known to feed on them: Northern phalarope (_Lobipes lobatus_). Avocet (_Recurvirostra americana_). Black-necked stilt (_Himantopus mexicanus_). Woodcock (_Philohela minor_). Jacksnipe (_Gallinago delicata_). Dowitcher (_Macrorhamphus griseus_). Robin snipe (_Tringa canutus_). White-rumped sandpiper (_Pisobia fuscicollis_). Baird sandpiper (_Pisobia bairdi_). Least sandpiper (_Pisobia minutilla_). Buff-breasted sandpiper (_Tryngites subruficollis_). Spotted sandpiper (_Actitis macularia_). Long-billed curlew (_Numenius americanus_). Black-bellied plover (_Squatarola squatarola_). Golden plover (_Charadrius dominicus_). Killdeer (_Oxyechus vociferus_). Semipalmated plover (_Aegialitis semipalmata_). Marbled godwit _(Limosa fedoa)_. Ringed plover _(Aegialitis hiaticula)_. Yellowlegs _(Totanus flavipes)_. Mountain plover _(Podasocys montanus)_. Solitary sandpiper _(Helodromas solitarius)_. Turnstone _(Arenaria interpres)_. Upland plover _(Bartramia longicauda)_. Shorebirds are 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 have many destructive beetle enemies also, and some of these are eagerly eaten by shorebirds. The boll weevil and clover-leaf weevil are eaten by the upland plover and killdeer, the rice weevil by the killdeer, the cowpea weevil by the upland plover, and the clover-root curculio by the following species of shorebirds: Northern phalarope _(Lobipes lobatus)_. White-rumped sandpiper _(Pisobia fuscicollis)_. Pectoral sandpiper _(Pisobia maculata_). Upland plover _(Bartramia longicauda)_. Baird sandpiper _(Pisobia bairdi)_. Killdeer _(Oxyechus vociferus)_.