BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 403 



them, will gradually withdraw ; for they are by no means 

 slow to benefit by experience : those which at first were tame 

 and familiar, are many of them growing cautious and distrust- 

 ful ; the character of man stands in low estimation among 

 them ; and as they know him better, they go farther from his 

 reach. Many birds which formerly raised their young in our 

 State, now confine themselves to regions of greater security ; 

 the old gunners on our coast can give more than one history 

 of such desertion ; and in some cases, the loss has been severe. 

 Thus, for example, the wild goose is believed to have once 

 raised its young in the temperate climates of the United States. 

 The early settlers on the Ohio, testify that they formerly 

 abounded there at all seasons of the year ; it was common, 

 within the memory of man, to find the young birds on the 

 ponds of Kentucky ; but, like the deer and the grous, they 

 have learned that the world is wide, and now, they find, in 

 the quiet of the northern wilderness, a home, which has the 

 great recommendation of being out of humanity's reach ! The 

 eider duck is another example. So lately as Wilson's time, 

 the young were reared on our coast ; but now, they have 

 abandoned it ; gaining nothing indeed by the exchange, since 

 there is reason to believe that when it bred in this climate, 

 it was not compelled to cover its eggs with the down which 

 tempts so many adventurers to search for and rifle its nest. 



I do not mean to say, that these desertions ought to be pre- 

 vented. In some few instances, the experiment has been tried ; 

 but it is found, as might have been foreseen, that no human 

 enactment can suspend the operation of a law of nature. The 

 statutes on that subject are generally inefficient : no one cares 

 to execute them ; the idlers in a community are a privileged 

 order, who pay little reverence to the law, and the industrious, 

 beside having other employment than to note down their neigh- 

 bors' transgressions, cannot be persuaded that there is any 

 crime in shooting a wild bird, still less that the act is harmless 

 at one season of the year, and injurious at another. Nor is it 

 by any means certain, that it would be desirable, even if it 

 were possible, to prevent this extermination. It is better for 



