SOME SCIENTIFIC RESULTS 113 



officers of the Maine Game and Protective Association 

 were engaged in introducing into the state the Messina 

 quail, Coturnix communis, the common migrator}- quail 

 of Europe, as well as the Capercailzie or Wood-grouse, 

 the largest of the gallinaceous birds of Europe. 



In one of the local newspapers Mr. Boardman had 

 questioned the action of the association in inducing the 

 State lyegislature to make an appropriation for the 

 purpose of introducing these birds, on the ground that it 

 would be a waste of effort and funds. To this Mr. 

 Edward G. Gay, president of the association, replied in 

 a lengthy article in the Phillips Phonograph of February 

 27, 1895. The real substance of Mr. Boardman's state- 

 ment was simply that the scheme would not be a success, 

 the birds would not become naturalized and the matter 

 would end in disappointment. Mr. Gay's criticism of 

 Mr. Boardman's opinion was in these words : 



The Associatiou has been guided by some of tlie Ijest and most 

 noted game bird experts of our own state, all sections of this union 

 and of foreign countries, with all of whom I have been in constant 

 correspondence. The i^ractical present day experience of these 

 men ought certainly to count for as much as the theories of 

 naturalists whose knowledge of what they are writing about is 

 gleaned wholly from pedantic books of reference. Let me say to 

 Mr. Boardman and to your readers that I have not sjient hundreds 

 of dollars of my own money and months of ray time, nor have the 

 other friends of this beneficent movement also sacrificed money 

 and time to promote this object without knowing what we were 

 doing and the people of this state will have no reason to regret 

 any action the legislature of Maine may take in carrying to a 

 successful conclusion the work already so auspiciously begun. 



It is sufficient answer to this criticism that Mr. Board- 

 man's opinion was correct. Many of the quail were 



