BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 379 



nineteenth century than in any other section of the United 

 States, and that it was then greatly thinned in the most 

 populous parts of the Union. Maynard says that it was so 

 numerous here formerly, and was so injurious to orchards, 

 that the town authorities in some towns paid a bounty on its 

 head. He states (1870) that it is still common in the wilder 

 sections of eastern Massachusetts, but that in localities where 

 it was abundant ten or fifteen years ago there is not one to- 

 day. I can remember when a market hunter going out from 

 the city of Worcester by train each day, walking to the covers 

 and returning at night, killed from ten to fifteen birds daily. 

 Dr. F. H. Saunders of Westfield tells me that years ago, when 

 snaring was allowed, he is informed that two men in that 

 vicinity took one hundred and twenty of these birds from 

 snares in one day; but he does not know whether they were 

 all caught in twenty-four hours. Mr. Edward F. Staples of 

 Taunton states (1908) that he has hunted for forty-seven 

 years, and that the last "real good" year was about twenty- 

 five years ago. In the old days, he says, about a thousand 

 birds were killed in a season on about twenty thousand acres 

 over which he ranged. Mr. William H. Leonard of East Fox- 

 borough states that five men in Foxborough snared Grouse 

 prior to 1888, and Mr. Eugene E. Morse says that these men 

 averaged about one hundred birds a week, and that the game 

 dealers, George Austin & Sons, did not at that time care for 

 birds which had been shot. Others bought shot birds. Mr. 

 George Hawes, who shot for market about that time, marketed 

 three hundred and ninety-eight birds in one shooting season. 

 Mr. C. Harry Morse of Belmont tells of an old-time hunter 

 friend who killed from three hundred to four hundred and 

 twenty Grouse in a season. These instances may serve to give 

 some idea of the former abundance of this species in Mas- 

 sachusetts. 



Practically all the older hunters and sportsmen among my 

 correspondents admit that, while no bird has any better pro- 

 tection than this Grouse, it has decreased greatly in numbers 

 since the years of their early experience, and that the decrease 

 has been progressive for many years, although the numbers 



