554 GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



Rice, Jr., informs me that he has heard similar stories from 

 lumbermen from the northwest, but I have been unable to get 

 any definite and authentic information on the subject. 



The Decline of Agriculture. 



Many observers along the Massachusetts coast are prone to 

 assign the decrease in the number of shore birds to the decline 

 of agriculture. Many farmers have given up cutting the salt- 

 marsh grass; sheep and cattle which formerly kept down the 

 grass on the hill pastures are no longer kept; "pastures are 

 growing up to brush;" and for all these reasons it is said that 

 the birds "do not come any more." There is a little logic in 

 this reasoning. Of course, all observing persons know that 

 many birds prefer mowed meadow or marsh or close-cropped 

 pasture to tall and uncut grass, bushes or young trees. We 

 must admit that it makes some difference to the birds whether 

 the grass is cut or not, but when we see the decline of agricul- 

 ture put forward as a reason for the disappearance of such 

 birds as the Eskimo Curlew and the Golden Plover, which 

 have been killed off by market hunting and spring shooting 

 in the west, until one of them is practically extinct and the 

 other is in danger of extinction, the explanation loses force. 

 If we consider for a moment the fact that there were no mowed 

 meadows or cropped pastures when the first explorers came 

 here, and that the coasts and river banks then swarmed with 

 shore birds, such explanations of the diminution of the birds 

 seem puerile. On the other hand, the diking of marshes to 

 shut out the salt water might have a considerable effect on 

 some species; but this practice has not become general as yet 

 along the Massachusetts coast. 



The Increase of Cottages and Camps. 



The increase in the number of houses, cottages and camps 

 on beaches, lake shores and river banks frequently is advanced 

 as a reason for the decrease of game birds, shore birds and 

 wild-fowl. This in itself, however, has very little effect on the 

 birds, unless the houses cover and obliterate their feeding 



