Reports of Field Agents 391 



REPORTS OF FIELD AGENTS 



REPORT OF EDWARD HOWE FORBUSH, FIELD AGENT 

 FOR NEW ENGLAND 



The growing interest in birds and their protection is evidenced by the 

 increasing number of questions coming to your representative from many parts 

 of New England regarding the utility of birds, the means of enforcing bird laws, 

 the management of bird reservations, bird-day exercises, and the like. 



During the year, more and more evidence has come in regarding the increase 

 of Gulls and Terns on the coast of New England. Evidently, protection of 

 these birds by the National Association on the Maine coast has resulted in 

 so increasing the numbers of birds there that some of them have come south- 

 ward seeking breeding-places along the coast of southern New England. The 

 number of Herring Gulls summering along the coast of the three southern New 

 England states is increasing. Herring Gulls bred, or attempted to breed, in at 

 least three localities on the Massachusetts coast this year. In two of these 

 cases they were successful. In the other, the islet on which they nested was 

 almost washed away by a high storm-tide, which probably destroyed all the 

 eggs or young. Arctic Terns, which as breeders had disappeared from southern 

 New England for some years, are returning now in considerable numbers and 

 breeding at several locations in Massachusetts. All the Terns have increased 

 in numbers. The Least Tern, which was in a very precarious situation in New 

 England a few years ago, has now increased so much that it is nesting, not only 

 on islands, but on the coast of the mainland in small colonies. The increase of 

 all these birds is due, not only to their protection on the Maine coast by the 

 National Association of Audubon Societies, but also to special protection dur- 

 ing the last three years by the Massachusetts authorities which has been very 

 effective. 



Your agent wishes particularly to call attention to the effective work for 

 bird-protection and also the educational work inaugurated and persisted in 

 by the Committee on Birds of the Massachusetts State Grange, Patrons of 

 Husbandry. For years this Committee has been a strong working force for 

 the protection of birds in Massachusetts. When it was first organized the slogan 

 of its chairman was "Useful Birds Must Be Protected Wherever the American 

 Flag Floats," and the Committee has worked consistently to that end, and 

 has finally seen the fruition of its hopes in that direction through the treaty with 

 Great Britain, under which the migratory and insectivorous birds of the United 

 States and Canada became the wards of the two countries. 



The Committee worked consistently to secure legislation in Massachusetts 

 prohibiting spring shooting and to maintain the law once it became established 

 on the statute books. It has maintained constant watch over bird legislation, 

 but perhaps its most useful work has been educational. All the members of 



