4 Monthly Bulletin 



THE HINGHAM BIRD RESERVATION 



As the Hingham reservation is well started on its seventh year, it is 

 very gratifying to know that the purpose for which it was started, the pro- 

 tection and increase of hirds, particularly quail, has been very successful. 

 We have had the co-operation and moral support of the real sportsman, not 

 pothunters, as they realize that, having a protected breeding place for the 

 birds, the overflow will stock the adjacent coverts outside the reservation 

 and give a constant supply of game for the sportsmen. Of course the pot- 

 hunters would like to get into the reservation and kill all the quail they 

 could find; the same class of people would sneak into a fish hatchery and 

 net a lot of breeding trout and think they had had a great day. The worst 

 enemy the birds have is the cats. These are a menace to bird life and a 

 nuisance to the neighbors. The pet cats kill for the fun of killing, as is 

 proven by the mutilated bodies of quail and young robins which have been 

 found near the houses where these cats live, and, when abandoned in the 

 fall by their owners, which, I am sorry to say, is frequently done, they are 

 obliged to kill for food. The legislature by an unprecedented stroke of 

 generosity has provided our game warden, Mr. Steele, with a Ford car and 

 the reservation will be more closely guarded than ever, and woe to the man 

 who is found within the limits with a gun although he may not have any 

 game. 



The quail have become so tame in the residential section of Crow Point 

 that they are seen daily in our gardens and the cheery call of the little cock 

 in the early morning has saved many a business man from losing the boat 

 to Boston. One pair of quail raised a brood of ten early in the season very 

 near my house and, having been successful, tried a second. But unfortu- 

 nately the little hen built her second nest close to Whiton Avenue, and 

 someone discovered it and in a few days everyone knew of it and the fre- 

 quent visits of thoughtless people to it so disturbed her that, finding she 

 could not incubate the eggs, of which there were thirteen, she abandoned 

 the nest altogether. Yesterday the little cock ran across my lawn, and by his 

 being alcae at this time of the year it is evident that the hen is making a 

 third attempt to raise a brood. Although the snapping turtles killed a good 

 many young ducks this season, Mr. Rice, who has charge of them, tells me 

 he has raised about fifty, and these, with the old ones left over from last 

 season, were too many to get a living in Mr. Bradley's pond, which, though 

 an ideal place for a few is not large enough for so many. They therefore 

 had to be fed, which led them to consider man their friend rather than their 

 enemy, and made them an easy mark for gunners during their frequent excur- 

 sions into the harbor. 



The Federal Migratory Law has been so effective that ducks of all kinds 

 are increasing all over the country and we have therefore decided to reduce 

 the number to a few that will be able to subsist without being fed and also 

 remain wilder, which is desirable. The stock is absolutely pure and those 

 not kept will be trapped and probably liberated in Muddy River or Jamaica 

 Pond. Let us hope that the next four years will be as satisfactory on the 

 Reservation as the previous six have been. 



Alexander Pope. 



