438 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



sachusetts game birds and their destruction brings us to a 

 time within the memory of a few persons now living, and 

 almost within the scope of the present inquiry. 



In the first volume of the "Memorial History of Boston," 

 published in 1880, Dr. J. A. Allen, one of the most emi- 

 nent of American naturalists, writes of the birds of eastern 

 Massachusetts as follows: "The great auk, the Labrador 

 duck, and five or six other species, have long since disap- 

 peared from southern New England. All the larger species 

 and many of the shore birds have greatly decreased, as have 

 likewise most of the smaller forest birds. The few that 

 haunt cultivated grounds have doubtless nearly maintained 

 their former abundance." 



In 1898, Director William T. Hornaday, of the New York 

 Zoological Park, made an inquiry into the decrease of birds 

 and mammals in the United States. He estimated, from 

 reports received by him from naturalists in many parts of 

 the country, that birds had decreased on the average 46 per 

 cent in thirty States and Territories within the fifteen years 

 then just past, while their reduction in Massachusetts was 

 estimated at 27 per cent. This report has been widely 

 quoted, and very generally credited by the public. 



THE DIFFICULTY OF ACQUIRING ACCURATE INFORMATION. 



It is difficult to get accurate information as to the increase 

 or decrease of bird-life in a region so large as the State of 

 Massachusetts. A conclusion one way or the other cannot 

 safely be formed by any individual unaided, except in regard 

 to a limited territory with which he has been familiar for a 

 series of years. Such a conclusion, when formed, is merely 

 an opinion, and the personal equation inevitably comes in 

 to bias it. Some people are naturally optimistic, and their 

 reports show it; or they have recently begun to study 

 birds, and see more of them now than in former years. 

 Others are pessimistic, or have become imbued with the 

 popular belief that our birds are rapidly being exterminated. 

 Some are elderly people, who do not, perhaps, see nor hear 

 so clearly as in their youth, and are not so much afield, and 

 so do not notice so many birds as in their younger days. 



