No. 4.] DECREASE OF BIRDS. 443 



about five years ago." Mr. Frank Blake Webster of Hyde 

 Park writes : "I see no decrease in twenty years. Wood- 

 cock seem scarce." Mr. I. Chester Horton of Canton be- 

 lieves that quail, grouse, screech owls, purple martins, 

 house wrens, barn swallows, whip-poor-wills and indigo 

 birds are diminishing, while bluebirds are increasing. Mr. 

 R. M. Baldwin of Wellesley Hills writes that in Wellesley 

 there is a marked decrease in larger birds, a possible in- 

 crease in the smaller. Mr. F. H. Kennard of Brookline 

 says : "In Brookline they are decreasing ; swallows driven 

 out by building up of town." 



Suffolk County. Mr. Homer Lane Bigelow of Boston 

 says that from 1889 to 1897 there was an annual decrease, 

 but since then, with exceptions (i.e., 1903), there has 

 been a gradual increase. Mr. F. H. Allen of Boston ex- 

 presses a disbelief in any general -decrease in the number of 

 birds in the region he is best acquainted with, although cer- 

 tain species are driven out of their accustomed haunts by 

 the extension of city influences into the country, the cut- 

 ting down of woods, etc. Mr. C. S. Day of Boston, who 

 is also acquainted with conditions in Chathamport, Barn- 

 stable County, says birds are decreasing. " I should judge 

 about one-half. I have noticed the decrease particularly 

 the last fifteen years." Hawks, owls, the swallow family, 

 game birds, the house wren, the swift and shore birds are 

 the birds most particularly mentioned as decreasing. 



Essex County. Mr. F. C. Dodge of Beverly says that 

 in the last three years there has been an increase, previous 

 to that a decrease. He says there are not so many birds in 

 the city as formerly, but about the same number in the 

 nearby country. (All observers but one from Beverly re- 

 port some increase in birds there.) Mr. Reginald C. Rob- 

 bins of Boston states that, in Essex County, wilderness birds 

 only are decreasing ; suburban birds remain about the same ; 

 others fast decreasing locally, but holding their own in 

 favorable spots. Mr. J. A. Farley says: * Speaking from 

 ten years' experience in certain towns in southern Essex 

 County, should say, on the whole, birds remain about the 

 same ; horned owls, sharp-shinned hawks and red-tailed 



