No. 4.] DECREASE OF BIRDS. 451 



restricted." Hawks and owls have been driven off, he says, 

 by the removal of their nesting sites. This was very evi- 

 dent after the coal strike in the spring of 1902, when much 

 wood was cut. A law passed by the Legislature, offering a 

 bounty on hawks, owls and crows, also has had some effect. 



Mr. Abbot H. Thayer of Monadnock, N. H., writes : 

 "Ever since Hornaday's announcement I have done my best 

 to know the truth about this region. Now, nearly fifty years 

 later than when I first knew Keene, N. H., every wet spot 

 has the same red-winged blackbirds, . . . every mowing 

 its bobolinks, and all the village birds are as abundant in a 

 general way as forty-eight years ago. ... I believe that 

 the only species that have suffered any significant change 

 are the passenger pigeon, upland plover and wood duck ; 

 also the ruffed grouse and the bobolink (as I am told, not 

 as I notice here)." The upland plover he regards as near- 

 ing extinction, and the purple martin as occupying fewer 

 bird-houses than formerly. 



Dr. G. H. Perkins of the University of Vermont, ento- 

 mologist of the Vermont State Experiment Station, Burling- 

 ton, writes: "I think, on the contrary, many birds are 

 increasing. Birds are well protected, and I think few are 

 intentionally killed in the State. I should say there has 

 been no decrease, as a whole. Going back fifty years ago, 

 if accounts are to be trusted, the wild pigeon and some 

 others were more abundant than of late. Swallows, swifts, 

 song sparrows, robins, bluebirds, redstarts, vireos, white- 

 crowned sparrows, bobolinks, many warblers, meadowlarks, 

 downy and hairy woodpeckers and creepers do not seem to 

 decrease, if not increasing." 



Mrs. Elizabeth B. Davenport of Brattleboro, Vt., says 

 that birds are not decreasing, as a whole. Grouse are 

 reported less in number, the martins are decimated and the 

 house wrens are sadly decreasing. 



It is fair to conclude, from all the foregoing, that with 

 the smaller species the natural balance of bird-life is now 

 fairly constant in Massachusetts and the neighboring States, 

 and that the decrease will be found mainly among those 

 species that are most hunted. 



It now remains to take up separately those families of 



