408 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



bred in all suitable places about Worcester, but within ten 

 years from that time the breeding birds were shot off. Mr. 



\f 



Gerry has kindly lent me a memorandum book kept by his 

 father, Col. E. Gerry, in 1838. He tells me that the wood- 

 cock recorded in this book were shot about Stoneham. Colonel 

 Gerry commenced to shoot woodcock in July, therefore the 

 birds shot must have been those breeding in the locality. On 

 July 7 he shot twenty-two, for which he received only two 

 dollars and seventy-five cents ; on the 8th he shot and sold 

 forty-two; on the 9th, nine; on the 16th, twenty ; on the 

 21st, six; on the 22d, twelve; on the 23d, fifteen; on the 

 27th, eight. On the llth he shot twenty-seven ''birds," 

 probably woodcock, by the price. These woodcock were 

 sold in Boston at twelve and one-half to twenty-five cents 

 each. After the first of August the score of woodcock shot 

 falls off rapidly. Here are one hundred sixty-one resident 

 woodcock, young and adult birds, killed by "one man close 

 to Boston in July. There were no doubt many other 

 shooters operating about the city. No wonder that breed- 

 ing woodcock disappeared rapidly from the region near 

 Boston. The woodcock is decreasing all over its range in 

 the east, and needs the most stringent protection. Of 

 thirty-eight Massachusetts reports, thirty-six state that 

 woodcock are decreasing, rare or extinct, while one states 

 that they are holding their own, and one that they are in- 

 creasing slightly since the law was passed prohibiting their 

 sale. These reports refer mainly to birds breeding in 

 Massachusetts. In the fall of 1904, in a few sections, there 

 was a good flight of birds from the north.* 



Family Tetraonidm. Grouse and Partridges. 

 Mention already has been made of the bob-white or quail, 

 our only representative of the partridge family, as a sufferer 

 from the effects of the winter of 1903. Another severe win- 

 ter followed the hunting season of 1904, and the quail now 

 needs more protection. The heath hen, formerly common 

 over much of New England and the middle States, has 

 been extirpated everywhere within the last century except 



* Since the above was written reports of an increase of breeding birds have 

 come in from "Worcester and Middlesex counties. 



