No. 4.] DECREASE OF BIKDS. 437 



doubtedly these were the same species that are now gener- 

 ally known in Massachusetts by these vernacular names. 



Geese were fed to the dogs and pigeons to the hogs ; but, 

 notwithstanding the great waste of bird-life, no appreciable 

 effect on the abundance of the birds was noticed during the 

 first years of settlement, for Woods says that, in spite of 

 the shooting and the ' ' frighting of the fowle " . . . "I have 

 seene more, living and dead, the last yeare than I have 

 done in former yeares." * 



THE DECREASE OF BIRDS IN PAST CENTURIES. 



The great auk soon disappeared. The great cranes, both 

 brown and white, birds of the open country, were anni- 

 hilated by the settler's rifle. The Canada goose, which was 

 once found in the State throughout the year, and probably 

 bred about the inland ponds and marshes, was driven out, 

 and became a mere migrant in spring and fall. The wild 

 turkey and heath hen were hunted away to the deep woods ; 

 but geese, ducks, shore birds, passenger pigeons and ruffed 

 grouse still existed in abundance until the early part of the 

 nineteenth century. 



An old gentleman named Greenwood, a responsible man, 

 who was once keeper of the Ipswich Light, told me in 1876 

 that in the early part of the century (I have no memo- 

 randum of the date) he, with his father and brothers, had 

 to get oxen and sled to haul home the birds, mainly geese 

 and ducks, which they had killed in one day about Thanks- 

 giving time near the mouth of the Ipswich River. 



Dwight tells us, in 182 l,f that there were then hardly 

 any wild animals remaining besides a few small species ; 

 that wild turkeys had greatly lessened in numbers, and in 

 the most populous parts of the country were not very often 

 seen; that grouse were not common, but that water-fowl 

 still existed in great abundance. 



This brief glance at two centuries of the history of Mas- 



* William "Woods' "New England's prospect," from which this was taken, 

 was first printed in London in 1634. 



t Dwight's "Travels in New England and New York," 1821, Vol. I., pp. 

 52-65. The grouse spoken of here is probably the heath hen, as Dwight and 

 other writers mention this bird as the grouse or pheasant, a bird distinct from 

 the partridge, or ruffed grouse, and never as common. 



