No. 4.] DECREASE OF BIRDS. 435 



Evidently the bob- white suffered more than any other bird 

 from the hard winter of 1903-04 ; but as many have been 

 introduced since by the Massachusetts Fish and Game Pro- 

 tective Association, and others were carried through the 

 winter by feeding, there are birds enough now to restock 

 the State, if they can be protected. 



It is fair to conclude, therefore, that, excepting, perhaps, 

 the purple martin, no species has suffered a lasting or per- 

 manent check from the action of the elements in 1903 or 

 1904. 



THE EARLY ABUXDAXCE OF BIRDS ix MASSACHUSETTS. 



No investigation into the decrease of birds and its causes 

 can be conducted intelligently without some knowledge of 

 the relative abundance of the different families of birds at 

 the time of the first settlement of the country. Had we 

 any full and trustworthy account of the animals of New 

 England, from the pen of some naturalist of the seventeenth 

 century, we could better understand the changes that have 

 occurred in the bird fauna of New England since the dis- 

 covery of the country. As it is, we must derive our infor- 

 mation from the brief, fragmentary and rather unsatisfactory 

 accounts written by some of the early voyagers and settlers. 

 We shall learn little of the smaller land birds of the coun- 

 try from these narratives; but all agree that there was 

 " greate store" of water birds, "sea fowle" and game 

 birds. 



rom Archer's relation of ' ' Captaine Gosnol's voyage to 

 the north part of ^^ynjftt" rna.da iu 1COO, we learn that the 

 " penguin " (great auk) was found on our shores. This bird 

 evidently was once abundant at certain points on the coast. 

 Early historians refer to birds now extirpated from this 

 region as then existing in great numbers. Swans, cranes, 

 wild turkeys, snow geese, passenger pigeons and other 

 birds, now either rare or extinct here, were then found in 

 great abundance. There were also then, as now, "divers 

 sorts of singing birds whose notes salute the ears of travel- 

 lers with an harmonious discord." 



Capt. John Smith credits the land with an incredible 



