No. 4.] DECREASE OF BIRDS. 495 



In order to determine the value of the evidence against 

 the natural enemies of birds, letters were written to nearly 

 all who regarded crows, jays, foxes, squirrels and weasels as 

 particularly injurious, inquiring what evidence had led to 

 this conclusion. Some of the replies showed that the evi- 

 dence was merely hearsay, others appeared to be the result 

 of personal observation. 



Regarding foxes, Mr. J. H. Wood of Pittsfield writes as 

 follows : "I visited a swamp in the vicinity of Ashley Lake, 

 for the purpose of running the white rabbits with a hound. 

 There had been a heavy snowfall a day or two before, and in 

 following a bank on the edge of the swamp we noticed 

 several holes in the snow at the foot of the bank under some 

 spruce trees. We also noticed a fox track and some feathers 

 about a hole. This led me to investigate, and I found that 

 this one fox had killed four out of the seven partridge that 

 had taken refuge in the snow from the storm of the previous 

 day. We tracked this fox from where he had eaten the first 

 bird to a ledge, where we succeeded in finding one of the 

 birds that had been earned there by the fox. My next ex- 

 perience was in 1902, about the 20th of November, when I 

 found a place where some men were getting out stone. 

 They had uncovered a fox's burrow where there had been a 

 litter of foxes the past summer, and if you could have seen 

 the parts and feathers of the partridge you would have been 

 surprised." 



Mr. W. J. Cross of Becket, also in Berkshire County, a 

 fox hunter himself, says : ' ' Every hunter of the fox has 

 found, when following a track, the circle of feathers telling 

 the story of where the ruffed grouse made his last dive 

 under the snow to furnish a meal for Mr. Fox the next 

 morning." 



Mr. W. H. Snow of Becket says: "I have seen where 

 the foxes have killed and eaten the partridges when there is 

 a snowstorm. The partridges get under spruce trees to get 

 shelter for the night, and they are caught by the foxes." 



Mr. Thomas Allen of Bernardston, Franklin County, as- 

 serts that he has found the remains of grouse partly eaten, 

 or feathers alone remaining, where fox tracks showed 



