No. 4.] DECREASE OF BIRDS. 497 



the foxes have increased tremendously in numbers in the 

 neighborhood of our reservations, such as the Blue Hills 

 Reservation, the partridges have decreased in about the 

 same proportion. That foxes have increased in eastern 

 Massachusetts is proved by the evidence that within the last 

 few years a great deal of poultry has been destroyed, even 

 in such a closely populated district as Chestnut Hill ; and 

 foxes have been seen quite frequently. I believe that the 

 State should in some way make a decided stand in destroy- 

 ing the vermin in the reservations, if they desire to make 

 this a favorite breeding ground for the birds." Consider- 

 able further evidence of this same character was received. 

 There is at least one reservation where foxes are not pro- 

 tected. Mr. Charles P. Price, superintendent of the Mid- 

 dlesex Fells Reservation, tells me that the foxes have been 

 all killed or driven out of the reservation, and that game 

 birds have increased there. About fifteen foxes per year 

 were killed for three years. 



Mr. Henry B. Bigelow of Cohasset says: "Foxes are 

 particularly destructive to quail and partridges in this neigh- 

 borhood ; the entrance to every fox hole is strewn with their 

 feathers ; and to my certain knowledge one fox, in 1899, 

 killed, during the autumn, six out of a covey of twelve to 

 fourteen quail. Partridges also suffer, as shown by the 

 presence of their feathers about the dens, as do also domes- 

 tic fowls." 



Mr. S. J. Harris of East Dedham writes: "I once shot 

 at a fox having a partridge in his mouth. I did not know 

 that it was a partridge when I fired at the fox, but he 

 dropped it when I fired, and of course I got the par- 

 tridge." 



The limits of this report will not permit the printing of 

 half the evidence received against the fox. Some evidence 

 from other parts of the State is given in brief below. " A 

 common occurrence to find where foxes have caught and 

 eaten partridges, both on snow and bare ground." (Her- 

 bert A. Bent, Franklin, Norfolk County.) "Have never 

 yet seen a section of country where foxes and partridges 

 were plentiful at the same time." (H. R. Packard, Attle- 



