506 NOTES ON SOME OF THE 



other causes, be traced. As is well known, the mammalian 

 and bird faunae of all the older settled parts of the United 

 States are vastly different from what they were two hundred 

 years ago. These changes consist mainly in the great de- 

 crease in numbers of the representatives of all the larger 

 species, not a few of which are already extirpated where 

 they were formerly common ; a few of the smaller species of 

 both classes have doubtless increased in numbers. Two 

 causes operate unfavorably upon the larger ones ; the disfor- 

 esting of the country and the sporting propensities of the 

 people, everything large enough to be shot, whether useful 

 or otherwise, being considered as legitimate game. The 

 former destroys the natural haunts of many species, while 

 the latter destroys and drives away others that would other- 

 wise remain. Many of the water-fowl that are now only 

 transient visitors, as the Canada Goose, the several species 

 of Merganser, Teals, Black Duck and Mallard, undoubtedly 

 once bred in this State, as did also the Wild Turkey and the 

 Prairie Hen. Several of the Gulls and probably some of 

 the Tringce have been driven, like the Ducks and Geese, 

 to seek more northern breeding grounds. In comparatively 

 recent times, geologically speaking, probably other causes, 

 as climatic, have been operating to effect a gradual north- 

 ward migration, in certain species at least. These changes 

 are of great interest, not only generally, but in a scientific 

 point of view, and we shall be able to trace them and their 

 causes only by comparing, from time to time, exhaustive 

 faunal records of the same localities. 



In a district so little diversified as that portion of Massa- 

 chusetts lying east of the Connecticut Kiver, it is perhaps 

 a little unexpected that marked discrepancies should occur 

 in the observations made at adjoining localities by equally 

 competent naturalists, in respect to the relative abundance 

 of certain species. As every experienced observer must 

 have noticed that the birds of passage, as many of the 

 Warblers especially, vary greatly in numbers in different 



