No. 4.] REPORT OF SECRETARY. xxix 



rated agricultural societies" (chapter 189); "An Act making 

 an appropriation for exterminating diseases among horses, 

 cattle and other animals" (chapter 123); and "An Act rela- 

 tive to authorizing the State Board of Agriculture to appoint a 

 State Nursery Inspector, and to provide for the protection of 

 trees and shrubs" (chapter 321). 



Useful Birds and Their Protection. 



This book, prepared by and published under the direction 

 of Mr. Edward Howe Forbush, Ornithologist to the State 

 Board of Agriculture, was authorized by the Board at its annual 

 meeting, Jan. 11, 1905, and was provided for by chapter 51 of 

 the Resolves of the same year. This resolve provided "that 

 there be allowed and paid out of the treasury of the Common- 

 wealth a sum not exceeding three thousand dollars for pre- 

 paring and printing, under the direction of the State Board of 

 Agriculture, in an edition of five thousand copies, a special 

 report on the birds of the Commonwealth, economically con- 

 sidered, to include the facts relating to the usefulness of birds 

 and the necessity for their protection, already ascertained by 

 the ornithologist of the State Board of Agriculture." 



This book, containing 457 printed pages, a colored frontis- 

 piece of the wood duck, now in danger of extermination, 40 

 full-page half-tones and 171 additional illustrations, was re- 

 ceived from the printers March 13, 1907. Briefly stated, the 

 volume contains chapters on the utility of birds in nature, the 

 value of birds to man, the utility of birds in woodlands, birds as 

 destroyers of hairy caterpillars and plant lice, the economic 

 service of birds in the orchard, song birds of orchard and wood- 

 land, songless birds of orchard and woodland, the utility of 

 birds in field and garden, birds of field and garden, birds of the 

 air, birds of marsh and waterside, checks upon the increase of 

 useful birds, the protection of birds, and a comprehensive index. 



The Resolve provided for a double distribution of the books. 

 The Secretary of the Commonwealth received approximately 

 1,900 copies, to be distributed to free public libraries, high 

 schools, certain other libraries, to certain executive officers and 

 to members of the Legislature of 1905. The balance, approxi- 

 mately 3,100 copies, were delivered at the office of the secretary 



