No. 4.] BIRD PROTECTION. 405 



the time has come for Massachusetts to experiment, with a view of 

 eventually propagating and distributing native game birds to supply 

 her depleted covers. 



Needed Legislation. 



This necessarily limited and imperfect review of our legislative 

 enactments for the conservation of birds exhibits clearly the main 

 reasons why protection has, in many cases, failed to protect. The 

 principal reasons for this failure are four in number: (1) legislation 

 has been spasmodic and vacillating, (2) laws and penalties have not 

 been sufficiently stringent, (3) until recent years the laws have not 

 been enforced, (4) protection has come too late. 



Protection will always be ineffective if it is held back until the need 

 for it is generally recognized. It should become operative before it 

 becomes necessary to save a bird from extermination. Its laws should 

 not be enacted merely with the purpose of maintaining the present 

 number of birds. Its province should be to increase their numbers 

 before they are in any danger of extinction, and legislation with this 

 end in view is needed now. 



In 1904 it was stated in my report on the decrease of birds ' that 

 at least six species of game birds, waterfowl or shore birds had dis- 

 appeared, and that the passenger pigeon was then practically gone from 

 Massachusetts, and also that several other species were then nearly 

 extirpated or driven out. Among these latter the Eskimo curlew 

 was mentioned. To-day the belief obtains among ornithologists 

 that both the passenger pigeon and the Eskimo curlew are extinct. 

 It may be already too late to save the vanishing species, and the 

 wood duck and the upland plover are in great danger. 



The question arises, What more can be done to conserve and in- 

 crease the birds that remain? 



First, we must stop All Spring and Summer Shooting. 

 Evidently it is most important to allow all birds to breed unmolested. 

 Bobolinks, blackbirds and robins which are protected on their northern 

 breeding grounds maintain their numbers well, though slain in great 

 numbers during the migrations in the south. If the people of New 

 England are not to lose their supply of pond and river ducks, these 

 ducks must be protected throughout the spring migrations and dur- 

 ing the breeding season in these States as well as in Canada. Experience 

 shows that in those months when the shooting of any species is allowed 

 all edible ducks will be shot. Let the shooting of all wild fowl stop 

 with the first day of January; let our rivers, shores and bays be free 

 from shooting from January first to September first, and in time 

 wood duck, black duck, teal, loons, Canada geese and other species 



1 Forbush, Edward Howe, "Special Report on the Decrease of Certain Birds and its 

 Causes, with Suggestions for Bird Protection." Fifty-second report of the Massachu- 

 setts State Board of Agriculture. 



