334 USEFUL BIRDS. 



One man is reported to have seen a Pheasant kill a Par- 

 tridge. I watched the Quail and Pheasant feeding together 

 at Wareham, and one day saw a Pheasant strike a Quail 

 on the head with its beak, exactly as a hen will sometimes 

 strike and kill a strange chicken. In this case, however, the 

 Quail escaped, but gave the Pheasant a "wide berth" there- 

 after. One observer reports that a lady was feeding Quail 

 in winter, and that a cock Pheasant habitually drove the 

 Quail away and ate the grain. 



Pheasants do much good by destroying insects, and there 

 need be no fear that these birds will ever become numerous 

 enough throughout the State to do great harm. Generally 

 they appear to be unable to hold their own. The common 

 report is that "Pheasants have been turned loose here, but 

 have all disappeared." No eatable bird of the size of a 

 Pheasant can ever increase much in numbers in Massachusetts 

 except on land where it can be protected from all shooters. 



SNIPE, SANDPIPERS, WOODCOCK, ETC. 

 Most of the birds of this order, which includes the Plover, 

 are known as shore birds or marsh birds, and are seen mainly 

 in migration on the shores of the sea or large bodies of fresh 

 water. Three species either are, or once were, common 

 summer residents of this State, and all three go to fields 

 or cultivated land for a large part of their food. One, 

 the Spotted Sandpiper, is still quite common ; and another, 

 the well-known Woodcock, may again become so if it can 

 be protected from excessive shooting. Another still, the 

 Bartramian Sandpiper or Upland Plover, which was once a 

 common summer resident of upland fields, has long been on 

 the road to extermination, and can now be saved only by 

 enacting and enforcing stringent laws for its protection in 

 those States where it breeds, as well as in the more southern 

 States, where the birds find neither rest nor mercy. Most 

 of the other species of this order, which once migrated along 

 the coast in countless numbers, are of economic importance 

 principally as food ; but, with few exceptions, the larger 

 species are so reduced in numbers that they are at present 

 of little account in any economic sense. 



