54 BULLETIN OF THE NUTTALL 



Woodpecker (Hylotomus pileatus), the Red-headed Woodpecker 

 {Melanerpes eryihroceplialus), the Wild Pigeon (Ectopistes migrato- 

 rius), and the Snow Goose (Anser hyperboreus). Besides these 

 might be added, as among those which have also notably decreased, 

 most of the wading and swimming birds, and neai'ly all of the rapa- 

 cious species. Nt>ne of the Ducks and Geese, and probably few of 

 the limicoline species, are probably one tenth as numerous now as 

 they were two hundred and fifty years ago, while a great depletion 

 has also occurred amongst the Gulls and Terns. This great dimi- 

 nution, however, is not of course limited to the State of Massachu- 

 setts, but likewise characterizes most of the Atlantic States, and 

 some of the older States of the interior. 



This reduction has been mainly brought about by what may be 

 considered as inevitable and natural causes, as the i*emoval of the 

 forests, and other changes necessarily attending the agricultural 

 development of the country. Excessive use of the gun, however, 

 has had not a little to do with it. The rapacious species have ever 

 been regarded as the natural enemies of the husbandman, and with 

 them all species that have in any way preyed upon his crops. 



In early times premiums were paid by the local governments for 

 the destruction of many of these species, and not without cause. 

 The early records show that such was the abundance of the Black- 

 birds and Crows that their destruction in large numbers was abso- 

 lutely necessary, in order to secure more than a small portion of the 

 maize harvest. While most, or at least many, of the towns early 

 encouraged the destruction of the noxious mammals and birds by 

 the offer of rewards therefor, others passed enactments rendering it 

 obligatory upon each householder to destroy a certain number of 

 blackbirds annually, and to bring their heads to the selectmen of 

 the towns to show they had complied with the requisition, on pen- 

 alty of a small fine for each blackbird lacking to complete the re- 

 quired number.* These means seem to have been immediate, and 

 in some cases disastrous, in their results. The traveller, Kalm, 

 relates that Dr. Franklin told him, in 1750, that in consequence of 

 the premiums that had been paid for killing these birds in New 

 England, they had become so nearly extirpated there that they 

 were " very rarely seen, and in few places only." In consequence of 

 this exterminating warfare on the " maize-thieves," the worms that 



* See Alonzo Lewis's History of Lynn, p. 186. 



