FOURTH ANNUAL REPOKT OF THE STATE 

 ORNITHOLOGIST. 



The Wokk of the Year. 

 Educational Worlc. 



It was expected, as stated in my last annual report, that a 

 volnminous report on wild fowl, game birds and shore birds 

 would be printed during the latter part of the year 1911. 

 The overwhelming mass of material collected increased the 

 size of the volume and extended the time necessary for pre- 

 paring and printing it; but probably it will be published 

 before this report reaches the public. It will make a volume 

 of more than 000 pages, fully illustrated, and will be dis- 

 tributed to all the public libraries and the principal high 

 schools of the Commonwealth. The copies remaining after 

 this distribution will be sold at a price sufficient to cover the 

 cost of printing. They may be obtained of the secretary of 

 the State Board of Agriculture at Eoom 136, State House, 

 Boston. 



This work covers ground not embodied in any other vol- 

 ume. It comprises a collective history of the birds which are 

 hunted for food or sport, their former abundance, their sub- 

 sequent and continued decrease in numbers, a description 

 and history of each of the species now extant, and descrip- 

 tions and histories of those that have become extinct since 

 the country was settled. The latter part of the volume is 

 devoted in part to an enumeration of the causes of decrease 

 and extinction, and in part to an exposition of the means of 

 conserving those that are still with us. 



The demand for free lectures has been met so far as it lay 

 within my power without neglecting other important work. 

 Forty-two lectures and talks have been given during the year, 



