No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 213 



the season that he had already killed 7 geese. Some people 

 profess to believe that the increase of the birds is a mere 

 coincidence, and that it will not be permanent ; bnt a similar 

 accession of birds has occurred in every State where similar 

 laws have been passed and the change has been noted almost 

 immediately. Most of the Canadian provinces stopped spring 

 shooting in the last century. Michigan prohibited it in 18G3, 

 Wisconsin in 1874, Vermont in 1890, Ohio in 1900, Cali- 

 fornia in 1901, Montana, New York and Idaho in 1903, 

 Oregon and Utah in 1905, Connecticut in 1907 and Massa- 

 chusetts in 1909; other northern States have in part stopped 

 spring shooting, and wherever such laws have gone into eifect 

 there has been an increase in the wild fowl. Vermont was 

 the first ISTew England State to protect wild fowl throughout 

 the late winter and spring months. Mr. W. T. Payne of 

 Boston writes me that he and his friends have taken pains 

 to enforce the law on the marshes where they shoot in Ver- 

 mont in order that the ducks there may not be disturbed 

 through the spring months, and as a result there has been no 

 spring shooting of ducks in those marshes for years. He 

 says that numbers of ducks and some geese have nested and 

 reared their young there in 1911, that practically all kinds 

 of ducks nest there, including mallard, black duck, widgeon, 

 shoveller, blue-winged teal, green-winged teal, the gray duck 

 (probably the pintail), the wood duck, bluebill and the golden- 

 eye or whistler as well as Canada geese. I am informed 

 also that sheldrakes nest in that region, and I have seen a 

 photograph of a merganser on her nest, taken near there. 

 Mr. Payne avers that the prohibition of spring shooting in 

 Vermont, together with the careful enforcement of this law 

 on these marshes during the spring and summer months, has 

 accomplished wonders in the amount of ducks reared there, 

 and that prior to the prohibition of spring shooting there 

 were very few ducks in the marshes. Correspondents write 

 me that in IvTew York and ISTew Jersey, in certain populous 

 regions, numbers of wild ducks are now summering, and 

 many are nesting since spring shooting was prohibited and 



