402 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The first ],)art of March was cold and blustering. Having 

 been informed that many birds Avere believed t(j be dying in 

 south-eastern Massachusetts, I started on iVIarch 6 on a tour 

 through this section. Letters requesting information Avere 

 also sent out to correspondents. Mr. C. E. Bailey, who 

 had been looking up conditions in ^Middlesex and Essex 

 counties, called on me later. From these sources the follow- 

 ing report is made up. 



Comparatively few dead birds Avere found, but this Avas 

 explained by the fact that their bodies Avere either buried 

 in the snow or picked up ))y crows, hawks, foxes, cats or 

 Aveasels, that, spurred by hunger, searched the woods and 

 fields almost continually. Probably Avhere people found one 

 dead bird a hundred escaped notice. 



The general opinion, among those best qualified to judge, 

 is that most of the birds that usually AS'inter here, but dis- 

 appeared, are dead, — either starved or frozen. Even where 

 birds have been fed regularly, some have been found frozen. 



Probably the bobwhites suffered most. Many had reared 

 second broods after the June storms. These broods did Avell 

 until the shooting season opened, when they were extermi- 

 nated from some localities by gunners. 



There Avere many small coveys and a few large ones that 

 escaped, nevertheless, so that it Avas generally believed in 

 some localities that the l)ir<ls were increasing ; but the sleet 

 storms in January folloAved immediately by freezing Aveather 

 imprisoned many coveys under the snoAV, Avhile most of the 

 birds that escaped this fate probably succumbed one by one 

 to exposure or starvation, or were killed by hawks, foxes or 

 cats, or Avhen driven by necessity to farmhouses Avere shot 

 or trapped l)y some of the foreign farm " help" that is noAV 

 so C(mmion. Some of the evidence of their fate may ))e 

 briefly given. 



Mr. Bailey had observed tlue(> Hocks of six, nine and 

 eleven birds respectivel}' in the neighborhood of his home in 

 North Billerica. Another flock of thirteen Avas enticed near 

 his house and there fed through the Avinter. On each of the 

 five coldest days in January a sing-le bird AA^as missing. The 

 eight birds that Avoathered the extreme cold lived through 



