No. 4.] DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS. 493 



tlic winter. Mr. Bailey was out oti .snowshocs or otherwiso 

 after every fresh snowfall, but no trace of the other floeks 

 could be found after January 20. Mr. John Kingsl)ury 

 Burliness of Dedhani fed a tloek all winter, but only four or 

 five birds survived. Mi". Perry writes that the "quail are 

 exterminated." 



Man)' dead l)irds have been found. Members of the 

 Springfield Fish and Game Protective Association, while 

 engaged in feeding the birds, have learned of dead birds 

 beinor found or found them in their own search. Messrs. L. 

 and A. Hill of Shaker Station are rei)orted to have found 

 twelve by means of their dogs. I saw only one person in 

 western Massachusetts in February who had recently seen a 

 large covey. Tiiej' were everywhere reported then as very 

 scarce. 



In south-eastern Massachusetts bob whites were compara- 

 tivel}' plenty in the fall in some sections, liut since jNIarch 1 

 I have been unable to find a sinole bird in the towns visited. 

 JVlr. Alger writes from Attleborough that "At least three 

 large flocks of quail were killed by the severe wint(>r." ]\Ir. 

 Tinkham wrote March 5 that he had protected twenty-two 

 birds on his place, but that "now they are all gone." Mr. 

 Mosher wrote in February that his cat had brought in one 

 bird, and that by following her trail he found others dead 

 in the snow. Farmers and woodcutters in Dartmouth and 

 Westport when cjuestioned had seen no quail since spring 

 opened, though it was thought a few had wintered about 

 certain hay or corn stacks. A few birds were reported as 

 seen during March in Marion and Rochester, where they had 

 managed to pick up a living on roads used much by wood 

 teams. ]Mr. B. F. McKcchnie reports that " the winter has 

 practically exterminated the quail about Ponkapog." 



The rutfed grouse or partridge is considered to be per- 

 fectly' hardy, and able to withstand any winter. It can live 

 on buds, leaves, winter-cured berries and broken twio-s. It 

 is ranked in hardiness with the red squirrel, which, all other 

 nutriment foiling, will gnaw the outer bark from trees, as it 

 has had to do this winter. Nevertheless, both grouse and red 

 s(juirrels have succumbed to the rigors of the past winter. 



