494 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Several correspondents mention the death of the grou.se 

 with tliat of the bobwliite. Mr. Robert O. Morris has known 

 of a flock of quail being found dead, and another being so 

 tame "you could almost catch them." (This was a starving 

 flock. Such quail were caught by hand, and found to be 

 weak and emaciated.) lie also speaks of tlu-ee rufted grouse 

 having been found dead with their crops empty. 



Mr. W. F. Hammond writes from Mashpoe that the "quails, 

 partridges (and most of the smaller birds) " have been killed 

 by the winter or have gone elsewhere, " for it is certain that 

 they are not here." 



Many reports show a scarcity of grouse, but this may be 

 attributed largely to the destruction of the young birds in 

 summer and the adult birds by gunners. Mr. Ernest Harold 

 Baynes reports that the remains of eight grouse have been 

 found in the Middlesex Fells Reservation. Their bones 

 had been picked, and the superintendent of the reservation 

 believes they were killed by hawks. The "New England 

 Farmer" of February 27 says that "five partridges " were 

 seen in dillerent sections of Pittsfield Februar}^ 5, having 

 evidently found it difficult to get food in the woods. They 

 were so nearly starved that two of them were killed by dogs 

 while trying to pick up crumbs. 



A few reports have been received regarding the introduced 

 ring-necked or Mongolian pheasant. A flock of fourteen 

 which was seen near my place in Wareham was reduced to 

 seven in February. There are at least five yet living. The 

 reduction in their numbers appears to please the gentleman 

 on whose land they were last seen, for he says they destro}' ed 

 four-flfths of his potatoes in the fall. Mr. Bailey re})orts 

 seeing a pheasant in Maiden that was evidentl}^ near death, 

 and Mr. Baynes reports one dead in Stoneham. Mr. J. F. 

 Bos worth of Lee says that it is reported that the pheasants 

 on the Wm. C. Whitney estate have been starved to death. 



It seems probable that the meadow larks that winter in 

 southern New England have been among the greatest sufler- 

 ers. Mr. Tinkham states that from twenty to forty of these 

 birds could be seen around liis farm at any time early in the 

 winter, but since flanuarv 15 he had not seen ten all told. 



