INTRODUCTION. 31 



heads in a season. But he says, naively, that " Geese do not 

 frequent these parts in such numbers as formerly." The 

 sequel follows. In 1909 Mr. Henry Oldys of the Bureau of 

 Biological Survey of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture wrote me that Mr. Preble had learned, in his explo- 

 rations about the west coast of Hudson Bay, that in this 

 region, formerly one of the great highways of wild-fowl, the 

 birds have become so reduced in numbers that the inhabit- 

 ants, who were formerly accustomed to put down many of 

 these birds for winter, are much straitened in their supply of 

 food. In that wild region, where the supply of game is all- 

 important to furnish food for the inhabitants, a diminution of 

 water-fowl is seriously felt; and where moose are absent, cari- 

 bou rare and the fishing poor, it is a serious matter. Many 

 of the wild-fowl that go to the Atlantic coast in winter, as 

 w^ell as others that go to the gulf, breed in or pass through the 

 region west of the bay. The destruction of these birds in 

 the United States during migration is believed to have been 

 the main cause of the present scarcity in these northern 

 regions. Where one is killed there, a hundred are killed here. 

 Only since protection in the spring has been given wild-fowl 

 in the greater part of British America, and in most of the 

 States, has there been any check to this continuous decrease 

 of the wild-fowl in North America. 



Regarding the general decrease in the numbers of shore 

 and marsh birds, including Snipe, Plover and Sandpipers, the 

 older gunners practically agree that it has been tremendous 

 and continuous for many years, and, although some of them 

 believe that the birds have gone somewhere else or " changed 

 their line of flight," still, they say the birds " do not come here." 



For about forty years, during which much of my time has 

 been passed in the woods and fields and along the shores of 

 Massachusetts, I have had opportunity to observe the dimi- 

 nution in numbers of those birds that are hunted for food, for 

 their feathers or for sport. I have noted the gradual disap- 

 pearance of Passenger Pigeons and Eskimo Curlews, the great 

 reduction in the numbers of Golden Plover, Wood Ducks and 

 other species of shore birds and wild-fowl, and I have kept 



