INTRODUCTION. 33 



When this had been piibHshed, and while it was going 

 through its several editions, my attention was again urgently 

 called to the scarcity of game birds in Massachusetts, New 

 England and the adjacent States. Reports indicated that 

 Ruffed Grouse and Bob-whites had reached the lowest ebb in 

 numbers ever known. This, with the previous decrease in 

 water-fowl and shore birds, left New England, and particu- 

 larly Massachusetts, with fewer game birds than at any time 

 of which we have record. An insistent demand arose for 

 more game. State game commissioners and individuals began 

 to look about to see where it could be obtained. Attempts 

 to procure Grouse and Bob-whites from other States were 

 ineffectual, owing to laws which forbade the exportation of 

 game. 



Partly as a result of these laws, large numbers of European 

 Partridges, Grouse and Asiatic Pheasants w^ere introduced, 

 and liberated in New England; while attempts were made in 

 several Legislatures to prohibit the killing of all game birds 

 for a series of years, or to further shorten the shooting season. 

 The unrest of the sportsmen and gunners was manifested in 

 attempts to change the personnel of the State fish and game 

 commissions, and to secure better enforcement of the game 

 laws. Advocates of the abolition of all game laws arose, and 

 gained some following. The promulgators of new game laws 

 readily secured a hearing. People began to awaken to the 

 fact that game was disappearing, and to seek a remedy. The 

 Legislature of Massachusetts enacted a statute providing 

 for the appointment of a State Ornithologist, and he was 

 authorized by the State Board of Agriculture to undertake 

 an investigation of the former decrease in numbers, and the 

 present scarcity of game birds in the Commonwealth, with a 

 view to submitting a report on the causes of such decrease 

 and the means of increasing the supply. After a study of the 

 literature on the subject and considerable correspondence with 

 those who were conversant with the conditions, a sixteen-page 

 circular of information was prepared in October, 1907, con- 

 taining questions regarding the most important food birds 

 resident in the Commonwealth or migrating through it. 



