108 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



Abundantly distributed tlirougli New England in the breed- 

 ing season (Samuels, 1870). Common summer resident (J. 

 A. Allen, Massachusetts, 1879). Less abundant, and has 

 held its own because of ability to hide in the smallest bits of 

 cover (Abbott, New Jersey, 1895). Thirty years ago Wood 

 Ducks were killed by wagon-loads every spring (Dawson, 

 Ohio, 1903). Now very rare (Hoffman, 1904). Uncommon 

 summer resident; common transient visitor; formerly more 

 common; decreasing (Townsend, Essex County, Mass., 1905). 

 Formerly very common visitor and not uncommon summer 

 resident; now seen only in migration and in no great num- 

 bers (Brewster, Cambridge region, 1906). Formerly common, 

 breeding in every county; at present only a rare local breed- 

 ing bird (Knight, Maine, 1908). Formerly common, but be- 

 coming rapidly reduced in numbers (Stone, New Jersey, 1908). 



My correspondents at the close of 1908, when protection 

 had begun to increase its numbers, report as follows on this 

 bird in Massachusetts: Increasing, thirteen; decreasing, one 

 hundred and four. This is convincing testimony of the 

 decrease of this species in the past thirty years. All other 

 reports from Nova Scotia to Texas agree that the species has 

 diminished from twenty to one hundred per cent. 



The fate of the Wood Duck is determined by its breeding 

 and migration range. This lies mostly within the United 

 States, where, for centuries, spring shooting has been allowed. 

 Had it been able to breed in the far north, where few white 

 men ever go, it would have been better able to maintain 

 itself, or had it bred mainly in southern Canada even, where 

 spring shooting is prohibited and where the law is respected, 

 and had it been able to pass over the United States in its 

 migrations without stopping, it might have avoided destruc- 

 tion; but it lives mainly within the United States. It fre- 

 quents small streams and ponds only a gunshot in width or 

 less, in wooded regions where it is easily ambushed by the 

 hunter, and our people have ruthlessly destroyed this, one 

 of the most beautiful objects of creation, and will yet eradi- 

 cate it unless laws are enacted and enforced in all the States, 

 protecting it at all times. This bird is better appreciated 



