BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 371 



extinct there as well as in northern Worcester County. Mr. 

 Clinton G. Gilmore says that Mr. William C. Whitney stocked 

 his preserve on October Mountain, but the Bob-whites all 

 left it for the valley, and later disappeared. In Nantucket the 

 native Bob-white is extinct, but there are a few introduced 

 birds left. Bob-whites were very plentiful during the latter 

 part of the eighteenth century and the early part of the nine- 

 teenth. Mr. George Linder of Boston says that he once knew 

 of the killing of ninety-six by two men in two days. Some 

 large bags have been made within fifty years; but the species 

 always had its "ups and downs," owing largely to occasional 

 severe winters. I have no record, however, of the fluctuations 

 in numbers in early times, and all the available information 

 to be had on that subject has been gathered within the past 

 century. 



Mr. Henry H. Fay writes me that there was a very severe 

 snowstorm on Cape Cod sometime in the 50's, possibly in 

 1857. The snow was heavy and damp, and falling on the 

 "evergreens" bent their branches to the ground. The Quail 

 sought the cover of the down-bent branches as a refuge from 

 the storm. The snow covered them, and then the weather 

 turned cold, freezing the snow hard and imprisoning the birds 

 beneath it, where they all starved. Their remains were found 

 in numbers under the trees the succeeding spring, and the 

 species appeared to be absolutely extinct on the Cape. Mr. 

 Fay states that his father, who had been in business in the 

 south, imported a number of birds from some southern State 

 and turned them out. A resident, who watched the result, 

 said that the reproduction of the Bob-white in that district 

 was due to that importation, and that the introduced Quail 

 were smaller than the native birds. Mr. Lyman Pearson writes 

 from Newbury that there were no Quail left there in 1865, 

 but that they increased up to the 70's, when a severe winter 

 killed them off again. Since then several such storms have 

 occurred, wiping out most of the individuals of the species 

 in New England. Many instances have been reported to me 

 where, locally, after such a season, gunners with bird dogs 

 have exterminated every bird. 



