BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 383 



ticks bury themselves in the heads of the young birds and 

 weaken or kill them. Foxes were reported as unusually 

 numerous, and many hunters believed that they caught the 

 young birds; a few claim to have seen the fox in the act. 



When the shooting season opened, it was discovered that 

 nearly all the birds killed by hunters were adults, and that 

 most of them were males. This was the case throughout most 

 of the region affected. Dr. F. H. Saunders of Westfield writes 

 me that in 1906, when the birds were plentiful, ninety per cent, 

 of those killed in his region were old cocks, and that in 1907 

 about seventy-five per cent, were cocks, but that in 1908 the 

 sexes were about equal. 



I have not heard of such a disparity of the sexes elsewhere 

 in 1906, but it was commonly noted in 1907. This may be 

 accounted for by the fact that in this species the male does not 

 assist the female in nest building, incubation or the care of the 

 young, hence he is care-free and can take food at any time, 

 seek shelter during storms and keep in better condition than 

 the female, who is exposed to storms and is deprived of suf- 

 ficient food. If, by reason of unseasonable weather, she was 

 obliged to stay constantly on the nest until weakened by 

 starvation and exposure, she fell an easy prey to disease or to 

 her enemies. We know that the female of this species is very 

 devoted to her eggs and young, and is loath to leave them un- 

 til fairly forced to do so. It is said to be a fact well known to 

 all gamekeepers, that an excess of male gallinaceous birds pre- 

 vents successful breeding, as the unmated cocks constantly 

 persecute the sitting hens, and prevent them from nesting 

 and rearing young. 



We have no means of knowing what part disease played 

 in the destruction of the females and young; but judging from 

 their weakened condition and from the number of apparently 

 diseased birds, both old and young, reported as found dead in 

 the woods, it seems probable that disease was responsible to 

 some extent for the decrease, at least locally. Many young 

 birds died when two-thirds grown, and many that were found 

 dead seemed to have died from an enteric disease similar to 

 the "blackhead" of Turkeys (see page 540). In one place one 



