212 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



this enterprise find the new sale laws now in force in New 

 York and Massachusetts of great advantage to them in their 

 business. These laws should encourage game rearing and 

 largely increase the number of game birds in the State. 



The Summer Spigoting of Siioee Birds. 

 The law in Massachusetts no longer allows the killing of 

 shore birds in July, but it is still legal to shoot them in Au- 

 gust. There are many reasons why this shooting should be 

 stopped. Several species which are in danger of extinction 

 pass south along our coast in August. Shooting in August 

 is participated in by boys, clerks and many others who are 

 then on their summer vacations and who take up shooting 

 merely because they have nothing else to do. Many of these 

 people do not distinguish one bird from another, and if 

 allowed to shoot shore birds in summer they will shoot many 

 other birds that are protected by law. Many instances where 

 this has occurred have been brought to my notice. Mr. 

 Warren E. Carlcton Avritcs from Lebanon, IST. H., that he 

 spent a part of August at his home at Plymouth, Mass., and 

 during the 1st, 2d and od of August camped on Plymouth 

 beach. On the morning of August 1 the open season on 

 shore birds began, and a horde of gunners of all ages 

 swarmed to the beach. Shore birds were scarce, but tree 

 swallows and barn swallows were flocking overhead, hovering 

 about the gunners and offering easy targets. Gunners con- 

 fined most of their efforts to the swallows, leaving the little 

 bodies on the beach for the sand fleas. He suggests that a 

 delegation of wardens be sent to the beaches when the next 

 shooting season opens. The summer shooting of shore birds 

 has resulted in the killing and Avounding of several people 

 within the past three years, mostly women and girls who 

 frequent the beaches in summer. Gunners drive from one 

 beach to another in automobiles and hunt along beaches 

 where people are bathing and boating. The small sandpipers 

 or " peeps " are the principal game. These little birds are 

 harmless and useful creatures, very beneficial to agriculture 

 in their migrations through the States of the Mississippi 

 valley in spring, and useful along our coasts in destroying 



