No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 219 



jury in the rice field, and that the sale of the birds in the 

 market should be stopped. 



The decrease of bobolinks in ISTew England has been noted 

 almost universally, particularly in the coast region. Bobo- 

 links are said to have been formerly very common on Nan- 

 tucket during the breeding season, but they have disappeared. 

 Many reports have been received of a decrease in bobolinks 

 both on the coast and interior, but it was not until September, 

 1912, that an opportunity offered for a personal investiga- 

 tion of the matter in the South Atlantic States. At that 

 time, on Sept. 3, 1912, Mr. Rice wrote that there had been 

 a great falling off in the numbers of the bobolink in South 

 Carolina within the past four or five years, due to slaughter, 

 and abandonment of rice planting on the coast, and there 

 would be no trouble in seeing the whole operation of the 

 killing of birds, dressing them for the market and shipping 

 them. 



Early in September, 1912, I left Boston for Georgetown, 

 S. C, and on arriving there found that the birds had not 

 appeared in large numbers, that very little night killing was 

 going on and that very few birds were being shot. 



A trip was made to investigate the ravages of the fall army 

 worm and the destruction of the pest by birds. Fields were 

 seen where corn and cotton had been cut to the ground by 

 the army worm until, finally, flocks of crows and blackbirds, 

 especially red-winged blackbirds and grackles, had destroyed 

 the army worms, saving the rest of the crop. 



Later on another trip was made to Georgetown and the rice 

 fields. At this time the rice was nearly harvested and the 

 shooting and shipment of rice birds was at its height. 



At the plantation of Mr. Charles Petigru Allston, about 

 six miles out of Georgetown, the rice business was in its 

 decadence. He was cultivating but a few acres where he 

 formerly had great plantations. He said that upwards of 

 twenty years ago the dealers sold the birds in all the larce 

 cities north and south and that some were shipped to Paris. 

 Mr. Allston stated that planters in his to^vnship formerly 

 bought about 500- kegs of powder annually to shoot at the 



