No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 223 



seem to have avoided these rice-growiug regions and have 

 drifted along the Atlantic coast. 



The people shipping bobolinks were very chary about 

 volunteering any information, and it was impossible to get 

 any statistics of the number of birds shipped. Every one 

 agreed, however, that there were not nearly so many birds 

 as formerly. Nevertheless, the quantity of birds shipped 

 must have been large, as numbers of gunners were coming 

 every morning with them and the pickers were very busy. 



During my travels about South Carolina, between George- 

 town and the region below Charleston, many people 

 acquainted with the conditions regarding birds and bird 

 killing were seen, and all agreed that most of the negroes 

 were now armed with guns and that many were shooting 

 small birds, and that many of the birds had decreased in num- 

 ber. This shooting was not by any means confined to small 

 birds, as the destruction of wild fowl and game birds was 

 distressing. Many of the colored boys had air guns and 

 with them shot small birds of all kinds. I observed this per- 

 sonally and was informed of it by the citizens. 



In conversation with old residents it was learned that just 

 before and after the civil war birds were very plentiful. No 

 one did any shooting except a few gentlemen sportsmen who 

 had guns, and the negroes were not provided with firearms ; 

 but since the war negroes have secured cheap firearms and 

 have decimated the game and birds in many localities and 

 over large areas. In South Carolina, for two years there 

 has been no appropriation for the chief game warden, and 

 conditions are very bad. The only immediate remedy for 

 such conditions is the enactment of a federal law, protecting 

 migratory birds. 



Wild Fowl wintering in Inckeasing Numbers. 

 Many reports have been received of an increase in the num- 

 ber of wild fowl wintering in Massachusetts since a law was 

 passed in 1909, prohibiting the killing of wild fowl from 

 December 31 to September 15 annually. This increase has 

 been attributed by many people to this statute, but others 



