Part I.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 87 



that is actually doing damage. Section 2 of chapter 401 of the 

 Acts of 1914 provides that a person may capture, pursue, 

 wound or kill upon land owned or occupied by him any pheas- 

 ant which he finds in the act of injuring any crop on cultivated 

 land, and he may authorize a member of his family or person 

 permanently employed by him on such land to act in his place 

 under the same circumstances, but he must report the killing 

 within twenty-four hours to the Commissioners on Fisheries and 

 Game, stating the time, place and number of pheasants cap- 

 tured, wounded or killed. If he does not report he is liable to a 

 fine not exceeding $50. Evidently it is imperative for a man to 

 protect his crops when pheasants are doing them serious injury, 

 but it should not be forgotten that the pheasant is very destruc- 

 tive to many injurious insects. Dr. A. M. Gould writes from 

 Maiden that he counted 17 pheasants and 11 crows eating 

 grasshoppers on his place, and he believes that the pheasant is 

 a valuable bird because of the help that it gives to the farmer 

 in decimating destructive insects. 



Destruction of Birds by the Elements in the Spring of 1917. 



During April, INIay and June the weather most of the time 

 was unseasonable. Early in the season there were snowstorms; 

 later there were widespread frosts and snow on the higher 

 lands, and during most of the time there were either cold rains 

 or cloudy, foggy and cool days. Mr. John W. Smith, meteor- 

 ologist at the Boston office of the Weather Bureau, has kindly 

 furnished me with the climatological data of the New England 

 section for April, May and June. These reports show that the 

 month of April was somewhat colder than usual, and that the 

 amount of sunshine was less than ordinarily obtains in that 

 month. Cold northeast winds prevailed. On the 9th from 3 to 

 12 inches of snow fell on the coast. Apparently the snowfall 

 reached its maximum in southeastern Massachusetts, where on 

 Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard it fell very heavily, and deep 

 drifts remained for many days. The precipitation for the month 

 was greatest in IMassachusetts and Rhode Island. While the 

 storm on the 9th may have been destructive to early tree swal- 

 lows, and possibly even to some bluebirds in the southeastern 

 counties of Massachusetts, the month as a whole was not much 



