29 



BULLETIN OF 



Massachusetts Boakd of Agriculture. 



STATUTORY BIRD PROTECTION IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



By Edward Howe Forbush, Ornithologist of Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, 



It is common talk, especially in rural communities, that "the more 

 laws we pass for the protection of birds and game the fewer birds 

 and the less game we see." A certain section of the press reflects 

 this sentiment, even to the extent of advocating the abolition of the 

 game laws. This is a popular error, arising from a confusion of cause 

 and effect. If we transpose the trite saying, and opine instead that 

 the fewer the birds and game become the more laws are passed for 

 their protection, we shall then have the proper relation of effect and 

 cause. Wlien the fact is thus properly stated it becomes a truism 

 which explains at once that the reason of the depletion of birds and 

 game is the lack of adequate protection. 



A careful examination of the laws that have been enacted for the 

 protection of birds and game since the first settlement of Massachu- 

 setts, together with a comparison of the records of the numbers of 

 birds observed during this period, shows clearly why statutory pro- 

 tection has thus far failed to protect, and indicates the remedy by 

 which we may save those species of birds which are not already too 

 near extermination to admit of salvation. 



The earlier records of the Massachusetts Bay Colony show no pro- 

 vision for the protection of birds; but in 1632 it was ordered "that 

 noe pson w'soeur shall shoote att fowle vpon Pullen Poynte or Noddles 

 Ileland but that the s*^ places shalbe reserved for John Perkins to 

 take fowle w* netts." ' 



Thus a single person was given a monopoly of bird destruction on 

 certain lands. 



The continued policy of unstayed slaughter had produced so 

 marked an effect on the wild ducks, geese and swans during the first 

 part of the next century that in 1710 a province law was enacted 

 which prohibited the use, in fowhng,. of boats or canoes with sails, 



* "Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New 

 England," Vol. I., p. 94. 



