34 BEACH GRASS 



vantages of protection. A still more striking 

 change has taken place in this region in the case 

 of terns, the swallows of the sea. Fifty years 

 ago terns of various species laid their eggs on 

 the sand of Ipswich beach above the tides. 

 Common, arctic and least terns formed an inter- 

 esting colony which was described in 1870 in his 

 ''Naturalist's Guide" by Charles J. Maynard, the 

 discoverer of the Ipswich sparrow. Wanton per- 

 secution by gunners, the shooting of the birds in 

 sport and the taking of the eggs for food and as 

 curiosities, and, above all, the systematic slaugh- 

 ter for millinery purposes extirpated these birds 

 here, and brought them to the verge of extinction 

 along the whole Atlantic coast. 



As regards the subject of bird protection, it is 

 interesting and encouraging to compare the state 

 of mind and moral sense of people in general at 

 that time and today. The sportsman, with a 

 long autumn, winter and spring season, as a rule 

 respected the close season for game birds, but for 

 birds, whose value today is admitted to be 

 largely aesthetic, he thought nothing. If he ex- 

 terminated them, there was no regret. They 



