354 USEFUL BIRDS. 
CHAPTER XI. 
CHECKS UPON ‘THE INCREASE OF USEFUL BIRDS. 
He who has any doubt about the former abundance of the 
larger birds in Massachusetts should read the accouhts pub- 
lished by some of the earlier voyagers and settlers regarding 
the great numbers of water birds, shore birds, game birds, 
Hawks and Eagles, Great Auks, Cranes, Herons, wild Swans, 
Canada Geese, Snow Geese, Brant Geese, and Turkeys, that 
were found,in the early years of the colony. We read of: 
a thousand wild Turkeys reported as seen in a day, of forty 
Partridges seen in one tree and sixty Quail in another, of 
forty or fifty Ducks killed at a shot, of twelve score shore 
birds killed at two discharges of a fowling piece, of flocks of 
Passenger Pigeons that obscured the sky to the horizon in 
all directions, and of nesting places where for miles the 
trees were loaded with Pigeons’ nests. 
It is now well known that the Great Auk and the Labrador 
Duck have become extinct; that wild Turkeys, Swans, Pas- 
senger Pigeons, Cranes, and Snow Geese have practically 
disappeared from the State; and that the shore birds, game 
birds, and fresh-water Ducks have decreased tremendously 
in numbers. No records regarding the increase or decrease 
of the smaller birds have been made until within recent 
years, and we know only in a general way that certain spe- 
cies, like Swallows, Sparrows, and Robins, increased with 
and after the clearing and settling of the country, and that 
within the last half century there has been a considerable 
local decrease of these and other native birds, particularly 
about the centers of population.! Also, it is evident that 
small birds are not nearly as plentiful here as they are in 
+ Director William T. Hornaday of the New York Zodlogical Park estimated, 
from reports received by him, that birds had decreased twenty-seven per cent. in 
Massachusetts during the fifteen years previous to 1898. The result of my own 
inquiries regarding the decrease of birds in Massachusetts was embodied in a 
report of one hundred and three pages made to the State Board of Agriculture in 
