404 USEFUL BIRDS. 
other birds that nested near the house, the ground-nesting 
birds, and those that bred in nesting boxes or hollow trees. 
Crows and Jays were common, though not increasing rapidly, 
and both Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks were present 
(probably only one pair of each). Squirrels of three species 
were ore numerous than I have ever seen them elsewhere. 
Since that year the number of birds about the house seems 
to have increased. This may be due in part to the fact that 
the Cooper’s Hawk no longer breeds on the place ; also, that 
the squirrels about the house do not molest the birds much, 
while many birds have been attracted by food plants and 
nesting boxes. 
When it is found, on prohibiting shooting within certain 
limits, that the smaller birds are decreasing, we may infer 
that they are preyed upon by creatures that were formerly 
held in check by gunners. If this be true, then neither the 
gunners nor the sportsmen need be looked upon as the un- 
mixed evil that some of us have been inclined to consider 
them ; and the farmer who has no time to protect birds may 
safely allow honorable men to shoot on his land. Evidently 
the bird protectionist may be forced to the conclusion that, 
in order to protect birds, he must sometimes destroy some 
of their natural enemies, even if among these he is obliged 
to kill some birds. Hawks, Crows, Jays, and squirrels have 
become so accustomed to the persecutions of the gunner 
that they are able in a sense to persist in nearly normal 
numbers in spite of him; and when we eliminate shooting, 
they may increase, to the detriment of the species on which 
they prey. In a biographical notice of the late Henry D. 
Minot the following appears: “On the home grounds from 
seventy-five to a hundred nests were built every spring, and 
the broods therein successfully reared, for the birds were 
carefully protected. Cats, Hawks, gray squirrels, Crows, 
Jays, and snakes were summarily dealt with; every note of 
alarm was promptly answered with an efficient rescue, and 
all the spring and early summer the air was filled with the 
melody of happy birds.”! 
‘ The Land and Game Birds of New England, by Henry D. Minot. Second 
edition, edited by William Brewster. 
