BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 97 



that Teal were formerly more numerous than now at Edgar- 

 town, and that the old gunners have told him that the birds 

 were once very abundant there. Mr. John M. Winslow of 

 Nantucket writes that Blue-winged Teal were plentiful there 

 many years ago. He saw one man kill an entire flock of eight 

 birds at one shot, and fifty years ago Mr. D. N. Edwards 

 killed thirty-five at one shot. Mr. Henry B. Bigelow states 

 that they were common at Cohasset when he was a boy, but 

 are now rare. 



My correspondents, on whose reports this volume is based, 

 are nearly unanimous in noting this bird as rare or decreasing 

 in every county in Massachusetts. The reports on this species 

 are voluminous and convincing, eight showing an increase and 

 one hundred a decrease. This exhibits the growing scarcity 

 of a bird that was abundant no longer ago than the middle of 

 the last century. 



Occasionally there are still some considerable flights. 

 There was one in September, 1907, that was reported from 

 Essex County to the Cape. Flights were noted also each 

 year from 1904 to 1910. These flights were mostly early in 

 September, and in most cases the birds are reported to have 

 passed on without stopping. Possibly they are learning wis- 

 dom by experience. During my early boyhood large flocks 

 were common in the ponds of Massachusetts in September, 

 and they were so tame that when once they had alighted in 

 a pond it was difficult to drive them out. An experienced 

 gunner would get all or nearly all in such a case. Mr. William 

 B. Long writes that flocks of twenty or so have been extermi- 

 nated at Ipswich. 



As this Teal is one of the best of Ducks on the table the 

 reason for the reduction of its numbers is but too plainly 

 evident. Although many formerly came south in the fall, 

 few returned in the spring; but the species is so proliflc that 

 if protected in spring throughout the United States it might 

 hold its own for a long time to come. Mr. E. T. Carbonnell 

 of Prince Edward Island says that both Blue-winged and 

 Green-winged Teal were very plentiful in 1898, owing to 

 protection during a close season and the stoppage of spring 

 shooting. Teal respond quickly to protection. 



