44 
quarters are the same. It is noteworthy that practically all 
observers agree that, considering all species, these birds have 
fallen off about 75 per cent within twenty-five to forty years, 
and that several species are nearly extirpated. 
Snipe and Woodcock. — The Wilson’s snipe is one of the 
most “ shot at ” birds of the American fauna, and, consider- 
ing the amount of ammunition that has been expended on 
it, it has not decreased in numbers so much as might have 
been expected. Nevertheless, far fewer birds are now seen 
in Massachusetts in spring and fall than formerly were found 
in our meadows at those seasons. There is a legend in Con- 
cord, told me by Mr. William Brewster, that years ago a 
certain gunner won, in a few hours, a wager that he could 
kill fifty snipe with a limited number of shots on the Con- 
cord meadows. There is much shooting done there now, but 
each gunner gets comparatively few birds. 
The woodcock formerly bred abundantly in small swamps 
and alder runs throughout the State. Thirty years ago it 
bred in all suitable places about Worcester, but within ten 
years from that time the breeding birds were shot off. Mr. 
Gerry has kindly lent me a memorandum book kept by 
his father, Col. E. Gerry, in 1838. He tells me that the 
woodcock recorded in this book were shot about Stoneham. 
Colonel Gerry commenced to shoot woodcock in July, there- 
fore the birds shot must have been those breeding in the 
locality. On July 7 he shot twenty-two, for which he re- 
ceived only two dollars and seventy-five cents; on the 8th 
he shot and sold forty-two; on the 9th, nine; on the 16th, 
twenty; on the 21st, six; on the 22d, twelve; on the 23d, 
fifteen; on the 27th, eight. On the 11th he shot twenty- 
seven “ birds,” probably woodcock, by the price. These 
woodcock were sold in Boston at twelve and one-half to 
twenty-five cents each. After the first of August the score 
of woodcock shot falls off rapidly. Here are one hundred 
and sixty-one resident woodcock, young and adult birds, killed 
by one man close to Boston in July. There were, no doubt, 
many other shooters operating about the city. No wonder 
that breeding woodcock disappeared rapidly from the region 
near Boston. The woodcock is decreasing all over its range 
