share here. When the season opened on October 20, there 
were so few birds in our local covers that it seems more 
than likely there had already been a marked migration, 
perhaps somewhat earlier than usual. There is no evi¬ 
dence to show that our local breeding birds were any less 
plentiful than usual. Two big cocks occupied a small patch 
of corn in my garden nearly every morning for several 
weeks in August. 
Grouse in Essex County were well below normal and did 
not breed well. There were few young birds. Undoubt¬ 
edly this was a very disastrous nesting season all along the 
coast, although further north and west in New Hampshire 
grouse were plentiful. They were very abundant in the 
Maine woods also. It is unfortunate that our covers are 
now so easily hunted by the motorized sportsman that it is 
doubtful if we will ever again find as large a population 
of grouse as we have had in the past. The practical dis¬ 
appearance of the pheasant from the county has again 
turned the attention of many youthful gunners towards the 
grouse. Foxes also, which increased during the period 
when pheasants were abundant, and are now decreasing, 
may have had some effect. 
To sum up, it is worth noting that many different sorts 
of game and water birds have suffered from a poor breed¬ 
ing season. Reports from Brant shooters in New Brunswick 
point to a very few birds of the year, while New England 
shore gunners noticed the same phenomena among the 
Scoters. Geese and Black Duck were noticeably affected 
and small numbers only have reached North Carolina. The 
great heat of the first half of October (in fact up to the 
middle of the month mosquitoes were active) did not seem 
to delay the movement of ducks, geese or woodcock. 
The conditions of this year may be a sort of return to 
normal after the unusual abundance of Black Ducks and 
geese of the past few years. 
18 
