EXTERMINATION.

Forest and Bird, Issue 12, 1 April 1927, Page 1

EXTERMINATION.

The following remarks appearing in “Out of Doors” over the signature of Tom Horgan might well interest those concerned, both in game and other birds, lest, under our lax conservation system, our birds share a similar fate to many American species once extraordinarily numerous. OTHER VANISHING AMERICANS. On the island of Nantucket, some thirty miles south of

Cape Cod/ is a prophetic monument to American destructiveness. There, making the island their last stand, may be found the last few survivors of what was half a century ago one of America’s most valued game birds—the heath hen. As this is written the colony numbers scarcely a scoreall that stands between the species and extinction. And if Massachusetts loses her long and costly fight to preserve the pathetic remnants, the heath hen, like the passenger pigeon, will be found only in museums. The heath hen is not the only form of wild life occupying this perilous position. If statistics mean anything, dozens of other American song and game birds are being gradually swept from the face of the globe by the ruthless march of a commercial civilisation and a policy of conservation that fails in its purpose. The English sparrow is the only wild creature, except the starling, that can be rightly said to be on the increase, without fear of contradiction, and they are foreigners. Dr. William T. Hornaday, internationally known zoologist and a leading figure in the fight to preserve America’s wild life, sounded the following warning upon his recent retirement as director of the New York Zoological Park: — “The grinding march of civilisation is sweeping all forms of wild life out of existence at a frightful rate, and extinction will most certainly result if the injustices and harassment now in practice are continued.”

DOCTOR HORNADAY’S PRESCRIPTION.

Doctor Hornaday, now seventy-two, has spent fifty years studying and in close association with all forms of wild creatures. * He is retiring to his home at Stamford, Connecticut, to continue his writing and his work of conservation. “It was thought the supply of prairie chickens and wild turkeys could never be exhausted,” he said. “Now both birds are close to the vanishing point. Migratory birds are perhaps in the most immediate peril. They are under fire from the time they leave the North until they reach their winter destination in the far South. Because these birds assemble in comparatively large numbers during flights, the report is sent out that they are multiplying. Statistics absolutely refute this claim.” Doctor Hornaday prescribes the establishment of additional bird and game sanctuaries, and has been instrumental in having more than a million acres set aside as refuges and

breeding grounds. He also advocates control of natural ■enemies of wild life, but the extermination of no species, and is one of the strongest supporters of legislation which would enforce a lower bag limit. This proposed measure is meeting weapons difficult to associate with true sportsmanship. Doctor Hornaday cannot explain why the sportsmen themselves rebel at preserving their own favourite recreation. No more irrefutable condemnation of the country’s ineffectual policy of conservation can be found than in the "tragedy of the passenger pigeon. A committee of the Ohio State Senate conducted an investigation in the year 1857, and rendered the following report: — The passenger pigeon needs no protection. Wonderfully prolific, having the vast forests of the North as its breeding grounds, travelling hundreds of miles in search of food, it is here to-day and elsewhere to-morrow, and no ordinary destruction can lessen them, or cause them to be missed from the myriads that are yearly produced.

The last passenger pigeon died September 1, 1914.

The following inscriptions for gravestones to vanishing Americans are furnished by The National Committee of One Hundred, organised to prevent the extermination of wild life: — The Eastern prairie chicken is now within a few birds of "total extinction. The butterball duck is predicted to go out in about two years. Because of duck scarcity, twenty-four States have been compelled to reduce the bag limit below Federal regulations. In twelve states quail disappearance has stopped all quail hunting. In seven States sage-grouse disappearance has stopped all sage-grouse hunting. In fourteen States wild turkey disappearance has stopped turkey hunting. In six States ruffed-grouse hunting is now extinct. In five States all grouse hunting is extinct. In four States woodcock hunting is prohibited. In nine States prairie-chicken hunting is extinct.

BESIEGED BY THE AUTOMOBILE.

The Eskimo curlew, which once darkened the sky and was slaughtered by wagonloads, has joined the passenger pigeon in the museum. The last of the species known to have existed was killed in the West in 1915. Edward Howe Forbush, state ornithologist for Massachusetts, is the autho-

rity for the statement that the upland plover, once known in countless thousands, is all but extinct. “Our childrens’ children,” he says, “may never see the once abundant upland plover in the sky, or hear the rich note in the summer air. The country’s destructive course is not by any means confined to birds and animals, according to Doctor Hornaday. “A great many of what were formerly our finest trout streams are now hardly worth fishing,” he said, “and hatcheries can hardly keep up in the uneven struggle to prevent ponds and streams from being entirely fished out.” He believes the popularity of the automobile one of the most important factors in the decrease of game of all varieties. Doctor Harnaday was himself, 'until about twenty-five years ago,, an ardent sportsman, but “grew tired of seeing things killed and hearing talk about it.”