252 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [ 4 :8-nov., . 9 o& 



instant I had no doubts, but on thinking the matter over, I find 

 that I am not quite so sure as if I had been able to make out the 

 individual birds a little more sharply. I had but an instananeous 

 retinal "snap shot" as they disappeared over the low tops of 

 the apple trees close by, and before I looked up they had swept 

 over my head and were flying almost straight away up the hill 

 beyond. The size and shape of the birds, the sound as of water 

 over the slashboards of a dam, the flock formation, and, most of 

 all, the clean, straight, swift rush are all so characteristic and un- 

 mistakable that I feel fully warranted in making this report. I 

 hunted the birds and was very familiar with them in Wisconsin 

 up to 1882. 



We may hope for other reports; but very few know the bird 

 in this section, fewer appreciate the significance, and fewer still 

 would report even if they saw and knew. Almost all who have 

 studied the matter consider the wild pigeon totally extinct. If 

 stray flocks, or even pairs can be located, the whole continent 

 should be aroused to accord them absolute protection to feed and 

 breed. In this way we may even yet mitigate the national dis- 

 grace of having exterminated the finest race of pigeons the world 

 has produced. 



Worcester, Mass., C. F. Hodge. 



Sept. 25, 1908. 



The Point of View. In The Nature-Study Review for 

 September so many voices have spoken that it is difficult to get the 

 "dangling ends" together in a strand by which to hold oneself. 

 "Nature-study, it must take the things next at hand. . . 

 It sees the important thing to do and does it. . . . Schools 

 seem to lack motive power, do not train in leadership. They 

 are static, and do not seem able to send pupils out to take hold of 

 the first things." (Squeers did that much for his young people— 

 "They went and did it.") 



What does the author mean by "first things." He explains 

 that certain subjects "develop no power or desire to put pupils 

 to work in city improvement societies, civic organizations, Far- 

 mers 1 Clubs, or other homely and common, necessary work for the 

 community." These are the "first things," are they' Some 

 may not agree with the author, and be inclined to regard these 

 the last things in which one could expect children of grade-school 



