98 WITH THE U. S. NATURALISTS 



*'In 1813, Audubon, the greatest of all our Amer- 

 ican students of birds, driving from Henderson to 

 Louisville, Ky., once undertook to count, by thou- 

 sands, the Passenger Pigeons which passed him in 

 an hour. After twenty-one minutes, his figures 

 had reached into the tens of millions and he gave 

 up as impossible the task of counting or even esti- 

 mating the number of the birds. 



'' 'I traveled on,' writes Audubon, 'and still met 

 more the further I proceeded. The air was liter- 

 ally filled with Pigeons, the light of noon-day was 

 obscured as by an eclipse. The continual buzz of 

 wings had a tendency to lull my senses to repose. 

 Not a bird alighted, for not a beech-nut or acorn 

 was to be found in the neighborhood that year, 

 they passed high overhead. At sunset they were 

 still passing in undiminished numbers, and this 

 tremendous procession continued for three 

 days.'" 



''What killed 'em off?" the pot-hunter asked 

 again. 



"The same agency that killed off the buffalo — 

 Man!" the expert answered. "They were shot 

 for food. There's nothing in the world so de- 

 structive as Man when he finds that something has 

 a market value. 



