50 Wild Bird Guests 



hawks and vultures coming for their share of 

 the feast. 



The slaughtered pigeons were gathered up and 

 piled in heaps until everyone had all he could 

 cart away, and then droves of hogs, sometimes 

 driven from long distances, were turned into the 

 woods to fatten on the remainder. 



Year after year the massacres were repeated, 

 the unfortunate pigeons being followed from one 

 breeding ground to another, and that they were 

 not exterminated years ago, is due solely to the 

 fact that the remaining few became so scat- 

 tered that it no longer paid anyone to pursue 

 them. 



In addition to those destroyed at the breeding 

 grounds, hundreds of thousands of old birds were 

 trapped in "clap nets," upwards of three hun- 

 dred sometimes being taken in a single haul, and 

 one man being able to catch perhaps six thou- 

 sand in a day. Many were sent by schooner- 

 loads to New York, where they were sold at one 

 time for one cent apiece, and they were so cheap 

 in some places that the hogs were fed on them. 



They have gone, and America has nothing to 

 show for her loss unless it be additional proof 

 of the fact that no bird, no matter how numer- 

 ous or how prolific, can long hold its own if it is 

 repeatedly attacked on its breeding grounds. 



