SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 101 
before the people of the United States awoke toa realization of 
the fact that the great buffalo herds were actually and absolutely 
gone! With the fate of the buffalo before our eyes, it requires no 
seer to predict, with absolute certainty, that unless thorough and 
drastic measures are immediately taken to preserve the remnants 
of our once-splendid herds of game quadrupeds, and flocks of 
game birds, a very few years more—we will say ten, for some, and 
fifteen for others—will find our country without enough wild rep- 
resentatives of those species to stock a zoological garden. 
CONCLUSIONS REGARDING Birps.—Regarding the avian fauna 
of the United States, the following conclusions are justified by 
facts: 
1. Throughout about three-fifths of the whole area of our 
country, exclusive of Alaska, bird life in general is being anni- 
hilated. 
2. The edible birds (about 144 species) have been, and still 
are, most severely persecuted. 
3. In many localities edible birds of nearly all species have 
become rare, and some important species are on the point of gen- 
eral extermination. 
4. Owing to the disappearance of the true game birds, our 
song and insectivorous birds are now being killed for food pur- 
poses, and, unless prevented, this abuse of nature is likely to be- 
come general. 
5. The extermination, throughout this country, of the so- 
called ‘‘ plume birds’’ is now practically complete. 
6. The persecution of our birds during their nesting season, 
by egg-collectors and by boys generally, has become so universal 
as to demand immediate and special attention. 
7. Excepting in a few localities, existing measures for the 
protection of birds, as they are carried into effect, are notoriously 
inadequate for the maintenance of a proper balance of bird life. 
8. Destructive agencies are constantly on the increase. 
9. Under present conditions, and excepting in a few localities, 
the practical annihilation of all our birds, except the smallest 
species, and within a comparatively short period, may be regarded 
as absolutely certain to occur.* 
*The protection of migratory birds must be general in order to be effec- 
tive. New Orleans should not rob Cheyenne of the fruit of her labors in 
the field for protection. 
