‘THE EXTERMINATION OF WILD LIFE 21 
last century ornithologists realized that this most useful and 
highly esteemed of our American game birds was disappear- 
.g, until in 1908 Preble stated: “It has become practically 
exterminated, although formerly enormously abundant and 
fairly common up to 1890.” The market demand and the 
tastes of the epicures have sealed its fate. Its abundance 
proved to be its destruction. 
As with the birds so with our mammals, and in later chap- 
ters the reduction of the buffalo and the antelope from mil- 
lions to a few thousands will be described. To-day the 
caribou is undoubtedly in danger of a similar fate. And in 
fact the same is true of any animal, be it bird or mammal: 
so long as mere numbers are regarded as a reason for exces- 
sive killing, just so surely will the extermination of an 
imal follow. It should also be pointed out that when a 
formerly abundant animal becomes reduced in numbers the 
remnant may tend to herd together and thus give an im- 
pression locally of great abundance. This danger exists in 
the case of such a gregarious animal as the caribou. Local 
abundance, therefore, should never be taken as an indica- 
‘ion of general abundance and as a reason for permitting 
killing in large numbers. 
_It is therefore of the greatest importance to realize that 
numerical abundance is no guarantee that an animal will 
not be exterminated, unless its destruction is carefully regu- 
lated and permitted to a very limited degree. The examples 
given are surely sufficient proof of this fact, and should be 
a serious warning to us in the conservation of the more 
abundant species of mammals and birds. 
The Various Adverse Factors——The greatest exterminator 
of all wild life has always been the market hunter, caring 
only for the largest and most immediate pecuniary returns 
and utterly regardless of the future and of the rights of pos- 
terity to enjoy the wild creatures, both furred and feathered, 
