260 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1945 



There may be 100 or more of these dry-land geese in captivity, but the 

 species is probably reduced to about 25 individuals in its native wild 

 state. The Laysan teal is another of the duck-and-goose tribe con- 

 fined to Laysan Island southwest of Hawaii. It is at an extremely low 

 ebb, and though inhabiting a national bird refuge, it may pass into 

 history at any time, if it has not already gone. There were only 14 

 birds left on the island in 1923. 



Many of our birds of prey, even though actually beneficial species, 

 have been shot on sight as harmful, or considered legitimate targets 

 on which to test marksmanship. Practically all species of this group 

 have been reduced in numbers. Probably the most seriously en- 

 dangered is the California condor, masterful airman of graceful flight 

 and grandeur, and man's benefactor as a destroyer of carrion. The 

 California condor formerly ranged west of the Sierra Nevada from 

 Washington to Lower California, and in the days of the "forty-niners" 

 was not rare. It is now reduced to not more than 70 individuals, most 

 of which make their home in a comparatively small isolated valley in a 

 range of mountains in southwestern California. Two other birds of 

 graceful flight and beauty and both of harmless habits, the white-tailed 

 kite of the southwestern United States and the Everglade kite of 

 Florida, are extremely reduced in numbers. The whitetail is probably 

 in less danger than the Everglade, since its present distribution is more 

 extensive and it is known to nest in several scattered colonies. The 

 Everglade kite, however, is known to nest in the United States only in 

 the vicinity of Lake Okeechobee, Fla., where there are only a few 

 pairs of birds. 



Three of our gallinaceous birds are approaching the vanishing point. 

 None of the existing races of prairie chickens is in any too satisfactory 

 a position, and one of them, Attwater's prairie chicken, is reduced to 

 approximately 8,000 birds inhabiting scarcely more than 5 percent of 

 the former range of the race. The population of these prairie chickens 

 has been reduced not only by hunting but also by general agricultural 

 and grazing practices, and by excessive rainfall during the nesting 

 season. The masked bobwhite, formerly occurring in fair numbers 

 within the United States near the Mexican border, has become extir- 

 pated except for local colonies in Sonora, Mexico. From this meager 

 Mexican supply an effort has been made to restock the species in 

 Arizona and New Mexico. The eastern wild turkey, the native wild 

 turkey of our Atlantic coast colonists, has all but disappeared as a 

 pure-strain wild turkey. A few of them still inhabit the region of the 

 lower Santee River in South Carolina; under the auspices of the 

 United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 15 birds from this region 

 were placed on Bull's Island, South Carolina, a national wildlife 

 refuge, in 1939-40. This stock has increased, and will provide another 



