140 Mr. P. H. Lowe on the last areat ^flir/Jd [Tbis, 



the entire drive there and back, flocks of millions o£ pigeons 

 were filling the air and shadowing the sun like clouds. The 

 roar of their wings resembled low rumbling thunder, and 

 the shooting from scores of ouns could be heard for miles 

 resounding from wood to wood like a small mimic battle. 



This gre.'it flight continued from before daylight to dusk 

 and lasted for some days, gradually lessening until the flight 

 was over. 



Each succeeding year for several years ordinaiy flights 

 continued, but in greatly reduced numbers, until they 

 ceased altogether." 



Such in substance and fact is Ur. Welford's written 

 statement, and his account of this wonderful flight corres- 

 ponds in every essential particular with the story which he 

 told on the spur of the moment to Mr. Kinnear and myself. 

 What, we may well ask, is the explanation of this swift and 

 tumultuous passing of the Passenger Pigeon, of this final 

 orgy or riot of reproductive energy ? 



We may think of something akin to an abnormal stimu- 

 lation or feverish exhaustion of the germ plasm, but how 

 that over-stimulation arose, if it ever existed, it would 

 be difficult to say." There seems, for instance, no evidence 

 to suggest that it was due to an abnormal supply of 

 food, and if it had been it would have affected other 

 species of the family. We may fancifully compare it to 

 the last flaring up of the dying spark of life in a 

 race which was already doomed and approaching its end, 

 or to a final and resplendent /?/iaZe to the original creative 

 impulse with which the species was launched from the 

 ''family tree'' to run its inevitable course upon the face 

 of the earth. We may think of it as a race whose germ- 

 potency had, so to speak, "outrun tln^ constable," like so 

 many other races we have knowledge of in past geological 

 ages ; but instead of running to fantastic sizes, as in the 

 case of so many of the reptiles whose doom was sealed. 



