PROBABLE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE GAME. 137 



of bisons which, a hundred years ago, pastured peacefully 

 on the savannahs beyond the Mississippi, see their ranks 

 thinning daily ; while the skeletons of their fellows, slain 

 by trappers and emigrants and Indians, whiten on the 

 ground, and mark the gradual advance of man. Every- 

 thing leads to the belief that the pigeons, which cannot 

 endure isolation, forced to fly or to change their habits 

 as the territory of North America shall become peopled 

 with the overplus of Europe, will eventually disappear 

 from this continent ; and if the world endure a century 

 longer, I will wager that the amateur of ornithology will 

 find no pigeons except in select Museums of Natural 

 History 



