244 On the trail of vanishing birds 



entire nesting population generally deserted egrets, herons, ibises, 

 spoonbills, and all leaving their young to die. Thus, other species 

 often suffered severe losses, even though only the adults among 

 the egrets were actually killed. 



Thus did the magnificent and incredibly numerous passenger 

 pigeon disappear forever, another victim of a blind devotion to 

 the inconceivably stupid doctrine that the natural bounties of 

 America would flow on and on, without limit and without end. 



Meanwhile, the end of the gaudy little Carolina paroquet 

 (Conuropsis carolinensis carolinensis) was already in sight. About 

 the size of a mourning dove, this lovely bird was green in plumage, 

 with head and neck of bright lemon yellow and orange or red 

 suffusions on the forehead and cheeks. The tail was conical, with 

 long pointed feathers. It once ranged over the Atlantic-coast re- 

 gion of the Southeastern United States, from Florida and Alabama 

 north to Pennsylvania and New York. In 1881, twenty-three years 

 ahead of time, Maynard prophesied their end when he described 

 what were actually the factors that brought about their extermina- 

 tion. Maynard wrote: 



... in Florida their enemies are legion; bird catchers trap them 

 by the hundreds for the northern markets, sportsmen shoot 

 them for food, planters kill them because they eat their fruit, 

 and tourists slaughter them simply because they present a 

 favorable mark. 



There has been no certain record of a Carolina paroquet since 

 Chapman's observation of 1904, although the species may well 

 have survived beyond that year in some remote area. It is now 

 generally considered that they have long since joined the great 

 auk, the Labrador duck, the passenger pigeon, and the heath hen 

 in the shadowy realms of oblivion. 



Today we look back on these tragedies, and at the practices 

 that were responsible for them, and we wonder that many more 

 North American species did not become extinct during these 

 same years. As it is, our record in this respect is pretty bad. David 

 Lack (1954) has said: 



