245 The long flight back 



It is claimed that more species of birds have become extinct 

 in North America than in Europe, but various European species 

 doubtless became extinct before bird records were kept. In addi- 

 tion, natural habitats have been altered much more gradually 

 in Europe than in North America, which may have allowed 

 more European than American species to become adapted to 

 cultivated land. 



But was adaptation possible in situations like those that faced 

 the great auk, Labrador duck, passenger pigeon, Carolina paroquet, 

 and heath hen? There was not enough time. And just as the causes 

 of extinction in these instances are perfectly clear, so are the 

 measures that prevented further rapid and perhaps more extensive 

 losses, as suggested by Schorger. It should be apparent, however, 

 that refuges and protective laws are merely the bare framework 

 on which the conservation edifice has been built. These measures 

 are the fingers thrust into the hole in the dike, for in the long 

 run the job must be completed through education. 



There is also the ever present need for more knowledge through 

 research. When we consider the fate of the heath hen, which 

 became extinct in 1933, and the probable and more recent fate 

 of the eskimo curlew neither of which recovered entirely from 

 the unbridled hunting practices of the early nineteenth century 

 we can see that these were extinction problems that were handed 

 down to us from the past. There are current examples of bird 

 species that continue to struggle uncertainly for existence because 

 of the nearly fatal blows that were dealt them sometime in the 

 last century the ivory-billed woodpecker (perhaps already gone), 

 the whooping crane, California condor, American flamingo, and 

 Attwater's prairie chicken. Others, in less critical situations but still 

 far from a return to the normal status of their heyday, include the 

 roseate spoonbill, reddish egret, trumpeter swan, and perhaps a 

 good many more. Some of these birds have already demonstrated 

 an ability to respond to protection under ideal conditions, but it 

 is increasingly apparent that we need to know more as to what 

 these conditions are and how they are to be obtained in each 

 specific case. We should maintain research studies that will keep 



