138 OUR NATIVE BIRDS 



of elk, antelope, deer, mountain sheep, and other 'big 

 game ' mammals that still exist in our country, should 

 be warned by the fate of the great northern herd of 

 American bison, and act in time. In 1880 it was esti- 

 mated by the hunters and fur-buyers of Montana that 

 ' the buffalo range ' of Montana, Wyoming, and west- 

 ern Dakota contained five hundred thousand buffaloes ; 

 and I think the estimate was not over the mark. On 

 June 1, 1883, less than four hundred individuals re- 

 mained; and it was several years before the people of 

 the United States awoke to a realization of the fact that 

 the great buffalo herds were actually and absolutely 

 gone ! With the fate of the buffalo before our eyes, it 

 requires no seer to predict, with absolute certainty, that 

 unless thorough and drastic measures are immediately 

 taken to preserve the remnants of our once splendid 

 herds of game quadrupeds, and flocks of game birds, 

 a very few years more we will say ten for some and 

 fifteen for others will find our country without enough 

 wild representatives of those species to stock a zoologi- 

 cal garden. 



" Conclusions Regarding Western Mammals. 

 " 1. Throughout the whole region west of the Missis- 

 sippi River, except in the Yellowstone Park and Colo- 

 rado, all the large quadrupeds, save gray wolves and 

 coyotes, are being shot down several times faster than 

 they multiply. 



" 2. Under existing conditions, their general annihila- 

 tion within a few years' time (save in the two localities 

 noted) may be regarded as a certainty. 



