12 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



To-day the results of man's efforts to exter- 

 minate all the most valuable vertebrate life of the 

 North American continent reveal various stages of 

 progress. Eleven species have been totally exter- 

 minated in their wild state, and of those all save 

 two, the parrakeet and passenger pigeon, are 

 wholly extinct. The list is as follows: 



Great auk, 

 Labrador duck, 

 Pallas cormorant, 

 Passenger pigeon, 

 Eskimo curlew, 

 Carolina parrakeet, 

 Cuban tricolor macaw, 

 Gosse's macaw, 

 Yellow-winged green parrot, 

 Purple Guadaloupe macaw. 



All the above became totally extinct in a wild 

 state between 1840 and 1910. 



One other species, the heath-hen or eastern pin- 

 nated grouse, the counterpart of the western 

 prairie-chicken, has escaped total extinction only 

 by a very narrow margin. It is so thoroughly 

 extinct locally that to-day it exists only in one 

 locality, on Martha's Vineyard, in eastern Massa- 

 chusetts, where about two hundred birds are main- 

 tained under rigid protection. 



The history of the heath-hen teaches a practical 

 lesson that should be of great value to the grouse 



