256 THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



had formerly been on this coast, vital and radical 

 changes could have taken place ; but the first few 

 days of my cruising revealed conditions entirely 

 different from those that I had anticipated, and my 

 sojourn of six weeks served only to emphasize them. 



I have attempted a picture of a great bird 

 rookery at several stages in this narrative, and 

 to convey some idea of the magnitude of such 

 breeding grounds and their propinquity to one 

 another all along the Gulf Coast. This expedition 

 revealed the obliteration and the extirpation of al- 

 most all these vast colonies of birds. The details 

 of all this I have already set forth in a paper, 

 and the reader is referred to the bibliography for 

 the title. It may, however, be well to say here 

 that so extraordinary were the facts that I re- 

 cited that Sir Alfred Newton, in his " Dictionary 

 of Birds," under the title of "Extermination" has 

 dwelt at length on the presentation that I made. 

 At the time when I wrote the paper in question 

 it was not part of my office in making a scientific 

 record to do more than set forth very precisely 

 the existing conditions. It was not in my prov- 

 ince to express my opinion of the practices which 

 had brought about the result, nor my sorrow 

 and horror at the infinite destruction of life. I 

 simply recited the occurrences and set forth the 

 facts as I observed them. 



It would be difficult for me to find words 



