A STORY FROM AUDUBON 149 



down with nothing but a pole, as we knock down ap- 

 ples and nuts, I would undertake to bag a fine lot my- 

 self. " 



" Would you also," his uncle asked him, "under- 

 take to find food for the pigeons, when for a single 

 day's supply for one of their flocks it takes from 

 eight to nine million bushels of seeds f You see well 

 enough that such multitudes would be calamitous: 

 the entire harvest of a province would scarcely be 

 enough to fill the crops of these ravenous birds. 

 Such flocks require vast tracts of woodland not ex- 

 ploited by man, such as America had sixty years 

 ago, in Audubon's time. But to-day, in that coun- 

 try, as civilization extends its boundaries the prime- 

 val forests disappear and give place to cultivated 

 fields. Food becoming scarce, pigeons also become 

 scarce; and it is doubtful whether one could ever 

 again witness such prodigious scenes as formerly." 



