4 SIEUR DE MONTS NATIONAL MONUMENT 



species, through persecution or lack of suitable environment, 

 become reduced beyond a certain point, the whole species 

 quickly comes to an end. Already the splendid Pileated 

 Woodpecker and the Woodcock, once so plentiful, have 

 grown alarmingly scarce; while the Passenger Pigeon and the 

 Great Auk are extinct Moreover, needless to say, any form 

 of bird or animal that is once gone can never be brought 

 back. 



It is clearly, then, our task and duty, while yet in time, 

 to take the necessary measures to preserve, by every means 

 within our power, the rich fullness of our wild-life, with its 

 congenial haunts, for the profit and joy of future genera- 

 tions. 



Neither economic prosperity nor social advantage com- 

 prise the whole value of experience. To the tired dweller in 

 our great cities, to the overworked toiler under the growing 

 nervous tension of modern artificial conditions, the peaceful 

 healing of natural things — their quiet beauty and their sooth- 

 ing charm — are becoming constantly more indispensable. 



"These enchantments," said Emerson in his famous 

 "Nature", "are medicinal, they sober and heal us. These 

 are plain pleasures, kindly and native to us." It is not alone 

 the body that finds rest and recuperation among our se- 

 cluded lakes and forests, but most of all the mind, which, 

 turning its stream into new and more healthful channels, 

 gains a great invigoration, establishing fresh throught- 

 centers which will act, through memory and association, as 

 life-giving stimuli for weeks and months to come. 



But none of these beneficent conditions would be com- 

 plete without the birds. For whether we study their enticing 

 ways with scientific interest, or idly follow their flight and 

 song as simple nature lovers, they remain, always, the su- 

 preme, delicate touch in the picture, without which the for- 

 ests would seem desolate, the meadows lifeless and cold. 



THE SCIENTIFIC REASON 

 The interest of Science in the conservation of our native 



