8 Photography for the Sportsman Naturalist 



and habits of the great auk or the pied duck, both 

 of which have within recent years become extinct, 

 would be a series of photographs of them taken 

 when they were fairly numerous, as they once were. 



The younger generation of to-day can hardly 

 believe the stones of the immense flights of the 

 passenger pigeon which so frequently occurred 

 only a few years ago. These birds suddenly be- 

 came almost extinct, and the country which once 

 knew them literally by the thousands upon thou- 

 sands now rarely sees one. What became of them 

 forms one of the mysteries of nature, and it is en- 

 tirely probable that future generations will think 

 the stories told of their numbers nothing but 

 pieces of pure fiction, while, if there were but 

 some photographs to back up these facts, they 

 could not help but believe. 



This is also true of the buffalo which once 

 inhabited our Western plains in such immense 

 herds, but of which there is now only one known 

 wild herd in existence, and this composed only of 

 a few individuals. Of what surpassing interest 

 would be photographs of these immense herds 

 that were once such common sights. 



Unfortunately the birth of nature photography 

 is of too recent a date for us to have these records, 

 which would have been invaluable ; but we all 

 have it in our power to leave for future genera- 

 tions photographs which may be to them just as 



