44 



nVIC BIOL()(rV 



(For three years past rewards aggregating over $oUOU for discovery 

 and report of imdisturbed nesting pairs or colonies of passenger pigeons, 

 anywhere in Xorth America, have remained unclaimed, and no tangible 

 evidence has l>een received of pigeons killed or even seen during this 

 time. This is commonly accepted as proving the species extinct in the 

 wild state. One old bird still survives in the Cincinnati Zoological Gar- 

 den. If nesting pigeons are ever found, tliey should be most carefully 

 safeguarded, and all protective agencies, private, state, and national, be 



focused on their ] n-eservation 

 and increase.) 



Mourning dove — Zoiai- 

 (Inm iinici'oura rdro/i/ic'/isis. 

 Every effort is now being 

 jnade to save this species in 

 New P^ngland. It is abun- 

 dant in the South and Middle 

 West. 



Fui. 20. Young red-shouldered hawks 



Order Raptores {raptor^ 

 " a robber ") — hawks, 

 eagles, owls. 41ie hawks 

 and owls furnish perliaps 

 tlie most complicated and 

 difficult problem con- 

 nected with our bird life. 

 By many of the best autliorities the majority are accounted 

 among our most valuable birds, on account of the great num- 

 V)ers of noxious mammals — held mice, gopliers, rats, etc. — 

 wliich they destroys Most of the ha\\ ks, too, feed largely on 

 insects when they are abundant, and take comparatively few 

 birds, either tame or wild. In determiumg the value of birds 

 in this class, however, it is always an open question whether 

 the few insectivorous birds, — which may form only 1 or 2 per 

 cent of the hawk's total food, — if allowed to live, might not 

 have done much more valuable work than the sum total of tlie 

 predacious species. We must leave questions of this kind to 

 be worked out from practical experience and observation. 



