A CENTURY OF EXTERMINATION 



their narrowing ranges by civilization, 

 and hunted by all methods in all seasons, 

 may outlast the century, but they will 

 have become wofully scarce at the close 

 of it, even in such regions as the Adiron- 

 dacks, which seem to have been set apart 

 by nature especially for the preservation 

 of wild life. 



The wild turkey is passing away, and 

 it is a question of but few years when he 

 shall have departed forever. In some 

 localities the next noblest of our game 

 birds, the ruffed grouse, has become al- 

 most a thing of the past, and in some 

 years is everywhere so scarce that there 

 are sad forebodings of his complete dis- 

 appearance from the rugged hills of 

 which he seems as much a belonging 

 as the lichened rocks, the arbutus and 

 the wind-swept evergreens. One little 

 island on the New England coast holds 

 the handful that is left of the race of 

 heath hens. 



The woodcock is being cultivated and 

 improved and murdered out of existence 

 with clearing and draining and summer 

 shooting, and unseasonable shooting is 

 doing the same for many kinds of water- 

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