6o8 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



the grass is allowed to establish itself 

 gradually during the course of several 

 years." 



The reason for this deleterious action 

 of grass is difficult to discover. It has 

 been shown by experiments that it is not 

 due to the abstraction by the grass from 

 the soil of moisture and other food 

 materials required by the tree. " Other 

 possible explanations have been sought 

 in the direction of alterations produced 

 by the grass in the physical condition of 

 the soil, of alterations in aeration or the 

 accumulation of carbondioxide, of alter- 



ations in the temperature or alkalinity 

 and also of alterations in bacterial con- 

 tents. But without success." 



The effect of grass is probably due to 

 some toxic effect. " A toxic action, how- 

 ever, does not mean that the grass-roots 

 excrete some substance which is poison- 

 ous to the tree : there is a considerable 

 amount of debris from the roots of grass 

 while it is growing, which on decom- 

 position might form substances poison- 

 ous to the tree-roots ; or the poisonous 

 effect might be due to an alteration in 

 the bacterial contents of the soil." 



THE LAST PASSENGER PIGEON. 



The magazine, Bird Lore, is largely 

 devoted to the pathetic story, we were 

 about to say tragedy, of the passenger 

 pigeon. There are articles by leading 

 authorities on the history and habits of 

 this once-familiar American bird, and 

 the causes which brought about its ex- 

 tinction. The articles are illustrated by 

 a remarkable series of photographs of 

 living birds made in 1898, but never be- 

 fore published. 



Mr. E. H. Forbush, the naturalist, 

 characterises the passenger pigeon as 

 one of the greatest zoological wonders 

 of the world. It was formerly the most 

 abundant gregarious species ever known 

 in any land, ranging over the greater 

 part of North America, but apparently 

 it has disappeared to the last bird. The 

 offering of prizes for three years in suc- 

 cession did not succeed in producing so 

 much as a feather of the bird, yet there 

 are many people now living who have 

 seen the sky literally darkened by clouds 

 of pigeons and the markets overcrowded 

 with dead birds. Mr. Forbush declares 

 that the destruction of the passenger 

 pigeon began within forty years after 

 the first settler entered New England, 

 and that until about the year 1895 the 

 netting of the passenger pigeon in North 

 America never ceased. Finally, in 1878, 

 the pigeons, having been driven by per- 

 secution from many States, concentrated 

 in a few localities in Michigan, where a 

 great slaughter took place. The Michi- 

 gan nesting-grounds were the last of 

 great extent to be recorded. Smaller 

 nestings were known for ten ^'ears after- 



ward, and many pigeons were seen and 

 killed. But after 1890 the pigeons grew 

 fewer in number, until 1898. Since that 

 year there have been only two ap- 

 parently authentic instances of the cap- 

 ture of the passenger pigeon. 



Now for the last living passenger 

 pigeon of which we have any informa- 

 tion. David Whittaker, of Milwaukee, 

 Wisconsin, procured a pair of young 

 birds from an Indian in north-eastern 

 Wisconsin in 1888. During the eight 

 succeeding years, fifteen birds were bred 

 from this pair, six males and nine 

 females. A part of this flock finally 

 went to Professor C. O. Whitman, of 

 Chicago University. In 1904, Professor 

 Whitman had ten birds, but his flock, 

 weakened by confinement and inbreed- 

 ing, gradually decreased in number. 

 The original Whittaker flock decreased 

 also, and in 1908 there were but seven 

 left. All of these died but one female, 

 who was sent to the Cincinnati Zoo- 

 logical Society. At that time the societ}' 

 had a male about twenty-four years of 

 age, which has died since. The female 

 in Cincinnati, so far as I know, is living 

 still, and in all probability is the last 

 passenger pigeon in existence. 



Protected and fostered by the hand 

 of man, she probably has outlived all 

 the wild birds, and remains the last of a 

 doomed race. 



In the opinion of Mr. Forbush, all 

 theories that are brought forward to ac- 

 count for the destruction of the birds b\' 

 other causes than man's agency are ab- 

 solutely inadequate. 



