VANISHING BIRD LIFE i8i 



its beak pointing like the needle of the compass to 

 the north, flying, speeding on its seven-thousand-mile 

 flight to its nesting home in another hemisphere. 



This sound lives in memory still, but is heard no 

 more, or will shortly be heard no more, on earth, 

 since this bird too is now on the list of the " next 

 candidates for extinction." It seems incredible that 

 in this short space of time, comprised in the years 

 of one man's life, such a thing can be. But here on 

 my writing-table is the book of the first authority 

 in America on this subject: William T. Hornaday, 

 in Our Vanishing Wild Life, gives a list of the eleven 

 species which have become wholly extinct in North 

 America since the middle of the last century, most 

 of them in very recent years; also a partial or pre- 

 liminary list of the species, numbering twenty-one, 

 now on the verge of extinction. The first list includes 

 that beautiful bird, the Eskimo curlew — the fellow- 

 traveller and companion of the golden plover referred 

 to in this chapter. The list of those now verging on 

 extinction includes the golden plover, upland plover, 

 buff-breasted and pectoral sandpiper. This last species 

 is not mentioned above, but it was perhaps the com- 

 monest of all the small sandpipers in my time, and 

 from August to March any year was to be met with 

 by any stream or pool of water all over the pampas. 



All this incalculable destruction of bird life has 

 come about since the seventies of the last century, 

 and is going on now despite the efforts of those who 

 are striving, by promoting legislation and by all 

 other possible means, to save "the remnant." But, 



