24 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. ' 



One of the most important needs is the establishment of suitable houses 

 for the preservation and care of birds. There should be a large build- 

 ing that could be heated in winter, and in addition a spacious flying 

 cage similar to that used in the Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco, 

 in which large numbers of our native birds could be harbored and fed. 

 This would enable the park to extend its scope to the species of native 

 birds now threatened with extinction. The passenger pigeon, once 

 found in astonishing nnmbers throughout the Northern United States, 

 has nearly disaj^peared because of the slaughter of the species by 

 man,^ and the Carolina parrakeet, a bird of most beautiful j)lumage, is 

 already becoming scarce. At present it is impossible to take advantage 

 of numerous opportunities of obtaining specimens of birds, as they 

 can not be properly cared for within the park. Other buildings urgently 



' The following extract from Audubon's Birds of America may be of interest : 



'' The multitudes of wild pigeons in our woods are astonishing. Indeed, after hav- 

 ing viewed them so often and under so many circumstances, I even now feel inclined 

 to pause and assure myself that what I am going to relate is fact. Yet I have seen it 

 all, and that, too, in the company of persons who, like myself, were struck with 

 amazement. 



''In the autumn of 1813 I left my house at Henderson, on the banks of the Ohio, 

 on my way to Louisville. In passing over the barrens a few miles beyond Hardens- 

 burg, I observed the pigeons flying from northeast to southwest in greater numbers 

 than I thought I had ever seen them before, and feeling an inclination to count the 

 flocks that might pass within the reach of my eye in one hour, I dismounted, seated 

 myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my pencil, making a dot for 

 every flock that passed. In a short time, finding the task which I had undertaken 

 impracticable, as the birds poured in in countless multitudes, I rose, and, counting 

 the dots then put down, found that 163 had been made in twenty-one minutes. I 

 traveled on, and still met more the farther I proceeded. The air was literally filled 

 with pigeons; the light of noonday was obscured as by an eclipse; the dung fell in 

 spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow, and the continued buzz of wings had a 

 tendency to lull my senses to repose. 



"Whilst Avaitiug for dinner at Young'sinn, at the confluence of Salt River with 

 the Ohio, I saw, at my leisure, immense legions still going by, with a front reaching 

 far beyond the Ohio on the west and the beech-wood forests directly on the east of 

 me. Not a single bird alighted, for not a nut or acorn was that year to be seen in 

 the neighborhood. They consequently flew so high that different trials to reach them 

 with a capital rifle proved ineffectual, nor did the reports disturb them in the least. 

 I can not describe to you the extreme beauty of their aerial evolutions when a hawk 

 chanced to press upon the rear of a flock. At once, like a torrent, and with a noise 

 like thunder, they rushed into a compact mass, pressing upon each other toward the 

 center. In these almost solid masses they darted forward in undulating and angu- 

 lar lines, descended and swept close over the earth with inconceivable velocity, 

 mounted perpendicularly, so as to resemble a vast column, and, when high, were 

 seen wheeling and twisting within their continued lines, which thea resembled the 

 coils of a gigantic serpent. 



"Before sunset I reached Louisville, distant from Hardensburg 55 miles. The 

 pigeons were still passing in undiminished numbers, and continued to do so for three 

 days in succession. The people were all in arms. The banks of the Ohio were 

 crowded with rneii and boys incessantly shooting at the pilgrims, which there flew 

 lower as they passed the river. Multitudes were thus destroyed. For a week or 

 more the population fed on no other flesh than that of pigeons and talked of nothing 

 but pigeons." 



