986 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



"I fcmoji' no way of jtidgina of the Future but by the Past."— Patrick Henry. 



Report 



of a select committee of the Senate of 

 Ohio, in 1857, on a bill proposed to 

 protect the passenger pigeon. 



"The passenger pigeon needs no pro- 

 tection. Wonderfully prolific, having the 

 vast forests of the North as its breeding 

 grounds, traveling hundreds of miles in 

 search of food, it is here to-day and else- 

 where to-morrow, and no ordinary de- 

 struction can lessen them, or be missed 

 from the myriads that are yearly produced. 



"The snipe (Scolopax wilsonii) needs 

 no protection. * * * The snipe, too, 

 like the pigeon, will take care of itself, 

 and its yearly numbers can not be mate- 

 rially lessened by the gun." 



THE LAST LIVING PASSENGER PIGEON 

 Now in the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens. 20 years old in 1912 



THE FOLLY OF 1857 AND THE LESSON OF 1912 

 (Facsimile of the frontispiece of " Our Vanishing Wild Life.") 



"OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE."* 



DR. HORNADAY'S latest book, "Our Van- 

 ishing Wild Life," is the first thorough 

 and systematic treatment of this impor- 

 tant subject. The volume is appropriately 

 dedicated to Mr. William Dutcher, founder and 

 president of the National Association of Audu- 

 bon Societies. There is an appreciative Fore- 

 word by Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn, who 

 not only indorses the subject matter of the 

 book, but approves the author's vigorous style 

 in presenting it. 



The author's preface of the book partly pre- 

 pares the reader for what is to come. His very 

 first statement bearing on his subject — -"Beyond 

 question, we are exterminating our finest spe- 

 cies of mammals, birds and fishes according to 

 law!" — will challenge the attention of every 

 thoughtful person. He establishes the literal 

 truth of this thesis, by a careful and complete 

 consideration of the past and present condi- 

 tion of our native mammals and birds, and by 

 an examination of the game laws now in force 

 in each State of the Union. He names eleven 

 species of birds which have been actually ex- 



* Published by Charles Scribner's Sons, 153 Fifth 

 94 illustrations and 10 maps 



terminated since 1840, and includes twenty- 

 three species in a "Partial list of North Ameri- 

 can birds threatened with early extinction." In 

 the chapter entitled "The Extermination of 

 Species, State by State," the summary of the 

 species which have become extinct, and of the 

 remnant that remains in each State, is fairly 

 startling. 



Dr. Hornaday's description of "The Regular 

 Army of Destruction" makes it only too plain 

 that he is not resorting to hyperbole in employ- 

 ing that phrase. He shows that in 1911, twenty- 

 seven States issued 1,486,228 regular hunting 

 licenses, and he estimates that the twenty-one 

 States which either issued no licenses, or did 

 not report the number issued, "turned out a to- 

 tal of 1,155,996 gunners, making for all the 

 United States, 2,642,194 armed men and boys 

 warring upon the remnant of game in 1911. 

 We are not counting the large number of law- 

 less hunters who never take out licenses," he 

 adds, and then he propounds this very pertin- 

 ent question: "How long can any of the big 

 game stand before the army of two and one- 

 half million well-armed men, eager and keen to 



Avenue, New York. Cloth, octavo, 428 pages, 

 By mail, prepaid, $1.65. 



