180 WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



In 1884 the buffalo hunters of the northern plains be- 

 lieved, and said, that there would "always be plenty of 

 buffalo." In the winter of 1885 they went out as usual, 

 to hunt for hides. But there ivere no buffalo! 



Presently they said : "They have gone north. They must 

 and will come back. We will wait for them." 



For months they loafed around their camp-fires, and 

 waited. But the herds never came back. They had been 

 exterminated — so suddenly and so completely that even the 

 hide-hunters themselves did not realize it, and would not 

 believe it until two years had elapsed! 



The passenger pigeon millions went the same way, by 

 commercial slaughter, so quickly that no one realized what 

 was happening until it was all over! For ten years the 

 American people refused to believe that all those millions 

 of birds had gone forever ; but now they know that it is true. 



The heath hen, or eastern prairie chicken, formerly of 

 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and 

 Massachusetts, went not quite so rapidly, but it went just 

 the same. The 5 and 10-year close seasons which were giv- 

 en it came so tardily that they were too late ! The decimated 

 birds could not recuperate. About fifty years ago that spe- 

 cies became totally extinct, everywhere save on the island 

 of Martha's Vineyard, where Dr. George W. Field and the 

 Massachusetts State Game Commission by dint of fostering 

 care saved it from final annihilation. 



Let every western hunter of sage grouse, sharp-tail and 

 pinnated grouse remember the fate of the heath hen, and 

 take to heart the moral of that tragic story. If it is a crime 

 (grand larceny) to steal $21, what shall we say of those 

 who rob a state or a nation of a valuable bird or mammal 

 species which no human power ever can replace? 



THE CRITICAL HOUR. 



One year ago we made in person, throughout the sage 

 grouse states, a special demand for the saving of the "Cock- 

 of-the-Plains" : and this is the last call. 



