THE BIRD STUDY BOOK 



bers. There are places where one may travel for 

 many miles without seeing a single grove in which 

 these birds could live. 



Passenger Pigeons as late as 1870 were frequently 

 seen in enormous flocks. Their numbers during 

 the periods of migration was one of the greatest 

 ornithological wonders of the world. Now the birds 

 are gone. What is supposed to have been the last 

 one died in captivity in the ZoSlogical Park of Cin- 

 cinnati at 2 p. M. on the afternoon of September i, 

 1 914. Despite the generally accepted statement 

 that these birds succumbed to the guns, snares, and 

 nets of hunters, there is a second cause which doubt- 

 less had its effect in hastening the disappearance of 

 the species. The cutting away of vast forests where 

 the birds were accustomed to gather and feed on 

 mast greatly restricted their feeding range. They 

 collected in enormous colonies for the purpose of 

 rearing their young, and after the forests of the 

 Northern States were so largely destroyed the birds 

 seem to have been driven far up into Canada, quite 

 [128] 



