THE Cuckoos, Etc. 159 
and existing only in comparatively restricted and isolated localities 
in lower Mississippi Valley and Gulf States.” 
This is not pleasant reading. “Nearly extermi- 
nated” means that we have not had law enough of 
the proper sort to make extermination impossible. It 
is quite probable—is it not certain ?—that if any of the 
remaining parrots ventured into the old haunts they 
would be immediately slaughtered. This is the usual 
fate of rare birds, and the professional ornithologists 
are more at fault than the loafers. 
