
NATURAL 
was then nearly dark. They came from 
the South and went North. 
A. Moherg, P. M., Amherst, Wis. 

On May 28 I saw 4 passenger pigeons 
light in a tree about one mile from here 
and they afterward flew East. 
J. C. Swendson, Amherst, Wis. 

I saw a few small flocks of pigeons 
last spring, lighting near my farm. They 
staid there about 2 weeks, and I saw them 
often. 
George L. Cutts, Spring Lake, Wis. 

Last spring I saw near this village 
about 120 wild pigeons, apparently in 
search of feeding grounds. A few days 
later I saw about 50 near my farm in the 
town of Deerfield. 
Bert Fry, Wautoma, Wis. 

I have seen only 3 pigeons this spring, 
and these are the first I have seen for 5 
or 6 years. These lit in a tree one half- 
mile from here. 
Bert Barnhart, Wautoma, Wis. 

CONGRESS IS INDIFFERENT. 
Mr. Payne’s article in the April ReEc- 
REATION, entitled, ““Let Us Save the Buf- 
falo,’” contains a good suggestion. Surely 
the few remaining buffalo should be 
united into one herd if we are to preserve 
the species from extermination. Can not 
RECREATION, which is always ready to 
work vigorously for a good cause, do 
something in this matter? Can it not 
arouse public sentiment in this regard; 
and if necessary, secure the passage of a 
law by Congress looking toward the sav- 
ing of this magnificent beast? Will not 
Coquina institute a discussion of this 
question, and invite suggestions? 
If there is any possible means of sav- 
ing the American bison, it should be tried 
Be JOLICe, 
H. V. Radford, New York City. 
ANSWER. 
In- past years, Congress has been ap- 
pealed to repeatedly in behalf of the van- 
ishing buffalo. Mr. Hornaday’s report 
on the “Extermination of the American 
Bison” gives a full history of the efforts 
made during the existence of the great 
herds. In 1889 Buffalo Jones tried hard to 
induce Congress to take an active interest 
in saving the buffalo from total extinc- 
HISTORY. 135 
tion, but in vain. Congress has never yet 
enacted any legislation for the preserva- 
tion of any wild creature save the fur 
seal! 
I regard it as utterly useless to expect 
or hope that Congress can be induced to 
do anything for the buffalo. Thanks to 
the parsimony and negligence of Con- 
gress, the lousy poachers hired by low- 
lived and disreputable taxidermists about 
the Yellowstone Park, and one or 2 else- 
where, have reduced the park herd from 
300 in 1892 to about 30 in 1899, and the 
last Park buffalo will soon be run down 
and killed. For all of which Congress is 
directly to blame! 
If the American bison is not preserved 
by the efforts of private individuals, he is 
doomed to become as dead to the world 
as the dodo. Even the zoological parks 
and gardens can not be relied on to per- 
petuate him, for their ranges are limited 
by reason of the necessity to have their 
animals seen. If the bison is saved from 
total disappearance, it will be by such men 
as Austin Corbin, Chas. Goodnig':t, J. H. 
Hill, and the Allards. I believe the buf- 
falo is for the present, at least, safe in 
their hands; but for all that, I would 
much rather see a herd of 100 animals in 
an-enclosure of about 15 square miles, in 
the Yellowstone Park, surrounded by a 
Page fence and a line of scouts. This is 
what Mr. Hornaday made elaborate prep- 
arations to urge upon Congress in 1887, 
backed by the Smithsonian Institution; 
but in an evil hour he allowed himself to 
be persuaded to abandon the idea, by the 
publisher of a certain paper that is now 
engaged in defending game hogs, and 
now it is too late to save the Park herd 
in that way. 

HOW BIG DO BEARS GROW? 
There is a man here who says he has seen 
a bear that weighed 1,650 pounds. Can 
you tell me what the record is? W. F. 
Perry, Grand Forks, N. D. 
ANSWER. 
So far as I know the largest grizzly ever 
killed or seen weighed 1,173 pounds. This 
one lived in Union Park, Chicago, for 18 
years, and died there. 
He was fed to suffocation by the thou- 
sands of visitors, and in his later years 
grew so fat he could not walk and could 
only crawl around. Previous to the time 
of his death I had had some controversy 
with 2 or 3 other writers on the question 
of the maximum weight of bears, and ar- 
ranged with the park superintendent and 
the head of the Chicago Medical College, 
to weigh the bear when he died, 

