THK WILD LTFE OF LAKE SUPERIOR 



147 



Photograph by George Shiras, 3d 



WHITE FAWN FOUND IN I()l6, WHEN A DAY OR TWO OLD 



Reared in company with the red fawn. The usual row of white spots can be seen on the 



white body (see page 183). 



terious, if we keep in mind the methods 

 of reproduction applicable to domestic 

 animals ; for if a farmer had as many 

 bulls as cows, as many roosters as hens, 

 and killed them indiscriminately of sex, he 

 would, of course, be classed as demented. 



Just because our wild animals bear 

 their young in remote thickets, we seem 

 to think their maintenance is based upon 

 a different method, and go on killing the 

 females year in and out under the blind 

 assumption that it can make no particular 

 difference in the future supply, whereas 

 it represents the difference between ex- 

 tinction and perpetuation. 



In my boyhood days it is doubtful if 

 there were a thousand deer in the wilder 

 portions of Pennsylvania. Last year 

 3,000 bucks were killed in that State, and 

 this number will increase steadily, the 

 only limitation being a sufficient area to 

 sustain such a multiplication of the spe- 

 cies. But in this State, like New York 

 and Vermont, the second growth in 

 rough and mountainous portions has been 



restocked with game and properly safe- 

 guarded, showing how the older locali- 

 ties have already taken advantage of the 

 favorable change in environment (see 

 page 204). 



CHAPTER IV 



THE SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE OF THE PAS- 

 SENGER PIGEON IS THE GREATEST 

 OE ALU BIRD MYSTERIES 



The final stand of the passenger pigeon 

 was made in northern Michigan, Wiscon- 

 sin, and western Ontario, and in this gen- 

 eral locality I witnessed the demise of a 

 once countless species. Gradually the 

 flocks had been driven from their haunts 

 in the Atlantic coast states and about the 

 Ohio Valley, but from the time I first 

 went to Lake Superior to the date of 

 their sudden disappearance, the wild 

 pigeon seemed to be present each season 

 in its usual abundance. 



For a species that far exceeded any 

 other game bird, a gradual decrease 



