"_I know no way of judging of the Future but by the Past_." --_Patrick Henry_. REPORT of a select committee of the Senate of Ohio, in 1857, on a bill proposed to protect the passenger pigeon. * * * * * "The passenger pigeon needs no protection. Wonderfully prolific, having the vast forests of the North as its breeding grounds, traveling hundreds of miles in search of food, it is here to-day and elsewhere to-morrow, and no ordinary destruction can lessen them, or be missed from the myriads that are yearly produced." "The snipe (_Scolopax wilsonii_) needs no protection.... The snipe, too, like the pigeon, will take care of itself, and its yearly numbers can not be materially lessened by the gun." [Illustration: THE LAST LIVING PASSENGER PIGEON Now in the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens. Twenty years old in 1912. Copyright 1911, by Enno Meyer.] * * * * * THE FOLLY OF 1857 AND THE LESSON OF 1912 * * * * * OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE ITS EXTERMINATION AND PRESERVATION BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY, Sc.D. DIRECTOR OF THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK; AUTHOR OF "THE AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY"; EX-PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN BISON SOCIETY WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS "Hew to the line! Let the chips fall where they will."--_Old Exhortation_. "Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice."--_Othello_. NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1913 * * * * * SPECIAL NOTICE For the benefit of the cause that this book represents, the author freely extends to all periodicals and lecturers the privilege of reproducing any of the maps and illustrations in this volume except the bird portraits, the white-tailed deer and antelope, and the maps and pictures specially copyrighted by other persons, and so recorded. This privilege does not cover reproductions in books, without special permission. * * * * * [Illustration: Portrait of William Dutcher] TO William Dutcher FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES, AND LIFE-LONG CHAMPION OF AMERICAN BIRDS THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED BY A SINCERE ADMIRER "_I drink to him, he is not here, Yet I would guard his glory; A knight without reproach or fear Should live in song and story_." --_Walsh_. * * * * * FOREWORD The preservation of animal and plant life, and of the general beauty of Nature, is one of the foremost duties of the men and women of to-day. It is an imperative duty, because it must be performed at once, for otherwise it will be too late. Every possible means of preservation,--sentimental, educational and legislative,--must be employed.