this bird formerly bred give it as nearing extinction, and four as
extinct. This is one of the most useful of all birds in grass land,
feeding largely on grasshoppers and cutworms.... There is no difference
of opinion in regard to the diminution of the shore birds; the reports
from all quarters are the same. It is noteworthy that practically all
observers agree that, considering all species, these birds have fallen
off about 75 per cent within twenty-five to forty years, and that
several species are nearly extirpated."

[Illustration: THE GRAY SQUIRREL, A FAMILIAR FRIEND WHEN PROTECTED]

In 1897 when the Zoological Society published my report on the
"Extermination of Our Birds and Mammals," we put down the decrease in
the volume of bird life in Massachusetts during the previous fifteen
years at twenty-seven per cent. The later and more elaborate
investigations of Mr. Forbush have satisfactorily vindicated the
accuracy of that estimate.

There are other North American birds that easily might be added to the
list of those now on the road to oblivion; but surely the foregoing
citations are sufficient to reveal the present desperate conditions of
our bird life in general. Now the question is: What are the great
American people going to do about it?

THE GRAY SQUIRREL.--The gray squirrel is in danger of extermination.
Although it is our most beautiful and companionable small wild animal,
and really unfit for food, Americans have strangely elected to class it
as "game," and shoot it to death, _to eat_! And this in stall-fed
America, in the twentieth century! Americans are the only white people
in the world who eat squirrels. It would be just as reasonable, and no