the bird is believed to be absolutely extinct.
And yet seventy-five years ago they were numbered by millions and
extended over America from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. Probably
billions would be nearer the truth. The ornithologist Wilson once
watched a flock which he estimated to be a mile wide, moving at the rate
of a mile a minute, and it took four hours to pass. Allowing three birds
to each square yard there must have been more than two billion birds in
that one flock. In 1869 one town in Michigan shipped to market in forty
days almost twelve million birds. They were so plentiful that they sold
as low as twelve cents a dozen and netters made money at that. When the
first efforts to protect them were made they were fruitless because
people said that the numbers were so great that it would be impossible
ever to reduce them to a serious extent. And to-day there is not one
living. It doesn't seem possible, but it is a cold, hard fact. And man
alone is to blame.

"The same thing is happening right now with a lot of animals and birds.
Just as sure as that fire is burning fifty years will see a lot off them
extinct unless they are better protected. The hunters of the pigeon
didn't believe it any more than you believe it about the rats. On the
level, Alec, do you think it a square deal to take a rat in the only
place he's got to stay in the winter?"

"Oh, I'm not taking them that way," Alec protested with some haste. "I
believe in respecting the law, even if it is a fool law."

"But is it a fool law? I don't think so," said Walter quietly. "In a
boxing match it is a foul to hit a man when he's down."

"'Tisn't in a lumberman's fight," Alec broke in. "If a man's down so
much the better. Then you've got him. That's the thing to do--get him
down and then do him good."

"Aw say, youse don't mean that!" Sparrer's eyes were round with
indignation, for even a street gamin has better ethics than this.

"It's the way they fight up here, Sparrer, I'm sorry to say," said Pat.
"In a rough and tumble fight here they kick, bite and gouge, and you may
well pity the under man. But they're learning better."

"Would you hit a man who was bound and helpless?" asked Walter quickly.

"Certainly not!" cried Alec indignantly. "That's different."

"Not so very different from your rats in their houses," protested Upton.
"They come pretty near to being helpless. Besides, they have no reason
to suspect harm there, and they don't. Pu