hold the abundance of bird life that is to be found in a
country of farmlands, interspersed with thickets and groves.
Originally extensive regions of eastern North America were covered with
forests wherein birds that thrive in open countries could not find
suitable habitation. As soon as the trees were cut the face of the
country began to assume an aspect which greatly favoured such species
as the Bobolink, Meadowlark, Quail, Vesper Sparrow, and others of the
field-loving varieties. The open country brought them suitable places
to nest, and agriculture increased their food supply. The settlers
began killing off the wolves, wild cats, skunks, opossums, snakes, and
many of the predatory Hawks, thus reducing the numbers of natural
enemies with which this class of birds has to contend.

When the swamp is drained it means that the otter, the mink, and the
Wild Duck must go, but the meadowland that takes the place of the swamp
{127} provides for an increased number of other species of wild life.

[Illustration: Passenger Pigeons Are Now Extinct]

_Effect of Forest Devastation._--Only in a comparatively few cases has
bird life suffered from the destruction of forests. In parts of the
Middle West the Woodpeckers have no doubt decreased in {128} numbers.
There are places where one may travel for many miles without seeing a
single grove in which these birds could live.

Passenger Pigeons as late as 1870 were frequently seen in enormous
flocks. Their numbers during the periods of migration was one of the
greatest ornithological wonders of the world. Now the birds are gone.
What is supposed to have been the last one died in captivity in the
Zoological Park of Cincinnati at 2 P. M. on the afternoon of September
1, 1914. Despite the generally accepted statement that these birds
succumbed to the guns, snares, and nets of hunters, there is a second
cause which doubtless had its effect in hastening the disappearance of
the species. The cutting away of vast forests where the birds were
accustomed to gather and feed on mast greatly restricted their feeding
range. They collected in enormous colonies for the purpose of rearing
their young, and after the forests of the Northern States were so
largely destroyed the birds seem to have been driven far up into
Canada, quite {129} beyond their usual breeding range. Here, as
Forbush suggests, the summer probably was not sufficiently long to
enable them to rear their young successfully