ell of the gigantic turtle called
_Collosochelys atlas_, while the last living representatives of the
gigantic land tortoises are being exterminated in the Galapagos Islands
and the Sychelles, for their paltry oil and meat; and only one man (Hon.
Walter Rothschild) is doing aught to save any of them in their haunts,
where they can breed. The dodo of Mauritius was exterminated by swine,
whose bipedal descendants have exterminated many other species since
that time.

A failure to appreciate either the beauty or the value of our living
birds, quadrupeds and fishes is the hall-mark of arrested mental
development and ignorance. The victim is _not always to blame_; but in
this practical world the cornerstone of legal jurisprudence is the
inexorable principle that "ignorance of the law excuses no man."

These pages are addressed to my countrymen, and the world at large, not
as a reproach upon the dead Past which is gone beyond recall, but in the
faint hope of somewhere and somehow arousing forces that will reform the
Present and save the Future. The extermination of wild species that now
is proceeding throughout the world, is a dreadful thing. It is not only
injurious to the economy of the world, but it is a shame and a disgrace
to the civilized portion of the human race.

It is of little avail that I should here enter into a detailed
description of each species that now is being railroaded into oblivion.
The bookshelves of intelligent men and women are filled with beautiful
and adequate books on birds and quadrupeds, wherein the status of each
species may be determined, almost without effort. There is time and
space only in which to notice the most prominent of the doomed species,
and perhaps discuss a few examples by way of illustration. Here is a

* * * * *

PARTIAL LIST OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS THREATENED WITH EARLY EXTERMINATION

WHOOPING CRANE
TRUMPETER SWAN
AMERICAN FLAMINGO
ROSEATE SPOONBILL
SCARLET IBIS
LONG-BILLED CURLEW
HUDSONIAN GODWIT
UPLAND PLOVER
RED-BREASTED SANDPIPER
GOLDEN PLOVER
DOWITCHER
WILLET
PECTORAL SANDPIPER
BLACK-CAPPED PETREL
AMERICAN EGRET
SNOWY EGRET
WOOD DUCK
BAND-TAILED PIGEON
HEATH HEN
SAGE GROUSE
PRAIRIE SHARP-TAIL
PINNATED GROUSE
WHITE-TAILED KITE

* * * * *

THE WHOOPING CRANE.--This splendid bird will almost certainly be the
next North American species to be totally exterminated. It is the only
new