Page 54 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

32 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
THE GRAY SQUIRREL. A FAMILIAR FRIEND WHEN PROTECTED
nent danger of extinction. Five reports from localities where this bird formerlybredgiveitasnearingextinction,andfourasextinct. Thisis one of the most useful of all birds in grass land, feeding largely on grass- hoppers and cutworms. . . . There is no difference of opinion in re- gard to the diminution of the shore birds; the reports from all quarters arethesame. Itisnoteworthythatpracticallyallobserversagreethat, considering all species, these birds have fallen oft" about 75 per cent within twenty-five to forty years, and that several species are nearly extirpated."
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 investi- gations 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 birdlifeingeneral. Nowthequestionis: WhatarethegreatAmerican people going to do about it ?
The Gray Squirrel.—The gray squirrel is in danger of extermina- tion. Although it is our m.ost beautiful and companionable small wild anim.al, and re£-lly unfit for food, Am.ericans have strangely elected to