Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-10-10

e50HE passenger pigeon, which once
Ill flew over the United States In
f1ocks of millions. has disappear
ed II has become extinct. A large re-
ward to be paid for the finding OF a
single nest of this once common bird
remains unpaid because, although the
reward has been standing for severai
years, no nest of the passenger pigeon
has been found.
Bison. or buffalo" which roamed all
over the United States, east as well as
west, and was often come upon III
mighty herds, has naturally disappear
ed as avid animal, and only a rev
specimens of the species remain. ana
these are to be found on some govern
ment reservations in the west and In
a number of geological collections.
Even the few survivors in the national
parks of the west require the close
protection of armed guards that ruth
less and lawless hunters may not de-
stroy them.
Deer. once abundant, have become SO
scarce that even in the wild parts of
the country where few OF them sur
vfve, they are a source or care and
anxiety to the state game wardens that
tney may Hol NC pueSh" A ~
sport.
A few generations ago the terrapin
and the canvasback and the mallard
duck were articles of food which every
body in the Potomac country could
have on the table. They were SO COM
mon that people gave very little con-
sideration to them. These articles OF
food have become rare.
When the Europeans came to this re-
gion of the new world and for a great
many. years after their advent the
rivers so teemed with fine fish that it
was, an exceedingly cheap and common
food. Shad were so plentiful that they
were little esteemed, being generally
dismissed as Indian food" which indi-
Gated they were scarcely good enough
for the white settlers to eat. ;
Instances of the depletion or disap-
pearance of important articles of food
might be multiplied without number
and the recollection of nearly every
aged person might add something to
the list of food that has become scarce.
The reason for the practical extinc-
tion of many food animals, birds and
fishes is to be found in the wasteful-
ness. thoughtlessness. carelessness and
self1shness of man. Instead of rec
ognizing that these things were not in
exhaustible and taking common sense
means for conserving or continuing the
supply, they persisted in their foolish
destructive ways until they cut off
their own supplies. This senseless proc
ess is still going on, although there is
current of opinion that is running
stronger and stronger against II. Inc
conservation forces are at work, and
facts and logic being SO much on their
side, public opinion is being nodded
along conservation lines.
One of the alarm notes recently
sounded by men concerned with the
conservation of food supplies and
not easy to interest the public in this
matter because exhaustion OF the CRAB,
to people in the region of the Chesa-
peake, appears extremely remote, ana
a large body of the people seem to feel
and act as though the crab We're not
worth preserving. anyhow. That was
the attitude of the masses toward the
shad. terrapin, buffalo. pigeon. wild
turkey, canvas-back duck. and the rest
of the creatures that have disappeared.
or nearly disappeared, from the earth:
The crab is a very respectable ana
quite an important article OF 1000.
Chesapeake bay is the greatest crab.
breeding ground in the world. ana
there the American crab. different
creature from the shellf1sh of the same
name that is taken from the ocean. has
its habitat. Swepson Earle, engineer
of the Maryland shellf1sh commission,
estimates that the annual value OF the
catch in the Chesapeake runs into mil
lions of dollars. He says that this
extinction because of the lack of pro-
tective legislation and because OF the
difference in. the. way Maryland and
Virginia attempt to regulate the usn-