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Thursday, May 8, 1919 lee THE BARRIE EXAMINER It's Always Best OH --To Be Well on the Safe Side When buying Tea, insist on getting", *SALADA" The Tea with a Unrivalied Public uarter of a Century of rvice. ; esz0 OUR NATURE STUDY COLUMN The Extinction of Species The Last Wild Pigeon Expires Announcement was made in 1914 of the death of the last survivor of the vast popu- lation of American wild pigeons. _ Another species of bird--and undoubted- ly the most valusble one on the list of the extinct--has been lost to mankind forever. 'The Inst living specimen, a captive, called Martha, died in the Zoological Garden of Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 1, 1914, at the spe of 29 years, History of Last Specimen The history of this specimen is interest- ing. In 1888, when pigeons were becothing very rare, David Whittaker, of Milwaukee, Gray, 5 y Wisconsin, procured s pair of young birds from an Indjan in northeastern Wishongin During theeight succeeding years fifteen birds were bred from this pair, six males and nine females, A part of this flock finally went to Prof. Charles O. Whitman, of Chicago University: In 1904 he had s flock of ten birds, which, weakened by con- Destruction of a Noble Species | It is needless to recount the history of | the wanton ruin of this noble species of | bird. Under our present ideas and laws relating to conservation, remnants st' least of the former hosts of passenger pigeons might have remained ; but the laws came too late. 'Their destruction was wholly due to the reckfese and greedy persecution of mankind, seconded by his laying lo large areas of the forests in which the pig- eons had 'been accustomed to breed. How. They Were Killed Off. Edward A. Forbush, the well-known econ- omic ornithologist, hes sketched the final ; scene in the tragedy in the following lang- uuge: Wherever the wild pigeon nested the pioneers soon found them, and destroyed most of the young in the nests and many of the edult birds as well. Every great market |from St. Louis to Boston received hundreds Jor thousands of burrels of pigeons every |reason. The New York market sometimes |took one hundred barrels a day without = jbrenk: in the price. Often a single western town near the nesting-grounds sent millions of pigeons to the market during the nest- Jing season, as was shown by the shipping- | records. The Last Nesting Grounds | Nesting after necting was, broken up jand the young destroyed, until about 1878, the wild pigeons, driven by persecution from otber States, concentrated in a few localities in Michigan, where » tremendous {slaughter took place. These were the last great nesting-grounds of which we bave finemient and in-breeding, gradually decreas- ed in number. The original Whittaker flock diminished also, and in 1908 only seven were left, and © short time afterward all [of both flocks had expired, It has been stated that some of the Whittaker birds went to Cincinnati, but this j appears to be wrong. In 1878, according to the recollection of the present director, the Zoological Society of Cincinnati bought ten pairs of wild pigeons, paying $2.50 0 {pair All these bred, but their young y poorly, so that the flock in the any record, Smaller nestings were known for ten years afterward, and large numbers of pigeons were seen and killed; but after 1890 they became fewer und fewer until 1898, when the instances of their capture oecurred that can be cubstantisted by pre- served spécimens. Although investigations have revealed = few more, only two ap: parently authentic instances of the capture of the Passenger pigeon have been record ed since that time, one in Ohio and the {other in Wisconsin. The Lust Records Otto Widmann, who looked into the his Splendid for sinks. ae f generation were left; and the male of this a pecgsation fs restoring watered ee Souer of | pair died in 1911 at the age of twenty-four See ee dys. Ceoeron tee |¥ears. The female, born in 1885, is the - ed bot 'Sac ready toure. Philo Hay Co, Newark, NJ. one that has just died. ff Puri Itself: Above all otacrs--baby's things must look and be absolutely clean. : ra I ath I ts ' in the one sonp to nve--becanse ol its parity--becanse of ease with which it clean itbout Unexpected Company Finds You Ready: HE door bell rings. You have lad a busy morning, but you slip off your apron and go to the door. "How do you do! I'm so glad to see you. Come right in. Of course you'll stay to lunch?" 15 cents for 16 oz. tin What a comfort to know that on the-- pantry shelf, handy and ready, you have several cans of i _. Davies ; Pork and Beans when friends drop in unexpectedly. You are never too busy--never caught unprepared. All you have to do is to heat a can or two of Davies Pork and Beans, (plain or with Tomato Sauce), slice some bread and butter and boil the kettle for tea. And you have a délicious appetising luncheon, ready ata moment's: notice, , Substantial too. 'All the nutriment of whole, well cooked, mealy beans, with the delicious flavor of choice pork.. Tomato Sauce to give an additional zest if you want it. Packed in 11, 1» and 20 ounce tins, plaja or with tomato sauce. 'The William Davies Co., Limited Toronto and Montreal ' 'Canada Food Board Packers' License Nos. 13-50 and 1354 4 pipivindh: bie ss, oe \ jays, ith Society's Aviary failed to inerease much. At tory of the Passenger pigeon in the mar- |, last only @ single pair of the first-born kets of St. Louis, states that F. H. Miller, OAT TE mmm FYale eesti 4 marketman in that city, received twelve dozen from Rogers, Arkansas, in 1902, anil later a single bird, shipped to him from Black River in 1906, No exact dates can . be given. Glover M. Allen, in hin list of King Birds |New England birds, pubhshed by the Bos- The warm days in early May bring many \ton Society of Natural History in 1909, re- [Of our feathered friends, among them the cords specimen killed at Bar Harbor, King birds, also known to many persons us Maine, in 1904, It was mounted by J. Bert Bee birds. They are about eight inches Baxter, of Bangor, and was seen by Harry in length. Colors, dark grey on back, top \Merrill' who waa perfectly competent to Of bead and neck, an invisible orange identify it. 'The specimen, when mounted, patch on crown of adults and absent io wat returned to the man who shot it, but the young, the ends of tail feathers tipped Mr. Buxter lost the record of the name of with white, under purty light grey, Their the owner. A. Lento, taxidermist, of Mon- arrival is announced in no mistaken manner treul, stated that a specimen was taken by by their harsh notsy notes, 'tesit, tesit, tes- Pacifique Couture in St, Vincent, Province it," uttered rapidly. In the settled parte of 'of Quebec, Cunada, September 23, 1907. the country they nest in orchards, near Other statements have been investigated re-farm yards or upiary. In the northern garding the alleged occurrences of the pas-|woodlands they are very plentiful and nest 'yenger pigeon in Canada, and find that 'on trees and stumps. Hanging well out the birds taken were mourning doves 'over luke or stream, their nests open to eun- Lurge rewards of money were offered for shine or storm and--n study in camouflage the iliscovery of u breeding pair, and xearch --are built out of dead stalks of weeds, 'heen from one end of the Dominion to the !grass, bite of string, ete. The eggs, four other, Many reports came in, but all were or five in number, are » whitish color with found to refer to the mourning dove of the brown spots xt or the inured-tailed pigeon of the Paci-| 'Through ignorance of the habits of the fic slope, The same failure wus reported King birds many were shot by bee-keepers in the United States, Not one was found who considered then a pest instead of a The lust pigeon has gone f 'most valuable friend. At one of the Ag --_----_ ricultural stations in the Umon a number of Mourning Cloak Butterfly {King birds were shot to determine whether One of the first butterflies to venture 'r not they destroy bees The stomachs of forth in the spring is a purple-black insect sbout forty birds were examined at dif- having a cream-colored border along ite ferent places and those shot during mid Jagged, uneven wing edges This is the 'sy were feeding on drones or stingless iXetope or Mourning Cloak It has passed bees; s number shot toward evening showed jthe winter in the adult condition, buving one working bee eaten, a number of drones, hibernated in some sheltered retreat not Snd moths, the larvae of which destroy so directly exposed to the wind and storms of many hives of bees. also other moths that winter give so much trouble in keeping furs, clo- When the leaves of the elm, willow and thing, ete. This investigation proved be- poplar have nearly reached their limit of yond doubt the great =a of the birds to expansion, these butterflies deposit clus- spiarist farms, gardeners, Horists, etc. 'They tem of their eggs around the twigs, In may lways be seen perched upon the about two weeks' time these hatch into highest point of orchard trees, posts or mul- small, blackish caterpillars, each emerging len stalks, watching for insects flying by. cr AN AN \ flash of grey, 9 snap ax ita bill closes and another pest is removed that in all pro- bability would have brought forth hundreds of its kind to prey upon plant life or live stock, ete. Crows and hawks are objects of their hatred and they always drive them from the neighborhood, attacking them from above; the male attacks, the female follow- ing closely encouraging her mate with shrill calls, Here again they prove their value to poultry keepers and farmers. They ture also the champions of the cause of liber- ty for smaller birds. Should a cry of dis- tress reuch their ear they ure awsy at once to the rescue. Evidently they believe = vigorous attack is their strongest defense and never hesitate, coming off victorious in by eating a hole through tbe upper surface 'The moment one is sighted there is of the egg-shell They now enter upon the second stage of their life history--the larva or cater- pillar stage. Their first need is to obtain food and as the leaves of the trees upon which they were hatched supply the proper nourishment, they crawl to the edge of the nearest leaf, range themselves side by side 'and commence to nibble at its green sur- face, leaving the veins untouched. The caterpillars continue to feed in this man- ner for about a week crawling in proces- sion from one leaf to another, leaving num- erous leaf skeletons in their wake. In their meanderings each larva spins a tiny silken thread along the path, which serves it as a foothold, At the end of a week the skin of each caterpillar splits open slong the jback and they emerge clothed in new gar- ments which have formed beneath the old ones. The new skin expands slightly to), allow room' for its owner to increase con- siderably in cize. For a short time during the moulting season they remain quiet but soon become sctive once more and feed with increased voracity. This moulting pro- cess is repeated once » week for three more weeks, and after each skin is shed the caterpillar grows larger until he has filled out the bagginess in his new garment. 'As they grow larger they eat more and more of the leaf substance and soon only the mid- ribs are left. The larva now leaves the tree or shrub on which it hax been feeding and each goes on its own way in search of some sheltered stump or fence rail, where it spins o web. of silk slong the sur- face, and, estching the hooked claws of its hhind legs in'the silken web, sllows ite body to hanggvertically with the heed curved upward." After patiently 'hanging in this position for some hours the skin splits along the back and is gradually wiggled off, leaving in place of the csterpillar a brownish elongated case or chrysalis. In this stage the insect appedrs as life- less as a mummy. On the inside, however, a wonderful change js taking place and in about two weeks, from the mummy case in which the caterpillar entered there comes 'a beutiful Mourning Cloak butterfly. Wher first out of the chrysalis the butferfly is well developed with the exception of its wings, which are small. By means of its legs it clings to the empty cose. and al- lows its wings to hang downward, in which 'position they start to expand and gradu- ally reach full length, but are more or Tess crumpled, Having thus reached its full form and size the butterfly crawls to some, neighboring support where it rests for about an hour. During the latter part. of this time it exercises its unused muscles by slowly opening and closing its wings, and when it feels able to make its way in the world, the Mourning Cloak flies\away to sport its charms in the field and woods. and H! Jersey Cream Sodas are crisp when you buy them. keep well. There is no waste to them. For an' economical food, it would be hard to find their equal, MCormick's Jersey Cream Sodas Sold Fresh Everywhere. In Sealed Packages. Factory et LONDON, Canad Branches at Montreal, Ottaw Hamilton, Kingston, Winnipeg, Calgary, Port Arthur, St. John. Canada Food Board Licenses 11-008, 14-166 IGH in food value, McCormick's whatever they may undertake. I have nev- er known squirrels or other small animale to molest the nest of the King bird. "Evi- dently they know better than to make spy attempt. Toward the end of August along with mi others of the flycatcher family they disappear in the night to warmer fields in the Sunny South. MARK ROBINSON. FURS! CLEANED, ALTERED AND REPAIRED MISS M. McKERNAN 58 Small St., Barrie. Phone 323 fresh They