ll these miles where the things they liked to
eat are growing. So, if you keep out of the Atlantic Ocean, and get
someone to show you where the Great Plains are, you might look--_almost
anywhere_. Why, many of you would not need to take a steam-train or even
a trolley-car. You could walk there. Most of you could. You could walk
to a place where they used to stop to feed. Those that were behind in
the great flock flew over the heads of all the others, and so were in
front for a while. In that way they all had a chance at a well-spread
picnic ground. Yes, you could easily walk to a place where that used to
happen--most of you could.

Do you know where acorns grow, or beechnuts, or chestnuts? Well,
Passenger Pigeons used to come there to eat, for they were very fond of
nuts! Do you know where elm trees grow wild along some riverway, or
where pine trees live? Oh! that is where these birds used sometimes to
get their breakfasts, when the trees had scattered their seeds. Do you
know a tree that has a seed about the right size and shape for a knife
at a doll's tea-party? Yes, that's the maple; and many and many a party
the Passenger Pigeons used to have wherever they could find these
cunning seed-knives. Only they didn't use them to cut things with. They
ate them up as fast as ever they could.

Have you ever picked wild berries? Why, more than likely Passenger
Pigeons have picked other berries there or thereabouts before your day!

Do you know a place where the wild rice grows? Ah, so did the Passenger
Pigeons, once upon a time!

But if you know none of these places, even then you can stand near where
the flocks used to fly when they were on their journeys. All of you who
live between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Plains can go to the door
or a window of the house you live in and point to the sky and think:
"Once so many Passenger Pigeons flew by that the sound of their wings
was like the sound of thunder, and they went through the air faster than
a train on a track, and the numbers in their flocks were so many that
they hid the sun like great thick clouds."

When you do that, some of you will doubtless see birds flying over; but
we fear that not even one of you will see even one Passenger Pigeon in
its flight.

What happened to the countless millions is recorded in so many books
that it need not be written again in this one. This story will tell you
just one more thing about these strange and wonderful birds, and tha