Page 35 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

EXTINCT SPECIES 13
darkened with large bodies of them moving in various directions; the woods also swarm with them in search of acorns, and the thundering of musquetryisperpetualonallsidesfrommorningtonight. Wagonloads of them are poured into market, where they sell from fifty to twenty-five and even twelve cents per dozen; and pigeons become the order of the day at dinner, breakfast and supper, until the very name becomes sickening."
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The range of the passenger pigeon covered nearly the whole United States from the Atlantic coast westward to the Rocky Mountains. A few bold pigeons crossed the Rocky Mountains into Oregon, northern California and Washington, but only as "stragglers," few and far be- tween. Thewiderangeofthisbirdwasworthyofaspeciesthatexisted in millions, and it was persecuted literally all along the line. The greatest slaughter was in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In 1848 Massa- chusetts gravely passed a law protecting the netters of wild pigeons from foreign interference! There was a fine of $10 for damaging nets, or frighteningpigeonsawayfromthem. Thiswasonthetheorythatthe pigeons were so abundant they could not by any possibilit}^ ever become scarce, and that pigeon-slaughter was a legitimate industry.
In 1867, the State of New York found that the wild pigeon needed protection, and enacted a law to that effect. The year 1868 was the last year in which great numbers of passenger pigeons nested in that vState. Eaton, in "The Birds of New York," said that "millions of birds occupied the timber along Bell's Run, near Ceres, Alleghany County, on the Pennsylvania line."
In 1870, Massachusetts gave pigeons protection except during an "open season," and in 1878 Pennsylvania elected to protect pigeons on their nesting grounds.
The passenger pigeon millions were destroyed so quickly, and so thoroughly en masse, that the American people utterly failed to com- prehend it, and for thirty years obstinately refused to believe that the specieshadbeensuddenlywipedoffthemapofNorthAmerica. There was years of talk about the great flocks having "taken refuge in South America,"orinMexico,andbeingstillinexistence. Thereweresurmises about their having all "gone out to sea," and perished on the briny deep.
A thousand times, at least, wild pigeons have been "reported" as havingbeen"seen." Theserumorshavecoverednearlyeverynorthern state,thewholeofthesouthwest,andCalifornia. Foryearsandyears we have been patiently writing letters to explain over and over that the band-tailed pigeon of the Pacific coast, and the red-billed pigeon of Arizona and the southwest are neither of them the passenger pigeon, and never can be.
There was a long period wherein we believed many of the pigeon reports that came from the states where the birds once were most numerous;butthatperiodhasabsolutelypassed. Duringthepastfive years large cash rewards, aggregating about $5000, have been offered for