PROTECTION AND PROPAGATION OF WILD LIFE 463 



herds, the southern of which roamed the plains of eastern Colo- 

 rado and New Mexico, southern Nebraska, western Kansas and 

 Oklahoma, and northern Texas, while the northern herd ranged 

 from northwestern Nebraska and western Dakota on the east to 

 Montana and Wyoming on the west, and northward into Canada 

 to the northern limit of the original range of the species. 

 Twenty-seven years later not one was left in the United States 

 except a few in captivity. 1 



" The passenger pigeon presents one of the marvels of bird life. 

 A century ago, when the country was new and less settled, 

 this bird, so wonderful for its gregarious habits, existed in flocks 

 of such gigantic proportions that the numbers appear absolutely 

 incredible. Thus Wilson, one of America's pioneer ornitholo- 

 gists, writing about 1808, estimated that a flock observed by 

 him near Frankfort, Kentucky, contained not less than 2,230,- 

 272,000 birds, and Audubon five years later saw them at Hender- 

 son in the same state passing for three successive days in a prac- 

 tically continuous flock; ' the air was literally filled with 

 pigeons, the light of noonday was obscured as by an eclipse,' 

 and the rush of wings was ' with a noise like thunder.' Their 

 nesting places were necessarily of great extent. One described 

 by Wilson near Shelbyville, Kentucky, was several miles in 

 breadth and extended through the woods for upward of forty 

 miles. Every tree of suitable size was loaded down with nests, 

 a large hemlock, for example, often holding from twenty to forty. 



" With the advent of the white man in this country, and the 

 blessing of civilization, the war upon the pigeon has been unceas- 

 ing! Whenever a roosting or nesting place was discovered it 

 was resorted to by a small army of despoilers, and with guns, 

 poles, clubs, sulphur pots, and nets the work of destruction 

 proceeded. Frequently from fifty to one hundred dozen were 

 taken at a single throw of the net. At the large Michigan nesting 

 it was estimated that five hundred netters were at work and their 

 average catch was 20,000 birds apiece, while for another resort 



1 The Game Market of To-day. 



