46 Wild Bird Guests 



this case the cause of extinction is not known. 

 Probably it was never a very numerous species. 

 The gunners may have had something to do with 

 its disappearance, for about the middle of last 

 century it was often seen in the markets. It was 

 not, however, considered very desirable for food, 

 and it is hardly likely that there was sufficient 

 demand for it to endanger its existence. Pos- 

 sibly it was wiped out by some disease such 

 as the epidemic which has recently played such 

 havoc among the wild ducks and other marsh 

 birds in Utah and which we shall speak of else- 

 where. But whatever the cause, no living 

 Labrador duck has been seen since 1871. 



The extermination of the passenger pigeon, 

 however, was wholly due to the selfish greed of 

 man. It is said that in the early part of last 

 century this was probably the most numerous 

 bird on the North American continent. In 

 order to get a faint idea of the numbers of the 

 passenger pigeon in the time of Alexander Wilson, 

 the ornithologist, let us imagine, if we can, just 

 one such flock as he observed near Frankfort, 

 Kentucky, about 1808. The birds moved in a 

 column, whose front was more than a mile in 

 width, and, flying at the rate of a mile a minute, 

 they took four long hours to pass. Wilson, who 

 was an accurate observer, after a careful calcu- 



