SPECIES EXTINCT OR EXTIRPATED. 447 



disappearance of bears, panthers, wolves, lynxes and some of 

 the larger birds of prey from a large portion of their range. 



The aborigines never could have reduced appreciably the 

 numbers of the species. Wherever the great roosts were estab- 

 lished, Indians always gathered in large numbers. This, 

 according to their traditions, had been the custom among 

 them from time immemorial. They always had slaughtered 

 these birds, young and old, in great quantities; but there was 

 no market among the Indians, and the only way in which 

 they could preserve the meat for future use was by drying or 

 smoking the breasts. They cured large numbers in this way. 

 Also, they were accustomed to kill great quantities of the 

 squabs in order to try out the fat, which was used as butter is 

 used by the whites. Lawson writes (1709) : " You may find 

 several Indian towns of not above seventeen houses that have 

 more than one hundred gallons of pigeon's oil or fat." ^ 



But it was not until a market demand for the birds was 

 created by the whites that the Indians ever seriously affected 

 the increase of the Pigeons. Kalm states, in his monograph 

 of the Pigeon, that the Indians of Canada would not molest 

 the Pigeons in their breeding places until the young were able 

 to fly. They did everything in their power to prevent the 

 whites from disturbing them, even using threats, where plead- 

 ing did not avail. 



When the white man appeared on this continent, condi- 

 tions rapidly changed. Practically all the early settlers were 

 accustomed to the use of firearms; and wherever Pigeons 

 appeared in great numbers, the inhabitants armed themselves 

 with guns, clubs, stones, poles and whatever could be used to 

 destroy the birds. The most destructive implement was the 

 net, to which the birds were attracted by bait, and under 

 which vast numbers of them were trapped. Gunners baited 

 the birds with grain. Dozens of birds sometimes were killed 

 thus at a single shot. In one case seventy-one birds were 

 killed by two shots. ^ A single shot from the old flint-lock 

 single-barreled gun, fired into a tree, sometimes would procure 



1 Lawson, John: History of Carolina, 1860, p. 78. 



2 Leffingwell, W. B.: Shooting on Upland, Marsh and Stream. 1890, p. 228. 



