SPECIES EXTINCT OR EXTIRPATED. 467 



and therefore more easily taken. Sometimes the Pigeons were 

 so harassed that all their nestings were broken up, and few 

 young were raised that season; thus the natural increase was 

 practically cut off, and constant diminution was assured. Ex- 

 termination must have resulted under such conditions, even if 

 no man ever killed an adult Passenger Pigeon. The Pigeons 

 were not immortal. Even if undisturbed by man, they " gave 

 up the ghost" in'a few years; but they were not undisturbed. 

 No adequate attempt to protect them was made until they 

 practically had disappeared. Whenever a law looking toward 

 the conservation of these birds was proposed in any State, 

 its opponents argued before the legislative committees that 

 the Pigeons "needed no protection;" that their numbers 

 were so vast, and that they ranged over such a great extent of 

 country, that they were amply able to take care of them- 

 selves. This argument defeated all measures that might have 

 given adequate protection to this species, as it has since 

 defeated proposed laws for the conservation of wild-fowl and 

 other migratory birds. That is why extinction finally came 

 quickly. We did our best to exterminate both old and young, 

 and we succeeded. The explanation is so simple that all talk 

 of " mystery " seems sadly out of place here. (Since the above 

 history was written, Mr. Albert Hazen Wright has published 

 a compilation of Passenger Pigeon notes from early writers, 

 many of which are not included here.^) 



Ornithologists believe that the migrations of this Pigeon 

 were made mainly in pursuit of food, and with little reference 

 to the seasons of the year. Undoubtedly, however, the ten- 

 dency was to migrate north in the spring and south in the fall, 

 like other birds of passage. 



Some of the pigeoners say that the Pigeons nested in the 

 southern States in winter; but of this there is no authentic 

 record. 



Lawson (1709), in his History of Carolina, says that the 

 Pigeons came in great numbers in the winter: and he was told 

 by the Indians that they nested in the Allegheny Mountains.^ 



1 Auk, 1910, pp. 428-443; 1911, pp. 346-366, 427-449. 



2 Lawaon, John: History of Carolina, 1860, p. 231. 



