The Pigeon in Manitoba 187 



to preserve in history's archives any material amount of 

 specific information. 



The early settlers landing upon the Atlantic coast 

 between Newfoundland and the Carolinas found them 

 in possession of armies of great auks, and the few scraps 

 of authenticated history which we now possess disclose 

 a most iniquitous course of wanton slaughter and de- 

 struction which ended in the complete extinction of the 

 bird over sixty years ago. Yet in the face of this de- 

 struction there remain but four mounted specimens and 

 two eggs in the collections of North America to-day, 

 while but seventy skins remain in the collections of the 

 entire world. 



If possible, more ruthless and inhuman was the car- 

 nage waged against the noble buffalo, the countless 

 thousands of which roaming over virgin prairies ex- 

 cited the wonder and amazement of the entire sporting 

 and scientific world, and which, to-day, are represented 

 only in the zoological parks, where all individuality 

 will eventually be lost in domestication. 



Coincident almost with the passing of the buffalo 

 we have to record the decline and fall of the Passenger 

 Pigeon, a bird which aroused the excitement and won- 

 der of the entire world during the first half of the last 

 century because of its phenomenal numbers; a bird also 

 which stood out unique in character and individuality 

 among the 300 described pigeons of the world and 

 which won the admiration of every ornithologist who 



