CHAPTER XVIII. 



MORE ABOUT THE PASSENGER PIGEON 



(From the Pennsylvania Sportsman, Scranton, I'a. ) 



By R. P. ROBINSON 

 Member of Wilkes- Barre Camp No. 103. 



Wherein the contributor of this third article of our 

 series suggests that the extermination of the passenger 

 pigeon may have been divinely ordained as a retribution 

 for the barbarous methods e-mployed in accomplishing 

 their wholesale slaughter. How our forefathers killed 

 and captured wild pigeons is faithfully recorded, and the 

 story may fairly raise this question, beside pointing a 

 moral to the sportsmen of the present day. — The Editor. 

 May, 1917. 



THE American passenger pigeon wintered in the 

 South, and in the early spring migrated to the 

 northern part of the United States and Southern 

 Canada, where it raised its young and remained till 

 the time for its fall flight southward. 



I have seen a continuous flight of these birds from 

 morning 'till night, and for several days in succession. 

 I shall not attempt to make any estimate as to the 

 number passing a given point in a single day, but the 

 eminent American ornithologist Audubon, once made 

 an estimate of the number of birds that was within 

 his vision at one time during one of these flights, and 

 it reached into the millions. No doubt this condition 

 prevailed throughout a very wide latitude — probably 

 several hundred miles — for several days. 



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