236 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



nest of the Passenger Pigeon and a pair of the birds. 

 This offer was never taken up. 



Once Darkened Skies 



Up to 1888, wild pigeons were the most numerous 

 in the United States of any bird. In one year, 1887, 

 more than 5,000,000 were trapped and shipped to Chi- 

 cago alone. The nesting grounds covered the whole 

 of the northern part of southern peninsula of Michi- 

 gan, southwestern Wisconsin and parts of southern 

 Minnesota, adjacent to the Mississippi River. It was 

 estimated at that time that from 500,000 to 1,000,000 

 pigeons were in each of the numerous nesting colonies. 

 The birds were trapped in huge nets that frequently 

 caught 500 at a throw. They were hunted and killed 

 by hundreds as they flew at sunrise from the nesting 

 grounds to the feeding places. In southwestern Wis- 

 consin, so plentiful were they, that they were killed 

 by farmers with clubs and pitchforks. In the fall of 

 1888, there was the usual migration. And they never 

 came back. Not one was seen, so far as known, since 

 that flight to the south in 1888. The complete dis- 

 appearance of the birds was a mystery. It was 

 credited to the ravages of hunters, to the trap of the 

 market hunter, to a terrific windstorm that blew great 

 flocks to sea, where they perished, and by some scien- 

 tists it was believed they had changed the migration 

 tour to the southern zones far toward the Antarctic. 

 (1916.) 



