20 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 
Who would have thought of suggesting, less than one hun- 
dred years ago, when flocks of millions of passenger pigeons ~ 
ranged over the whole United States and parts of Canada, 
their multitudes at times darkening the air, that in the year 
1916 not a single living specimen would exist? Yet the 
only specimens we have are the stuffed ones and the skins 
in our museums and private collections. This bird was 
wiped out of existence for the market and for the pot. Mr. 
W. B. Mershon has recorded the shipment, in 1869, from 
the town of Hartford, Mich., for the market, of three car- 
loads of pigeons daily for forty days, making a total of 
11,880,000 birds. Another town in Michigan marketed 
15,840,000 pigeons in two years. These are samples of the 
destruction that was taking place everywhere. No creature 
could withstand the effects of such slaughter. 
The great auk, one of our most interesting sea-birds, re- 
lated to the murres, was formerly abundant on the islands 
and shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Easy of capture 
and about the size of a goose, it was killed in thousands by 
the crews of vessels engaged in its destruction for the sake 
of the oil it contained. To-day it is extinct. Few skins 
remain in our museums and its eggs are so scarce that they 
are worth about $1,200 each. 
Along our Atlantic coast the Eskimo curlew (Numenius 
borealis Forst.) used to wing its way in countless myriads 
during its fall migration from the breeding-places in the 
Barren Grounds to South America. In the spring it trav- 
elled north again across the interior and swarmed over the 
prairies. They landed in enormous numbers on the Atlantic 
coast, from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to New Eng- 
land. In Newfoundland their millions darkened the sky 
and the fishermen salted them down in barrels. Every year 
they were killed in thousands for the market; they suffered 
by reason of their excessive abundance, At the close of the 
