14 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Habits.- A melancholy interest attaches to the present species, for it is 

 threatened with speedy extinction. Years ago, when North America was in the 

 sole occupation of the red man, the Passenger Pigeon (known familiarly in the 

 States as the Wild Pigeon) must have been one of the most numerous of known 

 birds ; and many early writers on America, naturalists and others, have testified 

 to its vast abundance. Wilson estimated a flock seen by him to consist of 

 upwards of 2,230 millions ! One of the latest writers on this species, the late 

 Captain Bendire, now informs us that " the extermination of the Passenger 

 Pigeon has progressed so rapidly during the past twenty years, that it looks now 

 as if their total extermination might be accomplished within the present century." 

 The vast colonies of this species that formerly bred in various parts of the 

 country, and which have been so graphically described by Wilson and others, 

 have all disappeared, and scattered pairs are now all that remain. This dispersal 

 maybe the means of saving the species from extirpation, provided legal protection 

 be accorded in time to these survivors. 



Although the Passenger Pigeon is addicted to much wandering, apparently in 

 an aimless manner, like the Waxwing and the Hose-coloured Pastor, its migrations 

 are normal and regular. Its passage north in spring commences about the 

 middle of March and is continued until the third week in May. The return 

 migration begins about the middle of September and lasts until the first week of 

 October. There can be no doubt that formerly this Pigeon was one of the most 

 gregarious of birds, but its numbers have now so greatly decreased that this 

 characteristic appears almost to have vanished. The few scattered pairs unite into 

 flocks in autumn, and possibly remain gregarious until the following spring, but 

 the vast hordes that once used to roam over the land are things of the past. 

 The favourite haunts of the Passenger Pigeon are open woodlands and districts 

 that are well studded with groves surrounded by more open country, as well as 

 well-timbered valleys. Except when actually breeding this species seems ever to be 

 wandering about the country (of course within certain well-defined limits which 

 constitute its normal area of dispersal) in quest of food ; and, it is said, districts that 

 abound with birds one season may be quite deserted the next. Audubon's 

 graphic account of his meeting with this Pigeon in countless hordes, as he was 

 crossing the barrens between Henderson and Louisville, has been questioned for 

 its accuracy, but there can be little doubt of its truth. He tells us (it was in the 

 year 1813) how he observed them flying south-west in larger numbers than he 

 had ever observed before ; how he attempted to count them as they passed in 

 successive flocks, but was obliged to give up the task as impossible ; and how the 

 light of noonday became dimmed as in an eclipse as the hordes of flying Pigeons 

 obscured the sky. Then he goes on to describe the aerial evolutions of the vast 

 flocks, especially when pressed by a Hawk in quest of prey ; how the flocks sped 

 on with a roar suggestive of thunder from the rapid beats of innumerable wings, 

 darting forward or swooping to the earth with marvellous velocity, and rising 



