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 Hving 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 

 horealis 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 



