SPECIES EXTINCT OR EXTIRPATED. 457 



large numbers, and were shipped all over the country for 

 Pigeon "shoots." In 1881 twenty thousand live Passenger 

 Pigeons were killed at one trap-shooting tournament on 

 Coney Island, held under the auspices of the New York 

 Association for the Protection of Fish and Game. Many of 

 these birds were too young or too exhausted to fly. Thus, 

 sportsmen who could not participate in the slaughter of the 

 birds on their nesting grounds had them brought alive to the 

 doors of their club houses, and unwittingly shared in extermi- 

 nating the species. Mr. Ben O. Bush of Kalamazoo, Mich., 

 states that the last Pigeons which he saw used for this purpose 

 were obtained by John Watson of Chicago. They came from 

 the Indian Territory in 1886; but this did not end the traffic. 

 It seems probable that a good many birds still gathered in 

 inaccessible regions of that territory during the winter. 



In the spring of 1888, Messrs. William Brewster and 

 Jonathan D wight, Jr., visited Michigan in search of the 

 Passenger Pigeon, and found that large flocks had passed 

 through Cadillac late in April, and that similar flocks had 

 been observed in nearly all the southern counties. This flight 

 was so large that some of the netters expressed the belief that 

 the Pigeons were as numerous as ever; and Brewster himself 

 expressed the opinion that the extermination of the species 

 was not then imminent, and that it might be saved, but con- 

 sidered it unlikely that effectual laws could be passed before 

 its extinction. The birds moved somewhere to the north to 

 breed, and were not seen nesting in any numbers in Michigan. 

 One of the netters brought intelligence of a flock at least 

 " eight acres " in extent, and many other smaller flocks were 

 reported. Many birds were found scattered about in the 

 woods, but no large nesting place was seen anywhere. After 

 that date comparatively few birds are recorded at any one 



locality. 



Many birds were sent to the eastern markets from the 

 southwest during the decade from 1878 to 1888, and even 

 later. Prof. George H. Beyer writes me that he saw several 

 large flocks of Passenger Pigeons at Rayne Station, La., in 

 1888, from which he killed three birds. 



