The Pigeon in Manitoba 193 



north of the American boundary line can readily appre- 

 ciate the utter inadequacy of an acceptable food supply 

 for these countless millions of pigeons ; and we can also 

 readily understand how very soon the breaking up of 

 the original hardwood forests of eastern Canada would 

 tend to decrease the visible food supply and cause these 

 hungry millions to seek new pastures. 



The breaking of these feeding grounds would first 

 be instrumental in scattering or breaking up the largest 

 flocks, and even the very long distances the bird was 

 able to fly from breeding to feeding ground would be 

 exceeded, necessitating next the nesting in smaller colo- 

 nies, where careless nesting habits with continued chang- 

 ing conditions would tend to continue to decline their 

 numbers, while the tenacity with which even the smaller 

 roosts were clung to by man, like leeches to a frog, and 

 the hapless victim shot, netted and stolen from the nest 

 before maturity, was but another effectual and not the 

 least responsible agent in the relegation of the pigeon 

 to that past from which none return. 



When I decided to attempt the preparation of a re- 

 view history of the pigeon in Manitoba, I felt that, 

 having had practically no experience with the bird my- 

 self, I should have to depend upon the reports of repre- 

 sentative pioneers of the country for my facts as to the 

 numbers of the birds formerly found here, and the 

 period of their decline and disappearance. I accord- 

 ingly drafted a series of questions which I submitted to 



