SPECIES EXTINCT OR EXTIRPATED. 455 



it, and say that it never has been satisfactorily explained. 

 The New York market alone would take one hundred barrels 

 a day for weeks, without a break in price. Chicago, St. 

 Louis, Boston and all the great and little cities of the north 

 and east joined in the demand. Need we wonder why the 

 Pigeons have vanished.'' 



Most of the above calculations are founded on statements 

 derived from Mr. Mershon's work. A little volume entitled 

 Etna and Kirkersville, by Gen. Morris Schaff, gives some of 

 the history of the destruction of the Pigeons in Ohio; and 

 there are many short articles on this subject in the sports- 

 man's papers, particularly in Forest and Stream and the 

 American Field. The birds that survived the slaughter at 

 Petoskey in 1878 finally left the nesting place in large bodies 

 and disappeared to the north, and from that time onward the 

 diminution of the Pigeons was continuous. Some of the net- 

 ters asserted that this great flight was swallowed up in Lake 

 Michigan, and that the Pigeons then became practically 

 extinct. This statement had no foundation in fact, as will 

 presently appear. It is probable that when they left Petoskey 

 in 1878 they retired into inaccessible regions of Canada, 

 beyond reach of the rail and telegraph, to breed again. In 

 April, 1880, they again passed through Michigan. Prof. 

 Walter B. Barrows quotes John Sims, county game warden, 

 to the effect that on that date "millions" of Pigeons passed 

 over Iosco, going westward, but were never seen there after- 

 ward. 



It has been stated that the Wild Pigeon " went off like 

 dynamite." Even the naturalists failed to secure suflBcient 

 specimens and notes, as no one had an idea that extinction 

 was imminent. Practically the same thing has been said 

 about the extermination of the Labrador Duck, the Great 

 Auk and the Eskimo Curlew, which, if not extinct, is now 

 apparently on the verge of extinction. 



People never realize the danger of extirpating a species 

 until it is too late; but the apparent sudden diminution and 

 extermination of the Passenger Pigeon was, like that of the 

 other species, more seeming than real. Prof. Walter B. Bar- 



