THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



carloads of pigeons were shipped to market each day for forty 

 days. This makes a total of approximately 11,880,000 birds. 

 It is also recorded that another town in Michigan marketed 

 15,840,000 birds in two years. Large numbers of the birds were 

 netted in traps. It was an old custom to use live passenger 

 pigeons as targets in shooting tournaments. It is recorded that 

 in places through the middle west where the birds were breeding, 

 men shook the squabs out of the trees in great numbers and used 

 them to fatten hogs. 



Captain Charles E. Bendire in his Life Histories of North 

 American Birds (1892), says: ". . . It looks now as if their 

 total extermination might be accomplished within the present 

 century. The only thing which retards their complete extinction 

 is that it no longer pays to net these birds, they being too scarce 

 for this now, at least in the more settled portions of the country, 

 and also, perhaps, that from constant and unremitting persecu- 

 tion on their breeding grounds they have changed their habits 

 somewhat, the majority no longer breeding in colonies, but scat- 

 tering over the country and breeding in isolated pairs." 



The passing of the passenger pigeon is a powerful lesson 

 in wild bird protection. Its disappearance can only be attributed 

 to carelessness on the part of the American people. 



NEW FEDERAL REGULATIONS. 



In the December, 1913, issue of The Oregon Sportsman, the 

 federal law for the protection of migratory birds was published 

 showing the open and closed seasons. This law went into effect 

 October 1, 1913. It provided for the protection of all insectiv- 

 orous birds. A closed season was also provided until September 

 1, 1918, for band-tailed pigeons, cranes, swans, curlews, smaller 

 shore birds and wood ducks. Shooting was also prohibited be- 

 tween sunset and sunrise. 



Pursuant to the provisions of the federal law for the pro- 

 tection of migratory birds authorizing and directing the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture to adopt suitable regulations prescribing 

 and fixing the closed seasons, many changes have been considered, 

 but the only one affecting the shooting anywhere in the North- 



Pag-e four 



