FOR BROADCAST USE OiTLY 



Reading Ti;.ie: 10 llinutes 



AIIM0 UITCSII2I TT; 'Je're now readj'- for another visit V7ith Uncle San's naturalists 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, Before we go into the woods and 

 marshes to see how Uncle Sam is protecting our "bird life, we'll turn back for a 

 moment to one of the most fascinating stories in all \7ild life lore* This is the 

 story of the va.ssenger pigeon, 



I suppose sor.ie of the old-timers listening in today can remember the time 

 wlien passenger pigeons flew over the eastern half of the United States by the 

 millions a:id millions. 



No doubt some of you saw the pigeons yourself, the rest of you can at least 

 recall some of the amazing tales the old-timers tell about the pigeons. 



For instance, the great naturalLists, A'Jdubon, describes a pigeon flight he 

 saw in ICentucl-;;:- near the Ohio River, He says, "The air was literally filled rrith 

 pigeons; the light of noonday was obscured as by an eclipse. At once, lihe a tor- 

 rent, and with a noise lilre thunder, they rushed into a compact mass, pressing 

 each othor towards the center," And then he goes on to tell how the pigeons 

 s\7ept along, up and dov.-n, like the waves of the ocean, wheeling and twisting 

 like the "coils of a gigantic serpent," 



Bad: in those J-ays, folks thought the nigeon would never be exterminated, 

 Even as recently as 1879, a pigeon butcher in Chicago said, "The pigeon is migra- 

 tory, it can care for it self . . . ( The pigeon) never will be exterminated so long 

 asforests large enough for their nestings a:id mast enough for their food remains." 



But the passenger pigeon the bird that at one time "shadowed the fields like 



a cloud," and "darkened the sun" by its tremendous numbers is gone. The last 



pigeon died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. 



^lat became of the famous passenger pigeons of a half century a^o? 



Some folks sa^'' the pigeons may have flown out over the ocean in hiage flocks 

 and got caught in a terrific storm. AJTter battli :g the wind for hours, so these 

 folks imagine, the birds fell exhausted and perished in the waves. Other folks 

 explain the disappearance of the wild pigeons by theories wilder than the pigeons. 



The best authorities hold different ideas. One man who spent a great deal of 

 time st-jdying the bird says the passenger pigeons were not exterminated at any 

 single swift stroke, JThis authority sa^'s the pigeon gradually decreased over a 

 period of more than 20 years. He tells how the pigeon butchers caught the pigeons 

 by the millions and millions and shipped them in carload lots to the city markets. 



