FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 7, 1906. 
I 2 
The Fate of the Wild Pigeon. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The papers on this-subject by B. Waters, in 
recent issues of Forest and Stream, are of great 
interest and value, and all persons interested in 
this curious and biologically important question 
must be indebted to the author for his diligence 
in bringing together and publishing at this time 
such a volume of testimony on the subject from 
the files of Forest and Stream. I am sorry that 
I have only the second installment of Mr. 
Waters’ paper before me, but I read the first 
with much attention. 
Though interested to go over again the sad 
story of the tremendous slaughter of the wild 
pigeon at its latest recorded breeding places, I 
found nothing new to me in the account. The 
great and wanton slaughter certainly did not 
take place exactly as these records set forth; but 
to my mind the theory that the sudden and 
practical annihilation of the species was due to 
this cause remains not only unproven, but un¬ 
tenable. 
As the proposer of the theory of catastro- 
phism as the only adequate one, I may perhaps 
be again allowed a few words on the subject. 
First of all, there is the—to me-—obvious diffi¬ 
culty with the theory of destruction by man and 
beast—that no one could ever suppose—and so 
far as I know no one ever claimed, that by this 
means every pigeon in a given “roost” was so 
destroyed. It is impossible to avoid the con¬ 
clusion that, with all the slaughter admitted, it 
must at any given time and place have fallen 
far short of complete destruction of the birds. 
Out of those vast multitudes thousands—yes, 
hundreds of thousands—of individual birds must 
have escaped. There is no record that the in¬ 
stinct of this bird led the species to stay on the 
breeding ground till the last individual was 
destroyed. 
Such a phenomenon as that would have been 
more remarkable than anything else recorded of 
it, and could not have escaped more prominent 
mention than anything else. 
A Forest and Stream editorial reply to an 
inquiry concerning the growing scarcity of the 
pigeon is cited by Mr. Waters, under date of 
Nov. 26, 1885, and as follows: “There is no 
mystery about the disappearance of the wild 
pigeons. Their flocks have been depleted by 
market pot hunters and by the trap-shooting 
game protective societies.” This was written of 
the “growing scarcity” of the pigeon, and “de¬ 
pleted” was doubtless the correct word to use. 
That there was a “growing scarcity,” and that 
the flocks were “depleted” by the work of man 
and beast.there is not the smallest doubt, but 
for the practical extermination of the species 
we must look to other agencies. After the last 
recorded slaughters, large numbers still re¬ 
mained. 
Mr. Waters cites an article by Mr. William 
Brewster in the Auk, and reviewed in Forest 
and Stream Oct. 24. 1889, stating that in the 
spring of 1888 “almost every county in the 
southern peninsula of Michigan was visited by 
large flocks of this bird, passing northward. A 
few isolated pairs stopped to roost in the 
wooded districts, but the main army disappeared 
across, the Straits of Mackinaw about the close 
of April, much to the disappointment of the old- 
time netters who, concluding that the birds had 
returned to their old haunts for the season, got 
out their nets and made preparation for the 
familiar slaughter. Mr. Brewster, having been 
informed that the birds had arrived in large 
numbers and were preparing to roost, set off at 
once to learn as much as possible about the 
breeding birds, reaching Cadillac on May 8, and 
lingered there waiting for information as to the 
nesting site selected, until it was evident the 
birds had gone north.” Note that this flight— 
though unquestionably vastly less in numbers 
than those of earlier dates—was still spoken of 
as “large flocks,” the “main army” and “large 
numbers.” Mr. Waters knows of no record of 
the return of this flight or of its subsequent his¬ 
tory, and has recourse to the theory that it 
was composed of aged birds, practically incap¬ 
able of reproduction! The very fact that the 
surviving pigeons had been forced by previous 
experience in Michigan to choose some other 
breeding place is reason enough why they 
should not be seen there again, but not in itself 
any proof, or to my mind indication, that the 
individuals of it had died of old age, but, on the 
contrary, that they had chosen a breeding place 
in the northern wilds, far removed from danger 
by man, and where their going and coming 
would be in no wise obvious to the people of 
Michigan. 
For aught that any one has shown, and, in¬ 
deed, according to the testimony adduced by 
Mr. Waters himself, there were still, after the 
prevention of the nesting at Petosky, Mich., in 
1888, hundreds of thousands of pigeons in exist¬ 
ence, and far too many to have permitted the 
practical disappearance of the species, were it 
not for some other cause of destruction. 
It 'would be interesting in this connec¬ 
tion to know what the normal life period 
of the wild pigeon was. The residual flight 
which visited Michigan in the spring of 
1888 was evidently composed of birds migrating 
for the breeding purpose and strong in flight. 
Can there be any reason to suppose that they did 
not know what they were about, or that their 
concerted flight beyond the Straits was not to 
another breeding place? 
Mr. Waters seems to me quite unwarranted in 
thinking that what he has cited from un¬ 
doubtedly veracious records “should forever dis¬ 
pel all far-fetched theories of the destruction of 
the birds on the high seas in a gale.” 
With the evidence which I have cited in these 
columns of several such extensive destructions 
of pigeons by precisely this means, and in par¬ 
ticular one of great extent on the large area of 
the Gulf of Mexico, I submit that there is the 
best of reason to suppose that in this, and not 
in destruction by man. we may have the real ex¬ 
planation of the disappearance of the final 
“army” of pigeons which we know survived the 
last recorded slaughter at the breeding places in 
Michigan. 
Here I wish to urge again as not only pertinent 
to my theory of catastrophism, but highly inter¬ 
esting in itself, the question of the southern limit 
of the annual migration of the pigeon. 
Where were the great flights in the winter? 
I infer that they were not in the Gulf States of 
the United States. Even if widely dispersed, their 
abundance, in the palmy days of the species, 
would have been very noticeable and subject of 
record and comment which, so far as I can learn, 
is entirely lacking. 
If the pigeons went across the Gulf, then I sub¬ 
mit that the reports I have earlier cited must be 
given weight in the discussion. Meanwhile we 
may all rejoice in the report so well supported 
of a large flock of genuine passenger pigeons hav¬ 
ing been seen flying over Kingston, N. Y„ and 
the consequent possibility that the beautiful bird 
may gain in numbers and gladden the eyes alike 
of those who knew it of old, and of those to 
whom it is only a tradition of the elders. If 
even a single flock of passenger pigeons sur¬ 
vives, it will be quite sufficient warrant for all 
possible discussion of our problem in creating, 
as one may hope, such a public sentiment as 
would come to the rescue and sternly prevent 
any repetition of the old ruthlessness and folly 
should the breeding place of this remnant ever be 
discovered. 
Readers of Forest and Stream interested in 
this subject may remember that for a time the 
only known examples of the passenger pigeon 
surviving in captivity were the twenty-five or 
thirty individuals owned by Prof. Whitman, 
Professor of Zoology at the University of 
Chicago. He used to take them—as part of his 
extensive aviary—with him every summer to 
Wood’s Hole, Mass., where I saw them a few 
years ago, making the trip for the especial pur¬ 
pose. For a time his birds, which were, I be¬ 
lieve, bred from a few individuals secured from 
an Indian»in Wisconsin, seemed to thrive in cap¬ 
tivity and they were fecund. The beautiful birds 
were to me a thrilling sight, and brought back 
with great vividness scenes and experiences of 
my boyhood. 
A few weeks ago my cousin, Mr. P. Ames, of 
Hammond, Ind., called to my attention a printed 
letter stating that the writer was the possessor 
of several live passenger pigeons. The writer’s 
address was given as Milwaukee, Wis. 
Being in Chicago at the time, I lost no time 
in telephoning Professor Whitman, thinking 
the item would surely be of great interest to 
him as a possible opportunity for him to pro¬ 
cure new blood for his own flock. I found him, 
indeed, greatly interested, and all the more for 
the reason that his own birds, probably by 
reason of continued in-breeding, had in late 
years lost their vigor and one by one had died, 
till the survivors numbered but two individuals, 
and of the same sex. 
I can only hope that the Milwaukee report 
was verified, and that from this new source Pro¬ 
fessor Whitman may be able to replenish his 
flock, and that, better yet, we may have ample 
confirmation from John Burroughs and his 
friends that the wild pigeons are still in the 
country, and that they may be accorded special 
protection till the permanence of the species, is 
secured. C. H. Ames. 
Burley, Idaho, June 21. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Interesting and convincing as was Mr. 
Waters’ paper on the disappearance of the pas¬ 
senger pigeon, in which I quite agree that shoot¬ 
ing, netting, and failure of food supply was 
primarily the cause of their disappearance, I find 
it impossible to accept his positive statement that 
their going was not .sudden or that there is no 
mystery connected with it. 
In the past twenty years, in which I presume 
I have been afield considerably more than the 
average sportsman, and in the States where earlier 
the birds were in vast numbers, and ever on the 
lookoVit for them, I have no hesitation in stat¬ 
ing, that, barring the natural decrease up to the 
years 1878 to 1880, the flight was about normal; 
but since that time I have never seen a single 
specimen. 
I have compared notes on the subject with all 
of my sportsmen friends—and they are many— 
and we agree that we have all had the same ex¬ 
perience. 
Personally I am unwilling to believe that birds 
as wary as the pigeon, could, with all the guns 
and nets available at the time, be-absolutely ex¬ 
terminated in the space of time between two 
seasons. 
Granting that the cataclysm theory may not be 
well supported by facts, it has, however, been 
noted by many earlier writers, and observed by 
many individuals since, that in their peculiar evo¬ 
lutions of flight, instinct or otherwise, pigeons ap¬ 
peared to be piloted, flock after flock duplicating 
at relatively the same place the exact per¬ 
formance of others preceding them, even to break¬ 
ing up the line or tumbling pell me'll, but ever 
after the leaders and in the general line of flight, 
