166 
by an eclipse; the dung fell in spots, not unlike 
melting flakes of snow; and the continued buzz 
of wings had a tendency to lull my senses to 
repose.” At the inn at the confluence of Salt 
River with the Ohio, “immense legions were still 
going by, with a front reaching far beyond the 
Ohio on the west, and the beechwood forests on 
the east.” None alighted, for there was no food 
in that neighborhood. “When a hawk chanced 
to press upon the rear of a flock, their aerial 
evolutions were extremely -beautiful. At once, 
like a torrent, and with a noise like thunder, 
they rushed into a compact mass, pressing upon 
each other towards the center. In these almost 
solid masses they darted forward in undulating 
and angular lines, descended and swept close 
over the earth with inconceivable velocity, 
mounted perpendicularly so as to resemble a 
vast column, and when high, were seen wheel¬ 
ing and twisting within their continued lines, 
which then resembled the coils of a gigantic 
serpent.” When he reached his destination, 
Louisville, fifty-five miles from his home, the 
pigeons were still passing in undiminished num¬ 
bers, and continued to do so for three days. As 
the birds passed their river they flew lower, and 
great numbers were killed. 
His description of a roosting place on the 
banks of the Green River, Ky., is a Vivid pic¬ 
ture of conditions which were an important fac¬ 
tor in the final extinction of the species. “It 
was a portion of the forest where the trees were 
very large. Many persons with horses and wa¬ 
gons were camped on the borders. Two farm¬ 
ers drove in 300 hogs a distance of 100 miles, 
to be fattened on the pigeons which were to be 
killed. Many trees two feet in diameter were 
broken off near the ground, and branches of 
many of the largest had given way. Some of 
the campers were furnished with iron pots con¬ 
taining sulphur, others with torches of pine knots 
some with poles and the rest with guns. Not 
a pigeon had arrived when the sun disappeared. 
Suddenly the cry, ‘Here they come!’ The noise 
which they made, though yet distant, reminded 
me of a hard gale at sea, passing through the 
rigging of a close-reefed vessel. Thousands were 
knocked down by poles. The birds continued to 
pour in. The fires were lighted and a magnifi¬ 
cent, as well as wonderful and almost terify- 
ing sight presented itself. The pigeons, arriving 
by thousands, alighted everywhere, one above 
another, until solid masses were formed on 
branches all round. Here and there the perches 
gave way under the weight with a crash, fall¬ 
ing to the ground, destroyed hundreds of birds 
beneath, forcing down the dense groups with 
which every stick was loaded. It was a scene of 
uproar and confusion. I found it quite useless 
to speak, or even to shout to those persons who 
were nearest to me. Even the reports of the 
guns were seldom heard.” 
Nets were usbd in the war against the pig¬ 
eons with great effect, one man in Pennsylvania 
catching 500 dozen in one day, and this was by 
no means a solitary case. 
The demand for squabs was responsible for 
much slaughter. The young pigeons were 
shaken from their nests, and those not large 
enough for the table, left on the ground for the 
hogs to fatten upon. 
Alexander Wilson mentions a flock which he 
saw passing between Frankfort, Ky., and the 
Indiana territory. It was estimated to be at 
least one mile in breadth, and moving at the 
rate of a mile a minute. It was four hours in 
passing, which would make its length 240 miles; 
allowing three pigeons for each square yard, the 
flock would have numbered 2,230,272,000. Allow¬ 
ing one-half pint of mast daily to each bird, 
FOREST AND STREAM 
the consumption for a day would be 17,424,000 
bushels. Such a statement as the foregoing, 
and it is not the only one of the kind, made by 
competent observers, make the disappearance of 
the birds seem an absolute impossibility, for they 
were fairly prolific, having three or four broods 
a year, according to authorities. But the de¬ 
struction of the forests and the consequent dim¬ 
inution of failure of the food supply, coupled 
with the indiscriminate slaughter, finally accom¬ 
plished the inevitable result. The birds were 
also used in large numbers for trap shooting, 
and it is said that 7,000 or 8,000 were constantly 
kept in the coops at Dexter Park, Chicago, for 
this purpose. 
The nesting-places were in tall forest trees, 
as many as 90 or 100 nests often being built in 
one tree. The nest was constructed of twigs, 
and as is usual with the pigeon family, two 
eggs were laid. It often happened that an egg, 
or a young bird, would slip through the loosely 
placed sticks and fall to the ground, which 
doubtless caused the impression that but one 
egg was laid. The Pigeons ranged over all of 
North America, east of the Rocky Mountains, 
seeming to be more abundant in the Middle 
West. Straggling birds have been observed west 
of the Rockies, but this range seemed to be a 
barrier over which no large numbers of the 
pigeons ever passed. 
That the final outcome of the war against the 
Passenger Pigeon was not foreseen by the law 
makers, is evidenced by the action taken in the 
legislatures of several states. In 1848 a law was 
passed by the Massachusetts legislature for the 
protection of the netters of wild pigeons, for¬ 
bidding any interference with them in their busi¬ 
ness, and imposing a fine of $10.00 for damag¬ 
ing their nests, or frightening the pigeons from 
them. The theory seems to have been that the 
pigeons were so abundant that they could never 
become scarce, and that wholesale pigeon slaugh¬ 
ter was a legitimate industry. As late as 1857 
a committee of the Ohio Senate made the fol¬ 
lowing report on a bill proposed to protect the 
Passenger Pigeon: “The Passenger Pigeon needs 
no protection. Wonderfully prolific, having the 
vast forests of the North as its breeding ground, 
traveling hundreds of miles in search of food, 
it is here to-day and elsewhere to-morrow, and 
no ordinary destruction can lessen them, or be 
missed from the myriads that are yearly pro¬ 
duced.” 
In 1867 New York awoke to the fact that 
protection was needed for the pigeons, and took 
some action, but it was too late. The last 
year of great numbers of pigeons in that state 
was in 1868. Massachusetts came in line in 
1870 with a law which protected the pigeons, 
except in the open season. Pennsylvania fol¬ 
lowed in 1878 with provisions protecting the 
birds on nesting grounds. These efforts for the 
preservation of the species were too late to 
serve their purposes, and the last big flight of 
pigeons was recorded about 1882. 
THINKS 1914 WILL BE BETTER. 
“Last year was a very unfruitful one for fish 
culture, as may be judged from the fact that the 
government was able to secure but 7,000,000 eggs 
from Yellowstone lake, while the year before 
they took upward of 30,000,000,” says Warden O. 
H. Barber, of Idaho. But he holds out encour¬ 
agement by saying: “We have more eggs in the 
hatcheries now than we had last year and not 
more than two-thirds of those ordered have been 
delivered. We expect with those we will be able 
to secure next spring to treble the output of the 
past year.” 
February 7, 1914. 
THE BATTLE OF THE HAWKS. 
One of the handsomest of southern hawks is 
the Mexican goshawk, a near relative of the fav¬ 
orite of Old World falconers. Its dark plum¬ 
age is marked with beautiful wavy bars of white 
and gray, and its head and eyes are of noble 
bearing—an eagle in miniature. One day an 
American orinthologist, not recognizing the first 
one he saw, fired and brougbt it down only 
stunned by a chance pellet of shot; and when 
it showed signs of recovery a strong handker¬ 
chief was tied about its feet, binding them firmly 
together. As its faculties gradually returned, 
the bird was quiet for a while, but not from 
fear. His spirit was far from being broken, 
and biding his time, he made a well directed 
break for liberty. Away his strong wings bore 
him, and he bit fiercely at the white bandage 
as he flew. Then a curious thing happened. A 
red-tailed hawk appeared, and seeing the flash 
of white, imagined it some unwieldly booty, pos¬ 
sibly an egret, which he might claim for his 
own. A war-scream rang out and the red-tail 
hurled itself upon the goshawk. Instantly his 
claws sank deep into the meshes of the cloth; 
he became entangled and the two birds, with 
mutually clutching talons, fell rapidly to the 
earth; their frantic wing-beats thrashing vainly 
one against the other, impotent to support their 
ill-balanced bodies. Down fell the fluttering 
mass of ruffled feathers into a thorn-bush, where 
they lay panting and fiercely glaring at one an¬ 
other, each helpless either to conquer or to quit. 
Then, to complete the savage tableau, a third spe¬ 
cies, a blackhawk, came swooping toward the 
bush, and hovered over the fallen pair, eager to 
take any advantage the situation offered. The 
incident, as the witness, Mr. William C. Beebe, 
points out, was fraught with significance, be¬ 
cause in ordinary circumstances, the weaker and 
ignoble red-tail would never have dared to at¬ 
tack the goshawk; but he had seen in an instant 
that something was wrong, and that now he 
might profit by the embarrassment of his nobler 
rival. “Thus,” says the man of science, “is the 
high average of strength and health maintained 
among wild birds. Each is ever ready to oust 
another from a stronger showing of power; each 
holds his position against competitors only by 
the exercise of his full faculties, and woe to 
the weakling or to the victim of even a slight 
accident.” Binocular. 
WAR ON GAR IN ILLINOIS. 
Encouraging success has resulted from experi¬ 
ments recently made by the Illinois Fish and 
Game Commission in exterminating gar in the 
Illinois river, 50,000 gar having been taken out 
in two weeks. The fish are seined off wherever 
they are found in schools along the shallow 
water, and it is reported that frequently the nets 
were so heavy with the captured gar that the 
fishers had difficulty in pulling them up. During 
the coming season the fishing gang, which has 
been working under the direction of Warden 
Peter Foy, will move up and down the river look¬ 
ing for schools of gar, and it is thought that the 
protection to other fish will be enormous. 
The war on the gar was first suggested by 
Joseph Page, editor of the Jerseyville Democrat, 
who expressed the belief that the conservation of 
fish in the stream coula be furthered by this 
means. Professor Forbes of the University of 
Illinois gave his hearty approval to the scheme 
and was instrumental in getting it into operation. 
The work is now under headway but admittedly 
in only its experimental stages. 
To assist in the conservation of fish along the 
Illinois river, hatcheries are to be established 
along the stream, to make up for the loss of 
thousands of acres of reclaimed swamp land. 
