828 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 26, 1906. 


- the case are strung irregularly through the files of 
ForEsT AND STREAM from its beginning, and were 
also a matter of credible tradition through many 
prior decades. There is no mystery, nor is there 
any uncertainty about the pigeon’s disappearance. 
It is a story of slaughter incessant through a cen- 
tur 
Conidecite the notoriety of the destruction 
and the obvious forces which caused it, the ab- 
sence of accurate knowledge at the present day, in 
respect to it, is a marvel in itself. It is approxi- 
mately about fifteen years ago when, after a cen- 
tury of incessant slaughter, the public swept their 
eyes over the vacant sky and exclaimed, “Where 
is the wild pigeon?” The question, becoming more 
intermittent as is proper of things fading into the 
misty past and oblivion, now is, “What became 
of the wild pigeons?” 
Quite an interesting discussion of this question 
had place in Forest AND STREAM during the latter 
part of last year. It was commenced by an inter- 
esting contributor, who wrote over the nom de 
plume, Noynek. He accounted for the pigeon’s 
disappearance as follows: “The suggestion here 
offered (for what it is worth), which was brought 
about by a Welsh rarebit dream, may, if followed 
up, give a clue to the whereabouts or fate of the 
birds which sportsmen of the last generation will 
ever remember as the most graceful and skillful 
flyers known. The dream above mentioned need 
not be given in detail, nor could it be at this time; 
however, the writer, with the aid of the aforesaid 
‘rabbit,’ dreamed of a pow-wow with a venerable 
Indian who, when asked what had become of the 
pigeons, stated, to quote him literally (as 
dreamed) that ‘Pigeon heap d—m fool, fly in big 
water, meaning Gulf of Mexico, no come back.’ ”’ 
The dream came true. Noynek was on the 
Gulf coast afterward where an old negro—“his 
aged and gray head was set with bright eyes’’— 
in response to a question about the pigeons, re- 
membered their destruction by a norther and 
black fog ‘on dis beach, ’bout twenty-five years 
ago.” Unfortunately for the credibility of the 
Welsh rabbit dream with the venerable negro as 
a finality, the pigeon in the main disappeared 
about fifteen years ago; but a little matter of ten 
years variation from the chronological fact, so 
well sustained under the rules of evidence other- 
wise, should not prejudice the reader against the 
soundness of the dream and the complaisant 
negro. It was, however, a remarkable feature of 
Noynek’s Welsh rabbit dream that subsequently 
several writers gravely discussed it as a true ex- 
position of the subject in question. But the 
pigeons were not all in one flock. Assuming one 
flock to be destroyed by the negro, what became 
of the others? 
The purpose of these articles is to deal with 
the facts of the case, as set forth in the files of 
ForEST AND STREAM, and, sad to say, they afford 
overwhelming proof of the manner in which the 
beautiful wild pigeon passed almost wholly from 
existence. It is a recountal of harrying and 
slaughtering. 
Habitat. 
Concerning the habitat of the passenger pigeon, 
Wilson, in his “American Ornithology,” states: 
“The wild pigeon of the United States inhabits 
a wide and extensive region of North America, 
on this side of the great Stony Mountains, be- 
yond which to the westward I have not heard of 
their being seen. According to Mr. Hutchins, 
they abound in the country around Hudson’s Bay, 
where they usually remain as late as December, 
feeding, when the ground is covered with snow, 
on the beds of juniper. They spread over the 
whole of Canada; were seen by Captain Lewis 
and his party near the Great Falls of the Mis- 
sourl, upward of 2,000 miles from its mouth, 
reckoning the meanderings of the river; were also 
met with in the interior of Louisiana by Colonel 
Pike; and extend their range as far south as the 
Gulf of Mexico; occasionally visiting or breed- 
ing in almost every quarter of the United States.” 
Concerning the above, it may be stated that the 
pigeon was rare in Louisiana and Texas in com- 
parison with its frequency in the North. In any 
event, it did not migrate south of those States; 
hence there would be no basis in fact for the far- 
fetched theory that the pigeons were blown into 
the Gulf while migrating. The absurdity of: the 
theory is further manifest, if accepted for the 
sake of argument, when it is considered that the 
pigeon, one of the swiftest birds and the strongest 
of wing, should be blown into the Gulf and all 
other forms of bird life should escape. 
In common with all other species of the feath- 
ered tribes, they undoubtedly had an instinctive 
knowledge of coming tempests, and experience 
with actual tempests, and sought shelter accord- 
ingly; yet, there is a tradition that the birds were 
destroyed on the ocean while migrating, when, as 
a matter of fact, they did not migrate south out 
of the United States; and this at a time and place 
of which no one knows anything, and from an 
authority that does not exist. 
Of the migrations, Wilson states: “These mi- 
grations appear to be undertaken rather in quest 
of food than merely to avoid the cold of the 
climate, since we find them lingering in the north- 
ern regions, around Hudson’s Bay, so late as De- 
cember; and since their appearance is so casual 
and irregular, sometimes not visiting certain dis- 
tricts for several vears in any considerable num- 
bers, while at other times they are innumerable.” 
As further showing .that the pigeons did not 
leave the United States in winter, the reader is 
referred to an article published in Forest AND 
STREAM of July 21, i 
made to a nesting contiguous to the Iron Moun- 
tain Railroad, near Piedmont, Mo., in the winter 
months of January and February. 
Numbers of the Pigeon. 
The attempt to adequately describe the mass of 
pigeons which, in steady flow, passed across the 
sky hour after hour, seemed to tax to the utmost 
the descriptive powers of the old writers. But, 
however incomprehensible as a total for the 
human mind to realize, they were a finite quan- 
titity in the aggregate. They had their limita- 
tions, and the preservation of their numbers was 
dependent on an adequate food supply and on the 
reproduction of their species. 
Referring to the innumerable thousands, Wil- 
son, in his “American Ornithology,” states: “I 
have witnessed these migrations in the Gennesee 
country, often in Pennsylvania, and also in vari- 
ous parts of Virginia, with amazement, but all 
that I had then seen of them were mere strag- 
gling parties when compared with the congregated 
millions which I have since beheld in our western 
forests, in the States of Ohio, Kentucky and the 
Indian Territory. These fertile and extensive 
regions abound with the nutritious beech nut, 
which constitutes the food of the wild pigeon. In 
seasons when these nuts are abundant, corrre- 
sponding multitudes of pigeons may be expected. 
It sometimes happens that, having consumed the 
whole produce of the beech trees in an extensive 
district, they discover another at the distance per- 
haps of sixty or eighty miles, to which they regu- 
larly repair every morning, and return as regu- 
larly in the couse of the day, or in the evening, to 
their place of general rendezvous, or, as it is 
usually called, the roosting place. * * * Not 
far from Shelbyville, in the State of Kentucky, 
about five years ago, there was one of these 
breeding places which stretched through the 
woods in nearly a north and south direction; was 
several miles in breadth, and was said to be up- 
ward of forty miles in extent. In this tract, al- 
most every tree was furnished with nests, where- 
ever the branches could accommodate them. The 
pigeons made their first appearance there about 
April 10, and left altogether, with their young, 
before May 25. 
“The vast quantities of mast which these multi- 
tudes consume is a serious loss to the bears, pigs, 
squirrels and other dependants on the fruits of 
the forest. I have taken from the crop of a single 
wild pigeon a good handful of the kernels of 
beechnuts, intermixed with acorns and chestnuts. 
To form a rough estimate of the daily consump- 
tion of one of these immense flocks, let us first 
attempt to calculate the numbers of that above 
mentioned, as seen in passing between Frankfort 
and the Indian Territory. If we suppose this 
column to have been one mile in breadth (and I 
believe it to have been much more) and that it 
moved at the rate of one mile in a minute, four 
hours, the time it continued passing, would make 
its whole length 240 miles. Again, supposing that 
1894, in which reference is. 
each square yard of this moving body compre- 
hended three pigeons, the square yards in the 
whole space, multiplied by three, would give 
2,230,272,000 pigeons—an almost inconceivable 
multitude, and yet probably far below the actual 
amount. Computing each of these to consume 
half a pint of mast daily, the whole quantity at 
this rate would equal 17,424,000 bushels per day.” 
The following is taken from ForEsST AND 
STREAM of May 20, 1880: “The weather about 
Petoskey (Wis.), was still cold. The bay was 
frozen over, the snow was deep in the woods, 
the prospect. for good feeding was bad, and after 
a day or two of apparent irresolution and many 
erratic flights the birds, as if by common consent, 
took their course to the neighborhood of Platte 
River, in Benzie county. As a local publication 
stated at the time, ‘They came in clouds, millions 
on millions. It seemed as if the entire world of 
pigeons was concentrated at this point. The air 
was full of them and the sun was shut out of 
sight, and still they came, millions on millions.’ 
They spread over an area of more than fifteen 
miles in length and six to eight miles wide, and a 
prospect for a time was that the nesting would be 
the most extensive ever known in the State. The 
news speedily reached all parts of the State, and 
it is said that in a fortnight’s time 3,000 hunters 
—professionals, amateurs, greenhorns—had in- 
vaded the country from all directions, surround- 
ing and penetrating the nesting grounds. It was 
noticed, however, by old hunters that the birds 
did not settle down to domestic life as quickly as 
usual. The roosting birds—that is, those that 
have not yet mated—outnumbered ‘the nesting 
birds a hundred to one. Some of the more zealous 
and inconsiderate sportsmen entered the nesting 
woods and commenced popping away at the nests 
themselves, a snow storm followed, high winds 
prevailed, and many of the roosting birds, dis- 
gusted, postponed their anticipated housekeeping 
and scattered. * * * In some places, owing to 
the winds and the constant shooting, the nests 
have been deserted before any birds were 
hatched.” 
Two exterminating causes were here at work; 
first, the actual killing accomplished by 3,000 
men; second, the prevention of reproduction. 
B. WATERS. 
[TO BE CONCLUDED NEXT WEEK. ] 
Poachers Balked by lowa Supreme Court. 
THE daily press prints the following dispatch: 
“Spirit Lake, Ia., May 6.—lowa anglers are re- 
joicing that the seiner of fish will now be roughly 
handled by the law when apprehended. Under a 
decision of the Supreme Court, sloughs, lakes, 
ponds, creeks, lagoons and bayous along the Mis- 
souri and Mississippi rivers are wholly in the 
State and are under direct supervision of the 
game warden, and all persons violating a game 
law therein will be handled according to the pro- 
visions of the acts passed by the Legislature. 
“This will, in a large: measure, do away with 
the poacher and pot-hunter, who, armed with 
dynamite and long, deep seines, would clean out 
the resting places of the fish and thus deplete 
aS favorite sporting places of the anglers of the 
tate. 
“For many years the State has had to contend 
with the problem of dealing with the fishers along 
the two big rivers which form the borders of two 
sides of the State. The men asserted the waters 
were under the jurisdiction of the Federal Gov- 
ernment, and, therefore, the State could not 
prosecute. When the Federal authorities affronted 
them they would reverse the claim and order 
away the Federal officers with the declaration 
that the State controlled the water and the law 
permitted it. 
“Now, the State game warden will appoint men 
to aid him in the detection of the poachers and 
law violators, and it is hoped that before the 
fishing season is far advanced there will be a 
larger number of the ruthless killers made to 
feel the blunt edge of the sword of justice. 
“The waters of the State have been freshly 
planted with the finest game fish, and this is the 
season when the sport ought to be at its best. 
The protection of the fish is hailed with joy by 
the sportsmen of Iowa and adjoining States. 
