The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1893-10-07
Thihodatx SentincI.
VANISHING WOOD-PiGEONS.

The Gradual Disappearance of Birds
Which Were Once Very Numerous.
Very remarkable has been the his
tory of the native wild-pigeon. a bird
entirely peculiar to North America.
from the gulf of Mexico to Hudson bay.
Its history is not only very interesting.
but quite wonderful in some of its de-
tails. The bird itself, taken singly, as
we rustics know, is elegant in form,
and very pleasing in it's slate-colored
plumage, tinged with a pale shading of
red on the breast. 1t is very gentle
and ~peaceable, entirely harmless, and
even timid by nature. Who would
have thought it possible hat gentle
birds IL these should have swept over
the interior OF the continent within a
century in focks so vast as to OBJ.
u the sun at noon as though the
country lay under an eclipse, while
the ceaseless rapid motion of millions
OF wings produced a loud roar like an
approaching tornado? Accurate and
experienced men of science-Wilson
and Audubon-tell us of vast 1ocks
covering one hundred and eighty
square miles of country in Kentucky
as recently as 1918. They tell us of
vast breeding-places in western forests
many miles in extent, where ninety
nests were counted in n tree. They
tell us of roosting-grounds forty miles
in length, with a breadth of several
miles, the up-roar from this roosting-
ground being heard at a distance of
three miles. They tell us of one column
of these birds in flight covering two
hundred and forty miles of country in
length!
Grand indeed must have been the
movement over the continent of that
vast living-winged cloud, a marvel of
nature. Nothing to equal it has been
known elsewhere on earth.
The old pines ON the hill-tops about
the Otsego water some forty years
since must have been frequently over
Swallowed by focks of the wild-pigeon,
much less wonderful than those farther
west, but still remarkable in their num-
bers.
On the early morning of June s, 1877,
the lake and the village lay shrouded
in a summer mist. A large flock of
wild pigeons became bewildered in
the fog, and lost their way
an unusual incident in their his
tory. Instinct failed to guide
them. Their naturally keen sight
could not pierce the mist. They
dropped on the nearest trees, in the
heart of the village, on our own lawn,
in the church-yard, in the gardens, and
on the elms and naples shading the
streets. With the first rays of the sun
appearing above Mount Vision the
mist rose, the birds took fight.
In the early spring of 1S49 a large
hock Of pigeons, supposed to number
several thousands, selected for their
breeding-ground a wood in the
valley Of the S~usquehanna some
miles to the southwark of the
lake. The details were similar to
those reported of the vast breeding
places at the west-nests carelessly
built of twigs, a number in close neigh
borhood in the same tree; broken limbs
of trees; a low murmur of wings. But
the ground occupied was a narrow one.
Since those years no large focks of
wild pigeons have passed over Lake
Otsego. A few only have been seen
where formerly they were numbered
by the hundred. To-day you inquire
If any wild pigeons have been recently
found in these woods. None that we
have seen or heard of lately" shall be
h answer to your inquiry. What a
change within forty years! Alas for
the vanished wild pigeon,-Susan FEM
more Cooper, in Harper's Magazine.