St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-10-16
WILD PIGEONS DISAPPEARING
Forty Years Ago They Were to Be
Found in Myriads.

Very remarkable has been the history
of the native wild pigeon, bird entire
ly peculiar to North America, from the
Gulf of Mexico to Hudson Bay, says
writer in Harper's Magazine. Its
history is not only very interesting. but
quite wonderful in some of the details.
The bird itself, taken Singly, as rusticS
know, is elegant in form and very
pleasing in its slate-coored plumage,
tinged with pale shading OF red on
the breast. 1t is gentle and peaceable,
entirely harmless and even timid by
nature. We would have thought it
possible that gentle birds like these
should have swept over the interior of
the comment within century in flock
so vast as TO obscure the sun at noon as
though the country lay under an eclipse,
while the ceaseless rapid motion of
millions of wings produced loud roar
like an approaching tornado. Accurate
and experienced men of science-WilSon
and Audubon-tell us of vast flocks
covering $50 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 one tree.
They tell US of roOsting grounds forty
miles in length, with a breadth of
several miles, the uproar from this
rooSting ground being heard at dis
one column of these birds in flight cover
ing 240 miles of country in length.
Grand indeed must have been the move
ment over the continent of that vast
living winged cloud, great marvel of
nature. Nothing to equal 1t has been
Known elsewhere On earth.
The old pines on the hilltops about
the Otsego water in New York state
some forty years since must have been
frequently overSha dowed by flocks
wild pigeon. much less wonderful thae
those farther west, but still remarkable
in their numbers. On the earl morn
ing of June s, 1S47, the lake and the
village lay shronded in summer mist.
A large flock OF wild pigeons became
bewildered in the fog and lost their
way-an unusually incident in their
history. Instinct failed to guide them.
Their natural keen sight could not
piece the mist. They dropped on the
nearest trees in the heart of the village,
on our own lawn, in the churchyard, in
the garden 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
flight. In the early spring of 1S49 a
HUN VI PiSCouS, SuppOSeu
Der several thousands, selected for their
breeding ground a wood in the valley of
the Susquehanna some miles to the
southwark of the lake. The details
were similar to those reports of the vast
breeding places at the West-nests care
lessly built of twigs, number in close
neighborhood in the same tree; broken
limbs of trees; low murmur of wings.
But the ground occupied was narrow
one. Since those years no large fiocks
of wild pigeons have passed over Lake
Otsego. A few only have been seen
where formerly they were numbered by
the hundred. Today you inquire if any
wild pigeons have been recently found
in these woods. None that we have
seen CT heard of lately" shall be the
answer to your query. What change
within forty yearsI Alas for the
vanished wild pigeon.
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