The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-12-08
An Extinct Game Bird.

ligcon. Notwithstanding liberal
reward was offered and much cores
pondrnce carried on, no live wild
pigeon has been brought forward.
That .his native American bird is
extinct will no doubt astonsh many
persons, for it has been but few
years ago that they were SO plentiful
as to actually seem to outnumber the
leaves on the trees through which
they drove their amazingly rapid
fight. Persons yet in the middlelife
can remember the vast flights of
pigeons which could be seen any day
in the fall after the middle Of Octo-
Der and ali through November, Some
times these flights stretched across
the sky from horizon to horizon, aud
SO dense that the SUI was Cor hours
hidden. Audubon observed e fight
of pigeons in Kentucky that extended
as far as the eye could see and was
more than five hours in passing. He
attempted to compute the number Of
individual birds IN the fight, and
found that beyond question there was
more than five hundred million,e Fur
ther than this he estimated there
could not have been less than this
number in the smaller and detached
fights which we're passing to the
north in great numbers early in the
day. flying very swiftly and unusually
high. These first fights appeared to
be the vanguard Of an immense srmy.
He observed with the utmost wonder
that the number of flights visible
early in the day increased until the
earth was canopied with the feathered
hosts, and that when the main body
of the rank aud file had passed there
was yet detached regiments TO cover
the rear Of the aeeing army. The
stragglers passed until darkness rem
dered them invisible.
A pigeon roost was o place where
confusion worse conRounded reigned
supreme Towards evening, when the
foraging party returned to its nightly
resting place. the uproar and tumult
caused by :hc rushing of tens &C .hous-
ands Of wings was deafening. The
place was not without its danger, for
branches of trees were torn from the
trunks by the weight Of the birds that
ciung TO them FOR roost, anu crashed
dewaward &C the earth, breaking other
branches in their fall, and starting
thousands of ready wings to futtering
until the sound was as the soaring of a
mighty wind through the tree tops.
In such mishaps, which were constant
ly occurring over a wide expanse
of country, numberless birds were
killed and wounded and fell to the
ground, where they became prey to
the swine that roamcd the woods.
The birds would not forsakc rnost
so long food could be obtained III
hslf-day's iourney. In the nesting
season, when the male birds attends
with assiduous care upon the nesting
mate. these dauntlcss husbands have
been known to fly 200 miles in search
Of food, aud their return was the sig
nal for an outburst of the most clam
0Toui5 joy On the ttiho part Of those vino re-
mained. i.
In the neighborhood of Cohners-
willie, in the southeastern part Of In
diana, there was, some 30 years ago,
an immense wood, which every fall; as
the pigeons went south, and in the
following spring as they journeyed
north to their summer homes, was oc-
cupied as roost at night. This was
q stopping place For the migrating
birds. Every evening the steady COL
amns swiftly deployed into this wood
until every trea was weighted dow.
with its fiving load. Within an hour
or two after nightfall the birds be-
came quiet, and the<sigh Of the winds
was the only sound save the gentle
coo cfiseme sleepless birds whese, rest
was disturbed by the encroachlnept Of
others. Late ct night men came from |
all directions with wagons piled high |
with coops. They were armed with |
long poles and sticks and carried |
torches. The lights glare seemed to |
paralyEe the birds, for those in the
vicinity Of the lights remained inac-
tive, while the men beat those on the
lower branches into iusensibility with
their sticks, and dislodged hundreds |
with their poles. The dead and
wounded birds were gathered up and |
stuffed into che, coops until they would |
hold no more, when theySwere sold to
q dealer who employed mon and wo. |
mon to pick and clean the birds and |
pack them into barrels. Hundreds Of |
barrels were ehinpad ass sc Ccrna.s-