The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-06
THE WILD PIGEON.
South America May Now BE the Hab-
itat of the Passenger Bird.

ii. S. Garfield, in Chicago Times-Herald.
In the December number of Recreation, a
sportsman's magazine, published by Mr.. G.
=. Shields, better known as "COquina," Mr.
Stanley Waterloo prOpounds an interesting
query and goes as far toward answering 1t
as he can. He wants to know what has be-
come of the passenger pigeon-commonly
called wild pigeon''-which within the
memory of middle-aged men existed in
North America in billions, and has almost
utterly disappeared. The fate of this bird
is strangely similar to the fate of the buff
falo. Both were here in countless swarns:
and both We're wiped out by the waves OF
civilization because they were easily APP
preached and slain. Nature, however, gen
orally has it's balances. Anybody could kill
wild pigeons by the carload where they
were plentiful, but the bird was gifted with
an instinct which warned it to fOrsake
country wherein it was ruthlessly slaugh-
tered. This 1t has done repeatedly since the
settlement of America.
1t was formerly abundant in New York.
Virginia, Pennsylvania and other States OF
the Atlantic seaboard. There the work of
determination began. The bird crossed the
Alleghenies, never to return, and made its
'roostsT in Michigan, Wisconsin and neigh l;5
with destruction, it moved further west and
south. 1t would not cross the Rockies and
the last ''roost of the old gigantic size of
which we have any record was made in In
clan Territory. When this was broken up
the bird disappeared from the United
States. This was twenty years ago. The
country in car lots, and sold in the ST. Louis
market at % cents a dozen.
The old pigeon roost'' was a wonderful
thing. When the birds came in at night the
beating of their wings was like the roar OF
the league-long roller laundering on the
strand. Branches snapped under their
weight GuanO next morning lay two inches
thick. Pottering about under the trees were
foxes, wolves and other small animals of
prey feeding upon the squads which We're
jost1ed from the nests. Describing a ''roost"
in Kentucky, Audubon says: when they
passed above my head felt a current of air
til. I
ready struck down by men armed with
poles but they continued to arrive without
internlission. Fires were lighted The birds
precipitated themselves in masses and
pitched where they could, one upon the 9TH
er, in large heaps like barrels. Then the
branches gave way under their weight.
cracked and fell, bringing to the ground and
crushing every part of the trees. In. vain l.
tried to speak. or even to call the person
nearest me. 1t was with difficulty l could
hear the guns fired. The uproar continued
all night. At sunrise all that could fly had
disappeared. Now it was the VOLTS turn,
the bowls of which saluted our ears Foxes,
lynxes, cougars, bears, rats, opossums and
martens, bounding, running climbing,
pressed to the quarry, while eagles and fall
part of such rich booty. The pigeons were
piled in heaps. Each took what he wished
and the pigs were left to satiate themselves
Even after the great slaughter in Indian
Territory millions of pigeons were left They
came no more to this country. In the course
years Mr.. Waterloo has discovered that
they have come back to the United States in
small punches now and then, revisiting their
Ola haunts in the middle States in a pitt
tul seeking way" as late as four or five
years ago. Mr.. Edward Il. Clarke, a Chi
eago naturalist, saw one in Lincoln Park
TOUR years ago. Two years ago some hunt
ers on the Illinois river found a flock of a
dozen and shot cock and hen. Other small
dian Territory. Early in the spring of the
present year newspapers reported that the
birds had appeared in Shasta county, Cali
fornia. Inquiry, however showed that they
were the band-tailed or Mexican pigeons.
A flock of fourteen now exists in wisconsin
1t escaped from confinement in Milwaukee
Mr.. A. Fugelberg, of Oshkosh has seen
different fiocks during the present year. He
writes: Il saw the pigeons Aug. IA between
and o'clock a. m. They flew from Fish
erman's Point across the bay to Stony
beach, on the west side of Lake Winnie
bago. 1t reminded me of those years from
90 to rs when | saw them by thousands fly
over this same bay and shot many of them
These pigeons of the 14th of August flew in
hocks of twenty to seveny-fve. / saw only
before l noticed the flight Two fiocks
came within gunshot of me- Others were
from one-quarter to one-half mile away. In
the early part of September | was hunting
prairie chickens, when l came across a
farmer who told me he had seen a, flock of
pigeons few days before. This was on the
north shore of Lake Butte des Morts' I
myself saw group of eight wild pigeons in
northern Louisiana in the spring of 1896
They perched upon the upper limbs of a
tall dead pine that grew near a country
read in Bossier parish. l shot at them
from the saddle but missed.
The millions of surviving passenger
pigeons have gone somewhere, but where?
Mr.. waterloo lnclines To the belief that
South America is their present habitat. He
says: With the instinct of knowing when
q territory had become Lninhabitable. it de-
cided to return no more to the United
States. What then. became of it? Is it
not now annually flying southwark and
making its great roosts in the vast wild re-
gion forming the central part of South
America. and having for its food the nuts
and berries of the vegetation lying between
the Andes and the peoped area along the
Atlantic coast? This is a portion of the
problem vet unsolved. 1t is a matter of ex-
treme difficulty TO reach by mall or to find
in any way intelligent observers in any
portion of the region over which, In theory.
the passenger pigeon may now be flying"
Where is the passenger pigeon? This is a
matter of much interest TO tine naturalist
of much interest, in fact. to everyone who
is concerned in our bird life