The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-07
AN EXTINCT GAME BIRD
FRUITLEss SEARCH FOR A LIVE
SPECIMEN OF THE WILD PIGEON.
Time Was, and Not Long Ago, When
Countless Millions of These Birds.

The announcement is made by the Smith
sonan Institution that it has been impos-
sible to obtain a single live specimen of
the wild, or Passenger pigeon. Notwith-
| standing liberal reward was offered by
the institution and much correspondence
carried on, no live wild pigeon has been
brought forward.
| That this native American bird is ex-
| tinct will no doubt astonish 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 middle life can
remember the vast flights of pigeons which
| could be seen any day in the fall after the
middle of October and all through Novenl-
| Der. Sometimes these flights stretched
| across the sky from horizon to horizon, and
so dense that the sun was hid for hours at
a time from the eyes Of the beholder. Audo-
| bon, the great ornithoogist, observed a
| 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 flight, and found that beyond ques-
| ton there was more than five hundred mil
| lion. Further than this he estimated there
| could not have been less than this number
in the smaller and detached flights which
were passing to the north in great num-
bers early in the day, flying very swiftly
and unusually high These first flights APP
| peared to be the vanguard of an immense
army patrolling the blue field of heaven
unheralded by banner or bugle, yet possess
sing the dignity and confidence of over
whelming numbers. He observed with the
utmost wonder that the number of flights
visible early in the day increased and multi
| piled until the earth was canoped with
| the feathered hosts, and that when the
main body of the rank and file had passed
there were yet detached regiments to COW
err the rear of the fleeing army. The stray
glers continued to pass until darkness rem
dered them invisible. This wonderful flight
| is well authenticated not alone by Audo-
| bon, which would have been sufficient, but
by many persons who were living in the
territory the birds flew over.
This portion of Indiana never witnessed
such flight as that, but every year the
birds flew in numbers utterly beyond count
ing. During the latter part of October and
during November the birds passed from
their summer homes in the Northern for
ests to the mild climate of the South, and
selected that portion of the country for
| their home where their natural food was
most plentiful. The feeding ground of the
birds was not restricted to a few square
| miles, but so numerous were they and so
| great the quantity of food they consumed
that hundreds of square miles were re-
quired for their roosts and several States
drawn upon to furnish their food.
A SCENE OF CONFUSION.
| A pigeon roost was place where eonfu~
| sion worse COMPOUNDED reigned supreme.
Towards evening. when the foraging party
returned to it's nightly resting place, the
uproar and tumult caused by the rushing
OF tens Of thousands of wings was deafen-
| ing and bewidering. The place was not
without its danger, for branches of trees
were torn from the trunks by the weight
of the birds that chung to them for roost
and crashed downward to the earth, break
ing other branches in their fall and start
| ing thousands of ready wings to flutterinG
until the sound was as the roaring of u
| mighty wind through the tree tops. In
| such mishaps, which were constantly occur
! ring over wide expanse of country, NUM-
| berless birds were killed and wounded and
| fell to the ground, where they became prey
to countless swine that roamed the woods
The birds would not forsake a roost so
| long as food could be obtained in half
| days journey. In the nesting season, when
the male bird attends with the most assid-
nous care upon the nesting mate, These
dauntless husbands have been known to fly
two hundred miles in search of food, and
their return was the signal for outburst
of the most camorous joy on the part OF
those who remained.
Always about a pigeon roost were many
birds, usually males. who evidently believed
that they also serve who only stand and
wait" Those birds were to the pigeon
| roost what the drones are to the hives, and
reaped only some other pigeons sowing.
| These birds were evidently despised by the
workers, for when the demands for food
| became too aggressive they were set upon
by mob of pigeons and remorselessly
lynched. The usefulness of these idlers has
never been discovered, and as the family
relations of pigeon life were known to ex-
list, it is surmised that they were the dudes
of pigeon civilization.
In the neighborhood of Connersville, in the
southeastern part of this State, there was,
some thirty years ago, an immense woods
which every fall, as the pigeons went south.
and in the following spring. as they jour-
neyed north to their summer homes, was oc-
cupied as a roost at night. This was a
stopping place for the migrating birds.
1t is not known that the same birds ever
returned to it, but every evening the steady
columns swiftly deployed into this woods
until every tree weighted down with
its living load. Within hour or two
after nightfaI the birds became quiet, and
| the sigh of the winds was the only sound
| save the gentle coo of some sleepless birds
whose rest was disturbed by the encroach-
ment of others Late at night, when tho
tired birds were supposed to be deep in
/ slumber. men came from all directions with
wagons piled high with coops They were
armed with long poles and sticks, and car
ried torches. The lights glare seemed to
! paralyze the birds, for those in the vicinity
Of the lights remained inactive while the
men beat those the lower branches into
insensibility with their sticks and dislodged
| hundreds with their poles. The dead and
| wounded birds were gathered up and stuffed
! into the coops until they would hold no
more, when they were taken into town,
/ where they were sold TO a dealer who en-
| ployed men and women to pick and clean
| the birds and pack them into barrels. Hun
| dreds of barrels were shipped out OF Com
nersville during a season, and this business
was carried on for years each spring and