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

| impossible 10 OOIaln Il oi'SiN
specimen of the wild or passenger
pigeon. Notwithstanding liberal
reward was offered and much'corres-
pondencc carried on, no live wild
pigeon has been brought forward.
That shis native American bird is
extinct will no doubt astonish many
persons, for it has been but few
years ago that they were 50 plentiful
as to actually seem to outnumber the
leaves on the trees through which
they drove their amazingly rapid
flight. Persons yet in the middle lite
can remember the vast flights OF
pigeons which could be seen any day
in the fall after the middle Of 0cto-
Der and all through November, Some
times these flights stretched across
the sky from horizon to horizon, and
SO dense that the sun was for hours
hidden. Audubon observed a fight
Of pigeons in Kentucky that extended
as far as the eye could see aud was
more than frye hours in passing. He
attempted to compute the number OF
individual birds in the flight, and
found that beyond question there was
more than FIVE hundred million,s Fur
| ther 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 numbers early in the
day. flying very swiftly and unusually
high. These first fights appeared to
be the vanguard Of an immense army:
He observed with the utmost wonder
that the number of flights visible
early in the day increased until the
earth was canopied with the featRered
hosts, and that when the main body
of the rank and file had passed there
was yet detached regiments 10 cover
the rear of the fleeing army. The
stragglers passed until darkness rem
dered them invisible.
A pigeon roost was a place where
confusion worse confounded reigned
supreme, Towards evening, when the
foraging party returned to its nightly
resting place, the uproar and tumult
caused by the rushing Of tens Of thous-
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
chung to them for roost. and crashed
downward 60 the earth, breaking other
branches in their fall, and starting
thousands of ready wings to Auttering
until the sound was as the soaring OF a
mighty wind through the tree tops.
In such mishaps, which were constant
ly occurring over 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 a roost
so long as food could be obtained in
half days journey. In the nesting
season. when the male birds attends
with assiduous care upon the nesting
mate. these dauntless husbands have
been known to fly 200 miles in search
of food, and their return was the sig
nal for an outburst of the most clam
orous Joy on the part Of those who re-
NAMED.
In the neighborhood of Cohners-
vile, 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
a stopping place for the migrating
birds. Every evening the steady col
umns swiftly deployed into this wood
until every tree was weighted down
with it's iiving 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 of some sleepless birds whose rest
was disturbed by the encroachment of
others. Late at night men came from
all directions with wagons piled high
with coops They we're armed with
long poles and sticks and carried
torches. The lights glare seemed to
paralyzc the birds, for these in the
vicinity OF the lights remained mac
tive, while the men beat those on the
lower branches into insensibility with
their sticks, and dislodged hundreds
with their poles. The dead and
wounded birds were gathered up and
| c+uffad into tho coons iii Tn ev vonld