The Opelousas courier., 1899-09-02
4 WILD PIGEON'SF FATE
LIKE THE BUFFALO 1T HAS ALMOST
DISAPPEARED FROM VIEW,

DISAPPEARED FROM VIEW.
-
countless Numbers In Various Parts ri
the Countrywide Old "Piseon Rao,.,,
Wa q Wonderful Exhibition-The War
of DETERMINATION That Was Waeed.
In Recreation, a sportsman's maya
tine, Mr., Stanley Waterloo propounds
an interesting query and goes as far
toward answering it as he can. He
wants to know what hes become of the
passenger overwhelmingly called
stwild pigeon -hich within the
memory of middle-aged men existed
in North America in billions, and has
almost utterly disappeared. The fate
8 fthis bird, says Il. S. Garfield In the
Chicago Times Herald, is strangely
similar to the fate Of the buffalo. Both
were hero in countless swarms and
both were wiped out by the waves of
civilization BECAUSE they we're easily
approached and slain. Nature, how
ever, generally has it's balances.
Anybody could kill wild pigeons by
the car load where they were plenti-
full, but tho bird was gifted with an
instinct which warned it to forsake q
country wherein it was ruthlessly
slaughtered. This it has done repent
eddy 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 be-
gan. The bird crossed the Alle-
ghen}es, never to return, and made its
.:roosts" in Michigan, Wisconsin and
neighboring territories. Still insane
ly pursued with destruction, it moved
further west and south. It would not
cross the Rockies, and the last ''roost'
Of the old gigantic size Of which we
have any record was made in Indian
Territory. When this was broken up
the bird disappeared from the United
States. This was twenty years ago.
The dead pigeons were shipped
through the country in a load lots
and sold in The St. Louis market ct
twenty-five cents a dozen.
, The old pigeon roost'' was a won
derful 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. Potter
ing about under the trees were foxes,
wolves and other small animals of prey
feeding upon the squads which were
jostled from the nests. Describing o
~'troost" in Kentucky, Audubon says:
"When they passed above my head I
felt q current Of Dir which astonished
me. Thousands were already struck
down by men armed with poles, but
they continued to arrive without inter-
mission. Fires were lighted. The
birds precipitated themselves in masses
and PITCHED where they could, one
upon the other, in large heaps like bar
rels. Then the branches gave way
under their weight, cracked and fell,
bringing to the ground and crushing
the closely packed focks which GOV
cred every part Of the trees. In vain
I tried to speak, or even to call the
person nearest me. It was with Diff
Guilty I could hear the guns fred. The
uproar continued all night. At sun
rise all that could fly had disappeared.
Now it was the VOLTS turn, the bowls
which saluted our ears. Foxes,
cougars, bears, rats, opossums
aud martens, bounding, running,
climbing, pressed to the quarry, while
and falcons of different species
few down to take part of such rich
The pigeons were piled in
heaps. Each took what he wished and
the pigs were left to satiate themselves
on the remainder"
Even after the great slaughter in
Territory millions Of pigeons
left. They came no more to
this country. In the course Of an in
that has extended over many
years, Mr.. Waterloo has discovered
hat they have come back to the
States in small punches nov
and then, revisiting their old haunts
the Middle States in a ''pitiful
way" as late as four or five
years ago. Mr.. Edward B. Clarke, a
Chicago naturalist, saw one in Lin
,oln Park four years ago. Two
years ago some hunters on the Illi-
nois River found o flock of o dozen
md shot o cock and hen. Other
groups have been seen in Mis-
souri, aud Indian Territory. A flock
fourteen now exists in Wisconsin.
It escaped from confinement in Mil
waukee last winter.
The millions of surviving passenger |
have gone somewhere, but
MI. Waterloo inclines to the
belief that South America is their
present habitat. He says: with
heinstinct Of knowing when o terri
had become uninhabitable, it
to return no more to the
States. What then became of
it not now annually flying
and: making its great
.oosts in the vast wild region forming
central part of South America,
md having for its food the nuts and
of the vegetation lying between
he Andes and the peopled area along
Atlantic coast? This is o portion
il the problem yet unsolved. II is q
natter Of extreme difficulty to reach
~ mail, or to find in any way intelli-
rent observers in any portion OF the
region over which, in theory, the pas
,enger pigeon may now be flying"
Whoro "a fha pigeon? This |
s q matter Ebf much interest to the
,aturalistA8f much interest, in fact,
10 everyon8swh is concerned in our
bird life.