Martinsburg statesman-democrat. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1906-1921, 1910-04-08

Dattie Creek, ~ lcn, Maren ZL.-O1S
of the greatest ornithoiogieal mystic
les, and one that has never been solved,
Is the disappearance of the wild pigeon
OF North America.
The young folk of today have no
conception Of the magnitude of the
numbers Of the wild pigeons. The
fioeks numbered millions. 1t was the
same throughout the Northwest. An.
dubou and Wilson, the noted ornitho-
gists, tell Of the almost iuconceivsble
numbers they saw in the early part Of
the ninteenth century in the valley of
the Mississippi and its tributaries.
Audubon tells Of having seen the
birds in such numben in Kentucky
that the MONDAY sun was obseured as
if by an eclipse. This flight continued
uninterrupted and in undlminishing
numbers for three days in succession.
Audubon visited one Kentucky
roest that was forty miles long and
three miles wide.
So swift and complete has been the
extinction that today not one out Of
thousand persons now in Michigan
ever saw wild pigeon.
The sight of the flight of the pigeons
was a magnificent ore. Nothing more
beautiful was ever seen in bird life.
The birds were the personiiication of
grace and motion when ip flight.
They came In countless nun hers, the
flocks extending from horizon to hori-
zon, one flock following close upon an
other Those were the halcyon days If
hunting in Michigan, but, alas! were
fated days for the pigeon
The most noted migration in this
state vas the great flight of 1876. Late
one afternoon on a dismal March day
the pigeons began to arrive near Ptos-
key. The birds came In two bodies,
one directly from the south by land,
and the other following the east coast
of Wisconsin until they reached the
Manitou islands, when this great army
of birds changed its course and flew
straight across Lake Michigan. This
latter body came in from the lake just
before dark. Those persons who saw
it say that it wasa compact mass
| fully six miles long and two miles
wide.
These birds commenced! to build
their nests. Their nesting grounds were
twenty-nins mites long and from three
to five miles wide.
From Petoskey for nine miles
through hardwood timber, then scross
a river swamp, and then through
twenty miles of white pine, did this
throng of birds build their nests. The
nest of the pigeon consisted of nekety
platform of sticks. There was only one
egg in a nest, rarely two. The eggs
were white. The wild pigeon is known
as the passenger pigeon. The birds re.
NAMED for six weeks and during that
time an army of one thousand men
| waged war of determination
against them. Each day fourteen
thousand birds were shipped away by
rail and an equal number by water
More than one hundred and twenty
| five thousand birds were shipped by
meters. Thousands of squads died in
their nests and thousands of wounded
and cid birds were left TO die. The
number of birds slaughtered can never
be estimated. From that time the pig
cons grew fewer IN numbers, as large
| tlocks.
- The last big flock came to Petoshey
in the spring of 1888. A few isolated
pairs stopped TO nest in that section,
bt the great body crossed the Straits
of Mackinaw and disappeared in the
wilds of Canada. The pigeons never
returned. The disappearance of the
last great flock marking the Bpassing
of the pigeon.