Henderson daily dispatch., 1937-08-25
GETS SPECIMENS
OF RARE PIGEONS
Passenger Pigeon, Once
Plentiful in North Caro-
lima, Extinct

Raleigh. Aug. 25.- Thirty-six wear.
after their last appearance in NORTH
Carolina. two mounted Passenee,
pigeons valued at $1,000 are now
..roostine' upon their artificial perch
n North Cardinals State Museum.
Much like the ordinary pigeon that
i 50 we'll known in the State todav
the Passenger Pigeons occurred in
flocks numbering many millions in
North Carolina 100 years ago and the
state Museum officials had despair
ID Of ever obtaining this species of
hird until the Museum of COmparative
Zoology Harvard College. at Cam
bridge. Mass, made the donation of
the pair. Harry I. Davis, director of
the museum said
The last known living Passenger
pigeon was seen near Raleigh by n.
Fl Brimley. now curator of zoology
in the Museum, in 1901. The last
known living specimen died in the
Cincinnati Zoo in 1914 after IS years
Of captivity.
OF the two birds, the male pigeon
was taken in New York state in 1877
and the female in Minnesota in 1890.
Pointing out the value of the Pas
seneer Pigeon. Curator of ZOOLOGY
Brin1ley said. They represent a
species that occurred in North Caro-
lima literally in millions, both during
the nesting season and during the fall
nisrations. several generations ago"
Brimley sighted the last Passenger
Pigeon to be recorded in bird history
in North Carolina SO years ago in a
pine woods two miles east of the State
Capitol.
The late j. S. Cairns, of Weaver
Vile collected a specimen in 1891 and
the late Dr. Kemp F. Battle, of Ra-
leigh reported that he saw a flock
about a mile in width when at Bing-
ham School in 1871 or 1872 and when
at the University of North Carolina
in 1878 he killed one of a bunch of
three near Chapel HILL" the Curator
said.
Mr.. Brmley continued, ''The hui
man mind is incapable of realizing
the number of individuals of this
species that collected at various times
in many sections of most Of the ter
ritorv from northern Manitoba and
Northern Ontario to the States bor-
dering the Gulf of Mexico, and from
the eastern seaboard to eastern Mon
tana and Western Texas a hundred
wears ago One nesting site was about
. miles wide by 40 miles in length.
A single flock of Passenger Pigeons
was estimated to contain nearly 2 IA
million birds, it being about $40 miles
long by one mile wide, and only the
lower layers Of the flying birds were
considered in the estimate. Audubon
mentioned a flight that obscured the
sun for three days in succession. An
other roost was 3 by 40 miles in ex-
tent"
The last really big meeting place
covered about $50 square miles. And,
in endeavoring to picture such a
scene, it must be understood that the
birds were often so thick on the tree
branches that limbs as large as
mans thigh were broken down by
their weight. And now, out of these
countless billions, not a single speci-
men is known to be alive.
The Passenger Pigeons were ex-
changed by the Massachusetts
Museum for two beaver skins from
the last colony native to North Caro-
lima The skins, duplicates of those
already in the Museum, were taken
from beavers collected near Sandy
Ridge. N. c., on Dan River, in 1897,
for the State Museum.