Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1940-06-01
CRUEL SLAUGHTER
OF WILD PIGEONS
STORY FORMS ONE OF BLACKLIST
PAGES IN AMERICAN
HISTORY
Where Once Millions Of These Birds
Migrated. Not One Single Specimen
Now Remains; Annihilation Provides
Lesson In Conservation.
By WALTER ED TAYLOR

Imagine q flock OF birds so dense
that its passing darkened the sun
like a storm cloud and the beating
Of Its myriad wings produced =
roar like that Of q great waterfall!
Imagine . flight Of birds 10 miles
In length and requiring an hour
TO pass a given point. If you can
picture such a fabulous scene, you
have a picture Of the flight Of the
passenger pigeon, n scene viewed
often by the early corners In the
Dakotas and Montana when these
remarkable birds inhabited our
continent by the millions And yet,
not one passenger pigeon remains
alive in America today--the last
specimen died In q Cincinnati ZOO
in 1914.
The great Audubon and others who
ventured into the western wilderness
century ago reported scenes like
those described above The passenger
pigeon was banished from the earth
by the hand Of man, and the story Of
blacklist pages In the history Of white
men In America In that story all
Americans may find q lesson In the
value Of game laws and game protec-
ton. Whenever game law legislation
Is brought up in the legislature there
are delegations OF representatives from
sportsmens organizations who rush In
to denounce the proposed legislation,
and apparently with little preliminary
study. 1t was ever thus. and when a
congressman had the audacity TO rise
in the national congress century ago
and propose laws for the protection
OF game and the assignment OF game
wardens, most OF his colleagues thought
he had gone insane and he was shout
ed down
Nesting Colony % Miles Long
Reports of the number of passenger
pigeons in the American wilderness
seem incredible, but they are the re-
ports Of serious naturalists and other
on bird life and they can
not be disputed. Alexander Wilson, the
Scotch ornithologist. tells Of a nesting
colony Of passenger pigeons which
covered an area q mile wide and more
than 30 miles In length Another re-
ported q nesting colony % miles long
and miles wide The passenger
pigeons not only migrated together but
also nested In thickly populated colo
MES, sometimes crowding the nesting
groves until the branches Of large trees
broke under their weight. The nests
we're poorly constructed Of twtgs and
the ground beneath the trees OF the
ICSt4lk COADil4co WCAC 5bICNn Will GsbS
that had fallen out.
Some authorities have attributed the
OF the passenger pigeon
10 natural causes, a great storm or a
Killing disease Others have expounded
the rather screwy theory that the
birds migrated enmaSSe TO some far
forest In Central America, like a bunch
Of Disconnected Cinnamon or social
democrat Germans. However, from
records Of the number OF birds killed
L is obvious that ruthless slaughter
vas a main factor in the extinction
If the passenger pigeons.
The Indians who hunted the passen-
ger pigeons for centuries made little
nroads on the f1ocks. It was the COM
ng Of white men that spelled doom
or the birds, for they were easy to
ill and a man with gun could bag
hundreds In a days hunting. AS the
population increased more and more
hunters took to the fields and the
laughter went on the year around.
some so-called sage had said that