The Pigeon in Manitoba[G]
By George E. Atkinson
[Footnote G: This paper was read at a meeting of the Manitoba
Historical and Scientific Society at Winnepeg in 1905, by the author, a
naturalist, residing at Portage la Prairie.]
While the biological history of any country records the decrease
and disappearance of many forms of life due to just or unjust
circumstances, it remains for the historical records of North America
to reveal a career of human selfishness which may be considered the
paragon. Within four centuries of North American civilization (or
modified barbarism) we can be credited with the wiping into the past
of at least three species of animal life originally so phenomenally
abundant and so strikingly characteristic in themselves as to evoke
the wonder and amazement of the entire world. And, sad to relate,
so effectual has been the extermination, that it is doubtful if our
descendants a few generations hence will be able to learn anything
whatever about them save through the medium of books. While herein
again we shall be just subjects of their censure for having manifestly
failed to preserve in history's archives any material amount of
specific information.
The early settlers landing upon the Atlantic coast between Newfoundland
and the Carolinas found them in possession of armies of great auks, and
the few scraps of authenticated history which we now possess disclose a
most iniquitous course of wanton slaughter and destruction which ended
in the complete extinction of the bird over sixty years ago. Yet in the
face of this destruction there remain but four mounted specimens and
two eggs in the collections of North America to-day, while but seventy
skins remain in the collections of the entire world.
If possible, more ruthless and inhuman was the carnage waged against
the noble buffalo, the countless thousands of which roaming over virgin
prairies excited the wonder and amazement of the entire sporting and
scientific world, and which, to-day, are represented only in the
zoölogical parks, where all individuality will eventually be lost in
domestication.
Coincident almost with the passing of the buffalo we have to record
the decline and fall of the Passenger Pigeon, a bird which aroused
the excitement and wonder of the entire world during the first half
of the last century because of its phenomenal numbers; a bird also
which stood out unique in character and individuality among the 300
described pigeons of the world and which won the admiration of every
ornithologist who was fortunate enough to have experience with it
living or dead. Yet it was not exempt from the oppression of its human
foe, who has been instrumental, through interference with the breeding
and feeding grounds and through a continued persecution and ruthless
slaughter for the market, in reducing the species almost beyond the
hope of salvation.
The Passenger Pigeon, the species under observation, was first
described under the genus _Columba_, or type pigeons, but subsequently
Swainson separated it from these and placed it under the genus
_Ectopistes_ because of the greater length of wing and tail.
Generically named _Ectopistes_, meaning moving about or wandering, and
specifically named _Migratoria_, meaning migratory, we have a technical
name implying not only a species of migrating annually to and from
their breeding ground, but one given to moving about from season to
season, selecting the most congenial environment for both breeding and
feeding.
... With all the knowledge we have possessed of the inestimable
multitudes which existed during the early part of the last century,
and with their decline, begun and noted generally in the later sixties
and early seventies, we still find that no steps whatever were taken
to prevent their possible depletion, and few records of any value are
made of the continuance or speed of this decrease; and not until the
last decade of the century do we awake to the fact that the pigeons
are gone beyond the possibility of a return in any numbers. When a
few years later reports are made that pigeons still exist and are
again increasing, scientific investigation shows that the mourning
dove has been mistaken for the pigeon or that the band-tailed pigeon
of California is taken for the old Passenger Pigeon, and so we have
continued since the early nineties investigating rumors of their
appearance from all over America, north and south, and the West India
Islands, but all reports point us to the past for the pigeon and some
other species under suspicion.... I doubt very much if the historian
desirous of compiling any historical work would find himself confronted
with such a decided blank in historical records during an important
period as that confronted in the compilation of a historical record of
the Passenger Pigeon within any district which it formerly frequented
during the period from about 1870, when the decline was first noticed,
to 1890, when the birds had practically passed away....
In this matter, Mr. J. H. Fleming of Toronto, in writing me, says:
"The pigeons seem to have gone off like dynamite. Nobody expected it
and nobody prepared a series of skins"; and to this I can add that no
one seems to have made any series of records of the birds from year
to year. Since their disappearance, however, things have changed:
everybody is alert for pigeons, and everybody has a theory; but beyond
offering subject of social conversation, or awakening a recital of old
pigeon experiences from the old timers, these rumors and theories seem
to return to the winds from whence they came.
The latest theory advanced to me by a correspondent is the possibility
of some disturbance of the elements in the shape of a cyclone, or a
storm striking a migrating host in crossing the Gulf of Mexico and
destroying them almost completely. This is a plausible theory, but I am
unable to conceive how such immense hosts of pigeons as are recorded up
to 1865 could possibly have met with sudden disaster in this manner,
even in the center of the Gulf, without leaving some wreckage to tell
the story, and such is not recorded. While again I do not think that
the entire host would cross the Gulf, but that a large portion of
the migrating birds would take an overland route through Mexico and
Central America to the southern boundary of their flight. Personally
I am inclined to cherish my original contentions that the continued
disturbance of the breeding and feeding grounds, both by the slaughter
of the birds for market and by the dissipating of the original immense
colonies by the clearing of the hardwood and pine forests of the United
States and eastern Canada, compelling these sections of the main column
to travel farther in search of congenial environment, curtailing the
breeding season, and, I have no doubt, frequently preventing many from
breeding for several seasons.
While the persistent persecution and destruction for the market was
in no way proportionately lessened in the vicinity of these smaller
colonies as long as a sufficient number of the birds remained to make
the traffic profitable, it can at once be seen that this continued
drain upon these smaller colonies, when other conditions were becoming
more difficult for the birds to contend with, would be instrumental in
depleting the entire former main column to a point when netting and
shooting were no longer profitable; and, the remnant of these colonies
having to run a gantlet of persecution over their entire course of
migration to and from winter quarters, there could be but one result to
such proceeding, and that one we now face; extermination.
Of these records made during the pigeons' day, as we might call it,
the earliest we have are those made by a Mr. T. Hutchins, who was a
Hudson's Bay Company trader, operating for some twenty-five years
in the district adjacent to Hudson's Bay, during which time he made
copious notes of the birds frequenting that district, which were
afterwards published by Pennant in his "Arctic Zoölogy" in 1875. He
says in part:
"The first pigeon I shall take note of is one I received at Severn in
1771; and, having sent it home to Mr. Pennant, he informed me that it
was the _migratoria_ species. They are very numerous inland and visit
our settlement in the summer. They are plentiful about Moose Factory
and inland, where they breed, choosing an arboreous situation. The
gentlemen number them among the many delicacies the Hudson's Bay
affords our tables. It is a hardy bird, continuing with us until
December. In summer their food is berries, but after these are covered
with snow, they feed upon the juniper buds. They lay two eggs and
are gregarious. About 1756 these birds migrated as far north as York
Factory, but remained only two days."
In a report issued in 1795, Samuel Hearne also reports the birds being
abundant inland from the southern portion of Hudson's Bay, but states
that, though good eating, they were seldom fat.
The first provincial record is that made by Sir John Richardson in
1827, in which he says: "A few hordes of Indians who frequent the low
floods districts at the south end of Lake Winnipeg subsist principally
on the pigeons during the period when the sturgeon fishing is
unproductive and the wild rice is still unripened, but farther north
the birds are too few in numbers to furnish material diet."
I presume that he means farther up the Lake Winnipeg shores, since
Hutchins and Hearne both reported them common nearer Hudson's Bay.
The early records of the birds in eastern Canada in later years
corroborate the earlier statements of Wilson and Audubon in almost
every particular; and one acquainted with the timbered conditions of
the country to the immediate west of the Red River Valley and north of
the American boundary line can readily appreciate the utter inadequacy
of an acceptable food supply for these countless millions of pigeons;
and we can also readily understand how very soon the breaking up of
the original hardwood forests of eastern Canada would tend to decrease
the visible food supply and cause these hungry millions to seek new
pastures.
The breaking of these feeding grounds would first be instrumental in
scattering or breaking up the largest flocks, and even the very long
distances the bird was able to fly from breeding to feeding ground
would be exceeded, necessitating next the nesting in smaller colonies,
where careless nesting habits with continued changing conditions
would tend to continue to decline their numbers, while the tenacity
with which even the smaller roosts were clung to by man, like leeches
to a frog, and the hapless victim shot, netted and stolen from the
nest before maturity, was but another effectual and not the least
responsible agent in the relegation of the pigeon to that past from
which none return.
When I decided to attempt the preparation of a review history of the
pigeon in Manitoba, I felt that, having had practically no experience
with the bird myself, I should have to depend upon the reports of
representative pioneers of the country for my facts as to the numbers
of the birds formerly found here, and the period of their decline
and disappearance. I accordingly drafted a series of questions which
I submitted to these gentlemen, and I have to tender them all my
sincere thanks, as well as that of the scientific world, for the ready
responses and the conciseness of the information received.
One of the earliest residents of Portage la Prairie, Mr. George A.
Garrioch, informs me:
"I was born in Manitoba and came to Portage la Prairie about 1853. I
was then only about six years old, and as far back as I can remember
pigeons were very numerous.
"They passed over every spring, usually during the mornings, in very
large flocks, following each other in rapid succession.
"I do not think they bred in any numbers in the province, as I only
remember seeing one nest; this contained two eggs.
"The birds, to my recollection, were most numerous in the fifties, and
the decline was noticed in the later sixties and continued until the
early eighties, when they disappeared. I have observed none since until
last year, when I am positive I saw a single male bird south of the
town of Portage la Prairie."
Mr. Angus Sutherland of Winnipeg, in reply to my interrogation, states:
"I was born in the present city of Winnipeg and have lived here over
fifty years. The wild pigeons were very numerous in my boyhood. They
frequented the mixed woods about the city, and while undoubtedly
many birds bred here, I remember no extensive breeding colonies in
the province, and believe the great majority passed farther north to
breed. About 1870 the decrease in their numbers was most pronouncedly
manifest, this decline continuing until the early eighties, when they
had apparently all disappeared, and I have seen only occasional birds
since, and none of late years."
Mr. W. J. McLean, formerly of the Hudson's Bay Company and at present
a resident of Winnipeg, sends me some valuable information, which
supports my contention regarding the influence of food supply. He
writes:
"I came to the Red River Settlement in 1860 and found the pigeons
very plentiful on my arrival. The birds came in many thousands, and
great numbers of them bred in the northeastern portion of the province
through the district north of the Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake,
where the cranberry and blueberry are abundant. These fruits constitute
their chief food supply, as they remain on the bushes and retain much
of their food properties until well on into the summer following their
growth. They also feed largely on acorns wherever they abound. The
decline began about the early seventies, and 1877 was the first year
in which I encountered large flocks of them passing northwesterly from
White Sand River near Fort Pelly. This was on a dull, drizzling day
about the middle of May, and I presume they were then heading towards
the Barren Grounds district, where the blueberry and the cranberry are
very abundant."
Mr. E. H. G. G. Hay, formerly police magistrate of Portage la Prairie,
now of St. Andrews, reports:
"I came to the country in June, 1861, and found that the pigeons were
abundant previous to my arrival. To give you an idea of their numbers,
a Mr. Thompson of St. Andrews some mornings caught with a net about ten
feet square as many as eighty dozen, and in the spring of 1864 I fired
into a flock as they rose from the ground and picked up seventeen birds.
"The birds were mostly migratory in what is now known as Manitoba,
and most of them went farther north after the seeding season. I never
heard of any extensive rookeries such as those observed in the east
and south. The few that bred here frequented mixed poplar and spruce.
They seemed most numerous in the sixties and began to show signs of
decreasing about 1869 or 1870, and by 1875 they had all disappeared and
I have only seen an occasional bird since."
Mr. William Clark of the Hudson's Bay Company, Winnipeg, informs me:
"The first place I remember having seen pigeons in Manitoba was at
White Horse Plains (St. François Xavier) in 1865, where they were very
numerous, breeding in the oak trees in that district. Two years after
this I went to Oak Point on Lake Manitoba, but do not remember the
birds there then nor since."
Mr. Charles A. Boultbee of Macgregor, Man., replies as follows:
"I have resided in Manitoba since 1872, and have taken pigeons as far
north as Fort Pelly in the fall of 1874, but know nothing of them
previously. In our district they usually made their appearance in the
fall and fed upon the grain. They continued fairly numerous until about
1882, at which time we had to drive them from the grain stocks, but
they then disappeared and only stragglers have been noted since."
There is no doubt that many other reports could have been secured, but,
as all seem to tend toward the one conclusion, I shall save time and
space by summarizing the information at hand.
Some months ago I made a statement in an article, written for local
interest, to the effect that Manitoba had never been the home of the
wild pigeon. By this I meant that, because of unfavorable breeding and
feeding conditions within the province, only the smallest percentage
of the enormous flocks recorded for the south and east could possibly
exist here. The records here collected support me in this contention
so far as that portion of the province west of the Red River is
concerned, but the record of Sir John Richardson tends to show that
favorable conditions must have existed immediately south of Lake
Winnipeg, through what he calls a low-lying district, and where we can
assume that the cranberry and blueberry were abundant, as they were
through the district subsequently reported by Mr. McLean to the east
and northeast of this district. There is no doubt that the difference
in the character of the country east of the Red River from that of
the west would present more favorable conditions for the birds, but
not in one case has it been shown that the birds nested in colonies
approaching the size of the famous eastern and southern roosts. Reports
seem rather to show that those which bred within the province were more
generally scattered over the country, at the same time being numerous
enough to permit the shooter and the netter to make a profitable
business of killing the birds.
All evidence seems to show that large numbers passed through the
province to and from a northern breeding ground, possibly that recorded
by Hutchins near Hudson's Bay and to the westward, and that they were
excessively numerous up to about 1870, when they began to decrease. As
to the latest authenticated records, I quote from notes in my pamphlet
on "Rare Bird Records:"
"The beautiful specimen of the Passenger Pigeon that I have been able
to secure for illustration is loaned me by Mr. Dan Smith of Winnipeg,
who shot it in St. Boniface, southeast of the cathedral, in the fall
of 1893; and, so far as I have been able to discover, it was the last
bird found in the vicinity of Winnipeg, while the only specimen in the
flesh which I was ever privileged to handle in Manitoba was killed at
Winnipegosis on April 10, 1896, and sent me to be mounted."
[Illustration: Photo by C. O. Whitman (University of Chicago)
October 16, 1906.
Mr. W. B. Mershon,
Dear Sir:--I am much chagrined over my carelessness in overlooking
your request for a photo of a young Passenger Pigeon. I had best of
intentions, but crowded work threw this out of mind. I should have
attended to it at first, had it been easy to get at the picture. I have
been away all summer and found things misplaced on my return. I fear it
is now too late, but send the picture to be used if you are still able
to do so. I shall be very much interested to see your book. I still
have two female pigeons and two hybrids between a former male pigeon
and the common Ring-dove. The hybrids are unfortunately infertile males.
Very truly,
C. O. Whitman.]
Since that time I have expended much effort in following up rumors of
the bird's presence in various districts with a view of locating a
breeding pair. Not only have I sought to secure a bird to mount, but
also to get a live pair, or the eggs while fresh, to assist in the
preservation of the pigeon in a partially domesticated state, since
the only specimens now living in captivity are those owned by Prof.
Whitman of the University of Chicago, who, in writing me, says: "My
stock seems to have come to a complete standstill, having raised no
young for the last four years. The weakness is due to long inbreeding,
as my birds are from a single pair captured about twenty-five years
ago in Wisconsin. I have long tried to secure new stock, but have been
unsuccessful. A single pair would enable me to save them, for they
breed well in confinement.
"I have crossed them with ring doves, and still have three hybrids,
but as these are infertile there is no hope of even preserving these
half-breeds alive. Of all the wild pigeons in the world the Passenger
Pigeon is my favorite. No other pigeon combines so many fine qualities
in form, color, strength and perfection of wing power."
I am enabled through the kindness of Prof. Whitman to exhibit a
photograph of one of his younger birds taken in his aviary at Chicago.