Miscellaneous Notes
The earliest mention of the wild pigeon I have been able to find is the
following, taken from _Forest and Stream_, to which it was contributed
by F. C. Browne, Framingham, Mass. It is from an old print entitled,
"Two Voyages to New England, Made During the Years 1638-63," by John
Josselyn, Gent. Published in 1674. I am not so fortunate as to possess
an original copy. This extract is from the Boston reprint of 1865, and
is from the "Second Voyage" (1663), which has a full account of the
wild beasts, birds and fishes of the new settlement:
"The Pidgeons, of which there are millions of millions. I have seen a
flight of Pidgeons in the Spring, and at Michaelmas when they return
back to the South-ward, for four or five miles, that to my thinking had
neither beginning nor ending, length nor breadth, and so thick that
I could see no Sun. They join Nest to Nest and Tree to Tree by their
Nests many miles together in Pine-Trees. I have bought at Boston a
dozen Pidgeons ready pulled and garbidged for three pence. But of late
they are much diminished, the English taking them with Nets."
It will be noted that the wild pigeons began to be "much diminished"
even at that early date.
The following extract is from the journal of the voyage of Father
Gravier in the year 1700:
"Through the Country of the Illinois to the Mouth of the Mississippi."
Under date of October 7th he says:
"Below the mouth of the Ouabache (meaning the Wabash River), we saw
such a great quantity of wild pigeons that the air was darkened and
quite covered by them."
The journal of Alexander Henry, the younger, written in August, 1800,
states that large numbers of wild pigeons were seen and used for food
by his party. This was at a point on the Red River not far north of
what is now Grand Forks, N. D.
The Passenger Pigeon found a place in a book called "Quebec and Its
Environments; Being a Picturesque Guide to the Stranger." Printed
by Thomas Cary & Co., Freemasons' Hall, Buade Street, 1831. A rare
copy was found in the library of the late Charles Dean, having
been purchased by him while visiting Quebec in 1841. It is now in
the possession of Ruthven Deane of Chicago. I quote from this old
guide-book as follows:
[Illustration: PIGEON NET
Taken from an old etching]
"At one period of the year numerous and immense flights of pigeons
visit Canada, when the population make a furious war against them both
by guns and nets; they supply the inhabitants with a material part of
their subsistence, and are sold in the market at Quebec remarkably
cheap, often as low as a shilling per dozen, and sometimes even at a
less rate. It appears that the pigeon prefers the loftiest and most
leafless tree to settle on. In addition to the natural beauty of St.
Ann and its environs, the process by which the inhabitants take the
pigeons is worth remarking. Upon the loftiest tree, long bare poles are
slantingly fixed; small pieces of wood are placed transversely across
this pole, upon which the birds crowd; below, in ambush, the sportsman
with a long gun enfilades the whole length of the pole, and, when he
fires, few if any escape. Innumerable poles are prepared at St. Ann for
this purpose. The other method they have of taking them is by nets,
by which means they are enabled to preserve them alive, and kill them
occasionally for their own use or for the market, when it has ceased
to be glutted with them. Behind Madam Fontane's this sport may be seen
in perfection. The nets, which are very large, are placed at the end
of an avenue of trees (for it appears the pigeons choose an avenue
to fly down); opposite a large tree, upon erect poles two nets are
suspended, one facing the avenue, the other the tree; another is placed
over them, which is fixed at one end, and supported by pulleys and two
perpendicular poles at the opposite; a man is hid in a small covered
house under the tree, with a rope leading from the pulleys in his hand.
Directly the pigeons fly against the perpendicular nets, he pulls the
rope, when the top net immediately falls and incloses the whole flock;
by this process vast numbers are taken."
"Tanner's Narrative," a story (authentic) of thirty years among the
Indians, published in 1830, refers frequently to great numbers of
pigeons, and gives their range from the Kentucky, Big Miami and Ohio
Rivers to Lake Winnipeg, or "The Lake of Dirty Waters."
Mr. Osborn further adds: "Tanner was a United States Indian interpreter
at the Soo."
William Glazier made a trip to the headwaters of the Mississippi River
in 1881 and wrote a book entitled "Down the Mississippi River." In
three different places in this book he mentions seeing wild pigeons.
In one place he says that a small flock of pigeons dropped down in the
tops of some tall pines near him.
In Hayden's Survey Report, Interior Department, as given in Coues'
"Birds of the Northwest," 1874, it is mentioned that wild pigeons
were found on the Pacific coast, and Cooper reports them in the
Rocky Mountains. [High authority, but it must have referred to the
band-tailed pigeon.--W. B. M.]
From the foregoing chapters I have summarized the latest reports of the
presence of the wild pigeon in its former haunts. These instances have
been reported as follows:
N. W. Judy & Co., St. Louis, Mo., the largest dealers in poultry and
game in that section, said, in 1895, they had had no wild pigeons for
two years; the last they received were from Siloam Springs, Ark. This
would mean that they were on the market during the season of 1893.
Until 1890 frequent reports were recorded of pigeons seen singly, in
pairs and in small flocks.
In 1891 Mr. F. M. Woodruff, Assistant Curator of the Chicago Academy of
Sciences, secured a pair at Lake Forest, Ill.
A nest with two eggs and two birds were collected by C. B. Brown of
Chicago in the spring of 1893 at English Lake, Ind.
In September, 1893, three were reported in Lake County, Ill.
In April of the same year, a male pigeon was reported as having been
seen in Lincoln Park, Ill.
Mr. R. W. Stafford of Chicago, Ill., reported seeing a flock in the
latter part of September, 1894, at Marengo, Ill.
Mr. John L. Stockton, Highland Park, Ill., reported that while trout
fishing on the Little Oconto River, Wis., early in June, 1895, he saw a
flock of ten pigeons for several consecutive days near his camp.
A young female was killed at Lake Forest, Ill., in August, 1895.
In October, 1895, Dr. Ernest Copeland of Milwaukee killed one in Delta,
Northern Peninsula, Mich.
On December 17, 1896, C. N. Holden, Jr., while hunting quail in Oregon
County, Mo., observed a flock of about fifty birds.
Chief Pokagon reports there was a small nesting of pigeons near the
head waters of the Au Sable River in Michigan, during the spring of
1896.
A. Fugleburg of Oshkosh, Wis., reports that on the morning of August
14, 1897, he saw a flock of pigeons flying over Lake Winnebago from
Fisherman's Island to Stony Brook. This flock was followed by six more
flocks containing from thirty-five to eighty pigeons each. The same
observer reports that on September 2, 1897, a friend of his reported
having seen a flock of about twenty-five near Lake Butte des Mortes,
Wis.
W. F. Rightmire reports that while driving along the highway north
of Cook, Johnson County, Neb., August 18, 1897, he saw a flock of
seventy-five to one hundred birds; some feeding on the ground, others
perched in the trees.
A. B. Covert of Ann Arbor, President at one time of the Michigan
Ornithological Club, reports seeing stray birds during 1892 and 1894,
and states also that on October 1, 1898, he saw a flock of 200 and
watched them nearly all day.
T. E. Douglas of Grayling reports seeing a flock of ten near West
Branch, Mich., in 1895, and in 1900 he saw three on one of the branches
of the Au Sable River in Michigan.
In 1897 C. S. Osborn of Sault Ste Marie reported having seen a single
wild bird flying with the tame pigeons around the town.
In 1897 or 1898 C. E. Jennison of Bay City saw six or seven at Thunder
Bay Island near Alpena, Mich.
In 1900 Neal Brown of Wausau, Wis., killed one near Babcock, Wis., in
September.
George King of Otsego County, Mich., in 1900 saw a flock of one dozen
or more birds on the Black River, and he says he heard two "holler" in
1902, but was unable to find them. In May, 1905, he is certain he saw
six near Vanderbilt, Mich.
John Burroughs reports that a friend of his, Charles W. Benton, saw a
large flock of wild pigeons near Prattsville, Greene County, N. Y., in
April, 1906.
EARLY LEGISLATION TO SAVE THE PIGEON
Wild pigeons were used largely by trap-shooters for tournaments.
In 1881, 20,000 of them were killed in one of these trap-shooting
butcheries on Coney Island, N. Y. The following editorial protest
against this outrage appeared in _Forest and Stream_, July 14, 1881:
_Mr. Bergh's Anti-Pigeon Bill._--Just as we go to press we learn that
the Senate has passed the bill prepared by Mr. Henry Bergh prohibiting
the trap-shooting of pigeons. The bill awaits Governor Cornell's
signature before becoming a law. Its provisions are:
Section 1. Any person who shall keep or use any live pigeon, fowl,
or other bird or animal for the purpose of a target or to be shot at
either for amusement or as a test of skill in marksmanship, and any
person who shall shoot at any pigeon, fowl, or other bird or animal,
as aforesaid, or be a party to any such shooting of any pigeon, fowl
or other bird or animal; and any person who shall rent any building,
shed, room, yard, field, or other premises, or shall suffer or permit
the use of any building, shed, room, yard, field, or other premises for
the purpose of shooting any pigeon, fowl, or other bird or animal, as
aforesaid, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Section 2. Nothing herein contained shall apply to the shooting of any
wild game in its wild state.
The bill is a direct and not wholly unexpected result of the Coney
Island pigeon-killing tournament of the New York State Association for
the Protection of Fish and Game. Had the sport of pigeon shooting been
confined to individual clubs of gentlemen testing their skill at the
traps, it is doubtful if the matter ever would have received, as it
would not have merited, public attention. But when a society, which
organized ostensibly for the protection of game, treats the public
to such a spectacle as that at Coney Island, neglects the matter with
which it should be concerned and devotes 20,000 pigeons brought from
their nesting ground to its wholesale slaughter, its members can hardly
look for any other public sentiment than exactly that feeling which has
been aroused. An afternoon's shoot at a few pigeons, and a ten days'
shoot at unlimited numbers of helpless birds--many of them squabs,
unable to fly, and others too exhausted to do so--are regarded by the
public as two very different things.
* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Obvious punctuation and spelling errors were corrected.
One 'signature' of Ruthven Deane was modified from the printed version
to match the others.
Where quotations began and were not closed, a closing quotation mark
was placed at the end of that paragraph:
p. 155 "There are no wild pigeons in Iosco County...
p. 171 "In three years' time...