In doing research for the ol' diss, the guides of the 1890s really
emphasized that Passenger Pigeons were still reasonable numerous in the
1850s, 1860s, and 1870s. There were harbingers of the destruction--James
Fenimore Cooper's passage with _The_Pioneers_ about a pigeon hunt was
certainly one of them, but the birds took a definite nose dive after the
Civil War.

Frank Chapman notes that the bird's last stronghold in Michigan was pretty
much wiped out after 1881 (from an article by Brewster). In 1876 or 1877, a
nesting colony some twenty-eight by three miles long was foudn in Michigan.
Chapman also notes that he had only seen one pair on the Atlantic Seaboard
in the 16 years prior to his book's publication in 1895.

The passenger pigeon is certainly one bird whose habits made it particularly
susceptible to hunting, and market forces of the time certainly drove many
to hunt all manners of birds. By 1892, the nestings were so scattered and
the birds so few that Bendire suggested that it was no longer a profitable
bird to hunt by net (big nets were often thrown over the colonies).

Interestingly, lore has it that Theodore Roosevelt may have been the last
person to see a wild Passenger Pigeon during the first decade of the
twentieth century (I remember reading that is some popular birding
magazine). And equally interesting was an article in Birding a few years
ago about doing Jurassic-Park-like science and bringing back the Passenger.
RK

Ray Korpi
rkorpi at clark.edu
Portland, OR/Clark College, Vancouver WA
President, Oregon Field Ornithologists


-----Original Message-----
From: Don Baccus [mailto:dhogaza at pacifier.com]
Sent: Monday, August 09, 1999 10:34 AM
To: mpatters at oregonvos.net; tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: In defense of the downtrodden


At 08:28 AM 8/9/99 -0700, Mike Patterson wrote:
>Combined with the wholesale conversion of eastern forests that
>would have been required for breeding to human uses.

Actually, it seems clear that at the time of extinction, at
least, there was plenty of adequate habitat for these birds.

While loss of habitat is nearly always the primary cause for
species to decline/go extinct, the case of the Passenger
Pigeon seems to be an exception.



- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza at pacifier.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, Pacific Northwest
Rare Bird Alert Service and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net.