Passenger Pigeon Roost

HICKS

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 11/13/2012 at 20:59:35

Dubuque Miners' Express, reprinted in the Vermont Phoenix, May 26, 1843

The following account of a Western wild Pigeon Roost is from the Dubuque Miners' Express:
"There is an immense Pigeon Roost in the forks of the Maquoketa river in Jackson County, such as has never been seen in this country before. It is three miles long, and a half a mile in width. There can be no estimate made of their numbers. Their roosting places are almost a mile distant from their nests and feeding places, being three in number, and each covering a section of land; and in passing to and fro they darken the air with their number; they break down young trees with their weight and hundreds are killed by getting entangled in the falling limbs and branches. The people kill them with clubs; and their noise is so loud that when a gun is fired amongst them, the report cannot be heard; and a person can stand in one place and shoot all day, the birds returning as soon as you can load. They are building their nests, and the people are alarmed, lest they may destroy their crops."

Cascade Pioneer, May 17, 1928
Merle Hicks, of Onslow, saw a large flock of wild pigeons a few miles west of Onslow last Friday. The identity was genuine on account of certain markings peculiar to this wild species,
and with which Mr. Hicks is familiar. It has been thought for a number of years that the wild pigeon had become extinct, but recent reports indicate that a few still remain which have
migrated from some other part of the world. A characteristic marking of the wild pigeon is a triangle of light or grey colored feathers on the breast.

Passenger pigeons
 

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