A history of the game birds, wild-fowl and shore birds of Massachusetts and adjacent states... with observations on their...recent decrease in numbers; also the means for conserving those still in (14747253891)

Identifier: historyofgame00forb (find matches)

Title: internetarchivebookimages/tags/book...

Year: 1912 (1910s)

Authors: Forbush, Edward Howe, 1858-1929 Massachusetts. State Board of Agriculture Beecroft, Willey Ingraham, 1870- Job, Herbert Keightley, 1864-1933

Subjects: Game and game-birds -- Massachusetts Game and game-birds -- New England Birds -- Massachusetts Birds -- Conservation

Publisher: (Boston, Wright & Potter printing company, state printers

Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library

Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

Text Appearing Before Image:

a town that the Pigeons wereroosting or nesting in the neighborhood, great nets were set inthe fields, baited with grain or something attractive to thebirds. Decoy birds were used, and enormous numbers ofPigeons were taken by springing the nets over them; whilepractically every able-bodied citizen, men, women, childrenand servants, turned out to lend a hand either in killingthe Pigeons or in hauling away the loads of dead birds. Wherever the Pigeons nested near the settlements, theywere pursued throughout the summer by hunters and boys.Kalm, in his account of the species (1759), states that severalextremely aged men told him that during their childhood therewere many more Pigeons in New Sweden during summer thanthere were when he was there. He believed that the Pigeonshad been either killed off or scared away. In either casetheir decrease was evident at that early date. > Pike, Zebulon Montgomery: The Expeditions of, during the years 1805-07, by Elliott Coues, 1S95,Vol. I, p. 212.

Text Appearing After Image:

PLATE XVII. —YOUNG PASSENGER PIGEON. Photograph by Prof. C. 0. Whitman. This illustration was firstpublished in W. B. Mershons work, The Passenger Pigeon. SPECIES EXTINCT OR EXTIRPATED. 451 The net, though used by fowlers almost everywhere in theeast, from the earliest settlement of the country, was not agreat factor in the extermination of the Pigeons in the Mis-sissippi valley States until the latter half of the nineteenthcentury. With the extension of railroads and telegraph linesthrough the States, the occupation of the netter became morestable than before, for he could follow the birds wherever theywent. The number of men who made netting an occupationafter the year 1860 is variously estimated at from four hun-dred to one thousand. Whenever a flight of Pigeons left onenesting place and made toward another, the netters learnedtheir whereabouts by telegraph, packed up their belongingsand moved to the new location, sometimes following the birdsa thousand miles at one move. Some of

eine geschichte der wildvögel wildgeflügel und ufervögel von massachusetts und angrenzenden staaten 1912 ectopistes migratorius Illustrationen Buchillustrationen Vogelkunde Vögel Zoologische Illustration Naturgeschichte Amerikanisches Museum für Naturgeschichte wissenschaftliche Expeditionen Flug tierische Fortbewegung Neu England Bilder aus dem Internetarchiv

1912

American Museum of Natural History Library

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public domain