Amidst the exertions and tribulations of exploration, hardship, and excitement of colonial life the pigeon was paid little attention. On one occasion, the passenger pigeon so swarmed and ravaged the crops that a Catholic priest threw holy water at the flocks as if they were demons. There were several mentions as to their annoyance to farmers. By the end of the 18th century, the wild pigeon of the New World had been noted with little or no fanfare as a source of food or the size of flocks. Numbering in the millions, the pigeon’s nest or city locations were the most numerous in pine forests.Īs late as the American Revolution (1776-1781) no agreed name or stable identity was established, it was simply a wild pigeon. It migrated from Canada in late September to the southern American colonies and returned in early spring, following the food chain. It hunted with ease eating raspberries, strawberries, acorns, beechmast, grain, grapes and chestnuts. The passenger pigeon was known to be innumerable and widespread over the eastern U.S. The female is more drab-colored above and a dull white beneath with only a trace of the male brilliance around the neck. The legs and feet are red while the neck is marked with violet, green, gold feathers.
The bill is black, the iris of the eye is red and a head marked a dusky blue. The passenger pigeon was about the size of a turtle dove but had a long wedge shape tail, black in color, and white undercoating. The bird was the passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), meaning the wanderer. The bird was so numerous that the sun was blotted out for half a day at a time.īy the 20th century, this bird had disappeared from the sky above and the earth below. If you peruse the historical literature of the United States, you find stories about a bird that flew in the sky in flocks measuring up to 5 miles long and a mile in width.
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