Wilson's day were just as cruel in the method described above.]


* * * * *

The range of the passenger pigeon covered nearly the whole United
States from the Atlantic coast westward to the Rocky Mountains. A few
bold pigeons crossed the Rocky Mountains into Oregon, northern
California and Washington, but only as "stragglers," few and far
between. The wide range of this bird was worthy of a species that
existed in millions, and it was persecuted literally all along the line.
The greatest slaughter was in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In 1848
Massachusetts gravely passed a law protecting the _netters_ of wild
pigeons from foreign interference! There was a fine of $10 for damaging
nets, or frightening pigeons away from them. This was on the theory that
the pigeons were so abundant they could not by any possibility ever
become scarce, and that pigeon-slaughter was a legitimate industry.

In 1867, the State of New York found that the wild pigeon needed
protection, and enacted a law to that effect. The year 1868 was the last
year in which great numbers of passenger pigeons nested in that State.
Eaton, in "The Birds of New York," said that "millions of birds occupied
the timber along Bell's Run, near Ceres, Alleghany County, on the
Pennsylvania line."

In 1870, Massachusetts gave pigeons protection except during an "open
season," and in 1878 Pennsylvania elected to protect pigeons on their
nesting grounds.

The passenger pigeon millions were destroyed so quickly, and so