BIRDS OF THE 
     
     ISLAND’S PAST  
     
    
   
   
    
     In July 1534, Jacques Cartier journeyed along the north shore of 
     
     Prince Edward Island recording his observations of the natural feat- 
     
     ures of land and shore. He was familiar with some of the wild creat— 
     
     ures he saw but others were new to him. How different the flora and 
     
     fauna of the Island were back then. The Acadian forest was home to 
     
     moose and bear and, on shore, walrus hauled themselves out to sun. He 
     
     described numerous birds in terms of familiar Species from home but 
     
     in reality many were different. In time, human pressure eliminated the 
     
     moose, bear and walrus from the Island and some of the birds as well. 
     
     They remain however, a part of our historical natural heritage. 
     
    

    
     In later years, early Island naturalists such as Francis Bain, 
     
     John MacSwain and Professor Macready provided specific information on 
     
     the birds of the Island. They noted that changing land use patterns 
     
     and human interference were affecting our wildlife. Nearly a century 
     
     later, we have only their reports to confirm the presence of species 
     
     long since gone from Prince Edward Island. 
     
     FOREST DWELLERS 
     
    

    
     A book in the U.P.E.I. library by A.w. 
     
     Schorger, entitled The Passenger Pigeon — 
     
     Its Natural History and Extinction, de— 
     
     tails one of the most awesome atrocities 
     
     by man against nature the world has ever 
     
     seen. Now extinct, the Passenger Pigeon 
     
     is believed to have been the most numer- 
     
     ous land bird that ever lived. Few people 
     
     today ever saw a living Passenger Pigeon 
     
     yet when the first European settlers ar- 
     
     rived in North America the population of 
     
     these large doves was believed to be be— 
     
     tween 3 and 5 billion birds. The reality 
     
     of this tragedy is brought closer to home 
     
     in the opening sentences of chapter one. 
     
     "The recorded history of the Passenger 
     
     Pigeon began on July 1, 1534. On this day 
     
     Cartier saw an infinite number of “wood 
     
     pigeons" and other birds at Cape Orleans 
     
     (Kildare), Prince Edward Island." Cartier 
     
     had never seen a Passenger Pigeon before, 
     
     for the species occurred only in North 
     
     America, and, hence, he described them as 
     
     wood pigeons, a wild pigeon of Europe. 
     
    

    
     By various accounts, Passenger Pigeons 
     
     occurred on P.E.I. in large flocks al— . 
     
     though according to MacSwain (1908) the - PHfiMWDWMWMGGM 
     
     last was seen here in 1857. Bain (1891) 
     
     however, reported that rare stragglers were seen even at the time of 
     
     his writing. No one knows for certain when the last Passenger Pigeon 
     
     flew over P.E.I. but, certainly by the time Bain wrote, the species 
     
     was in serious trouble. Unfortunately, protection came everywhere too 
     
     little and too late. They were slaughtered by the millions throughout 
     
     their range for human and livestock food. Even when the precipitous 
     
     decline began, people refused to believe that extinction of this abun- 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
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