Only one instance has been noted that specified truly great numbers.
Bendire (1892) quotes Carpenter as follows : “. . . this species
is most numerous near the mouth of the Columbia River, where
immense flocks were to be seen from May to October 1865, which
fairly rivaled those of the Passenger Pigeon.”
During the winter of 1911-12 there was an enormous flight of
band-tailed pigeons along the California coast from Paso Robles to
Nordhoff, acd sport and market hunting flourished. Chambers
(1912) described conditions in that area, stating that one market
hunter shipped some 2,000 pigeons to city hotds, that the morning
train from San Luis Obispo to Los Olivos carried about 100 hunters
each Sunday morning, and that frequently the hunters took an
average of 30 birds each. The number of pigeons killed in the
large area covered by that winter concentration must have been
enormous, for hunters came from long distances. Apparently the
birds remained in the area until shot out. This unusual congregation
of birds and of hunters brought the dangers of the bandtail’s
situation to public notice, and in 1913 Grinnell in furthering the
drive for protection published an excellent summary of the status
of the species.