In the 19th century, virtually every type of game animal was hunted and sold for consumption.  As the urban population of the United States expanded during this period, demand for game soared, with the result that wildlife populations frequently declined to dangerously low levels.  From 1855 to 1893 John B. Drake, proprietor of the Drake Hotel in Chicago, gave an annual game dinner at Thanksgiving.  This was the menu for 1886.  

Reprinted from Peter Matthiessen, Wildlife in America (New York: Viking Press, 1959), p. 166