The Last of the Pigeons
From "The Auk," July, 1897, under the title "Additional Records of the
Passenger Pigeon (_Ectopistes migratorius_.)"
Most of the notes on the Passenger Pigeon recorded in the past year
have referred to single birds or pairs. It is with much pleasure that
I now call attention to a flock of some fifty, observed in southern
Missouri. I am not only greatly indebted to Mr. Chas. H. Holden, Jr.,
for this interesting information, but for the present of a beautiful
pair which he sent me in the flesh, he having shot them as they flew
rapidly overhead. Mr. Holden was, at the time (December 17, 1896),
hunting quail in Attie, Oregon County, Mo. The residents of this hamlet
had not seen any pigeons there before in some years.
Simon Pokagon, Chief of the remaining Pottawattamie tribe, and probably
the best posted man on the wild pigeon in Michigan, writes me under
date of October 16, 1896: "I am creditably informed that there was a
small nesting of pigeons last spring not far from the headwaters of
the Au Sable River in Michigan." Mr. Chase S. Osborn, State Game and
Fish Warden of Michigan, under date, Sault Ste. Marie, March 2, 1897,
writes: "Passenger Pigeons are now very rare indeed in Michigan, but
some have been seen in the eastern parts of Chippewa County, in the
upper peninsula, every year. As many as a dozen or more were seen in
this section in one flock last year, and I have reason to believe that
they breed here in a small way. One came into this city last summer
and attracted a great deal of attention by flying and circling through
the air with the tame pigeons. I have a bill in the Legislature of
Michigan, closing the season for killing wild pigeons for ten years."
Ruthven Deane,
Chicago, Ill.
From "The Auk," April, 1898, Vol. 15, Page 184, under the title, "The
Passenger Pigeon (_Ectopistes migratorius_) in Wisconsin and Nebraska."
Our records of this species during the past few years have referred
in most instances, to very small flocks and generally to pairs or
individuals. In _The Auk_ for July, 1897, I recorded a flock of some
fifty pigeons from southern Missouri, but such a number has been very
unusual. It is now very gratifying to be able to record still larger
numbers and I am indebted to Mr. A. Fugleberg of Oshkosh, Wis., for
the following letter of information, under date of September 1, 1897:
"I live on the west shore of Lake Winnebago, Wis. About 6 o'clock on
the morning of August 14, 1897, I saw a flock of wild pigeons flying
over the bay from Fisherman's Point to Stony Beach, and I assure you
it reminded me of old times, from 1855 to 1880, when pigeons were
plentiful every day. So I dropped my work and stood watching them.
This flock was followed by six more flocks, each containing about
thirty-five to eighty pigeons, except the last, which only contained
seven. All these flocks passed over within half an hour. One flock
of some fifty birds flew within gunshot of me, the others all the
way from one hundred to three hundred yards from where I stood." Mr.
Fugleberg is an old hunter and has had much experience with the wild
pigeon. In a later letter dated September 4, 1897, he writes: "On Sept.
2, 1897, I was hunting prairie chickens near Lake Butte des Morts,
Wis., where I met a friend who told me that a few days previous he had
seen a flock of some twenty-five wild pigeons and that they were the
first he had seen for years." This would appear as though these birds
were instinctively working back to their old haunts, as the Winnebago
region was once a favorite locality. We hope that Wisconsin will follow
Michigan in making a close season on wild pigeons for ten years,
and thus give them a chance to multiply, and, perhaps, regain, in a
measure, their former abundance.
In _Forest and Stream_ of Sept. 25, 1897, appeared a short notice of
"Wild Pigeons in Nebraska," by "W. F. R." Through the kindness of
the editor he placed me in correspondence with the observer, W. F.
Rightmire, to whom I am indebted for the following details given in
his letter of Nov. 5, 1897: "I was driving along the highway north of
Cook, Johnson County, Neb., on August 17, 1897. I came to the timber
skirting the head stream of the Nemaha River, a tract of some forty
acres of woodland lying along the course of the stream, upon both
banks of the same, and there feeding on the ground or perched upon the
trees were the Passenger Pigeons I wrote the note about. The flock
contained seventy-five to one hundred birds. I did not frighten them,
but as I drove along the road the feeding birds flew up and joined the
others, and as soon as I had passed by they returned to the ground and
continued feeding. While I revisited the same locality, I failed to
find the pigeons. I am a native of Tompkins County, N. Y., and have
often killed wild pigeons in their flights while a boy on the farm,
helped to net them, and have hunted them in Pennsylvania, so that I
readily knew the birds in question the moment I saw them." I will here
take occasion to state that in my record of the Missouri flock (_Auk_,
July, 1897, p. 316) the date on which they were seen (Dec. 17, 1896)
was, through error, omitted.
Ruthven Deane,
Chicago, Ill.
From "The Auk," January, 1896, under the title, "Additional Records
of the Passenger Pigeon (_Ectopistes migratorius_) in Wisconsin and
Illinois."
I am indebted to my friend, Mr. John L. Stockton, of Highland Park,
Ill., for information regarding the occurrence of this pigeon in
Wisconsin. While trout fishing on the Little Oconto River in the
Reservation of the Menominee Indians, Mr. Stockton saw, early in June,
1895, a flock of some ten pigeons for several consecutive days near his
camp. They were first seen while alighting near the bank of the river,
where they had evidently come to drink. I am very glad to say that they
were not molested.
Mr. John F. Ferry of Lake Forest, Ill., has kindly notified me of the
capture of a young female pigeon which was killed in that town on
August 7, 1895. The bird was brought to him by a boy who had shot it
with a rifle ball, and although in a mutilated condition he preserved
it for his collection.
I have recently received a letter from Dr. H. V. Ogden, Milwaukee,
Wis., informing me of the capture of a young female pigeon which
was shot by Dr. Ernest Copeland on the 1st of October, 1895. These
gentlemen were camping at the time in the northeast corner of Delta
County, Mich. (Northern Peninsula), in the large hardwood forest that
runs through that part of the State. They saw no other of the species.
Ruthven Deane,
Chicago, Ill.
From "The Auk," July, 1895, under the title, "Additional Records of
the Passenger Pigeon in Illinois and Indiana."
The occurrence of the wild pigeon (_Ectopistes migratorius_) in this
section of the country, and, in fact, throughout the West generally, is
becoming rarer every year, and such observations and data as come to
our notice should be of sufficient interest to record.
I have, in the past few months, made inquiry of a great many sportsmen
who are constantly in the field and in widely distributed localities,
regarding any observations on the wild pigeon, and but few of them have
seen a specimen in the past eight or ten years. N. W. Judy & Co., of
St. Louis, Mo., dealers in poultry, and the largest receivers of game
in that section, wrote as follows: "We have had no wild pigeons for two
seasons; the last we received were from Siloam Springs, Ark. We have
lost all track of them, and our netters are lying idle."
I have made frequent inquiry among the principal game dealers in
Chicago and cannot learn of a single specimen that has been received in
our markets in several years. I am indebted to the following gentlemen
for notes and observations regarding this species, which cover a period
of eight years. I have various other records of the occurrence of the
pigeon in Illinois and Indiana, but do not consider them sufficiently
authentic to record, as to the casual observer this species and the
Carolina dove are often confounded.
A fine male pigeon was killed by my brother, Mr. Chas. E. Deane, April
18, 1887, while shooting snipe on the meadows near English Lake, Ind.
The bird was alone and flew directly over him. I have the specimen now
in my collection.
In September, 1888, while teal shooting on Yellow River, Stark County,
Ind., I saw a pigeon fly up the river and alight a short distance off.
I secured the bird which proved to be a young female.
On Sept. 17, 1887, Mr. John F. Hazen and his daughter Grace, of
Cincinnati, Ohio, while boating on the Kankakee River near English
Lake, Ind., observed a small flock of pigeons feeding in a little oak
grove bordering the river. They reported the birds as quite tame and
succeeded in shooting eight specimens.
Mr. Frank M. Woodruff, Assistant Curator, Chicago Academy of Sciences,
informs me that on Dec. 10, 1890, he received four Passenger Pigeons
in the flesh, from Waukegan, Ill., at which locality they were said to
have been shot. Three of the birds were males and one was a female.
One pair he disposed of, the other two I have recently seen in his
collection. In the fall of 1891, Mr. Woodruff also shot a pair at Lake
Forest, Ill., which he mounted and placed in the collection of the Cook
County Normal School, Englewood, Ill.
In the spring of 1893, Mr. C. B. Brown, of Chicago, Ill., collected a
nest of the wild pigeon containing two eggs at English Lake, Ind., and
secured both parent birds. Mr. Brown describes the nest as being placed
on the horizontal branch of a burr oak about ten feet from the trunk
and from forty to fifty feet from the ground. He did not preserve the
birds, but the eggs are still in his collection. The locality where
this nest was found was a short distance from where the Hazens found
their birds six years before.
Mr. John F. Ferry informs me that three pigeons were seen near the Des
Plaines River in Lake County, Ill., in September, 1893. One of these
was shot by Mr. F. C. Farwell.
In an article which appeared in the Chicago _Tribune_ Nov. 25, 1894,
entitled "Last of His Race," Mr. E. B. Clark related his experience in
observing a fine male wild pigeon in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Ill., in
April, 1893. I quote from the article: "He was perched on the limb of
a soft maple and was facing the rising sun. I have never seen in any
cabinet a more perfect specimen. The tree upon which he was resting
was at the southeast corner of the park. There were no trees between
him and the lake to break from his breast the fullness of the glory of
the rising sun. The pigeon allowed me to approach within twenty yards
of his resting place and I watched him through a powerful glass that
permitted as minute an examination as if he were in my hand. I was more
than astonished to find here, close to the pavements of a great city,
the representative of a race which always loved the wild woods, and,
which I thought had passed away from Illinois forever."
Mr. R. W. Stafford of Chicago, Ill., who has shot hundreds of pigeons
in former years within the present city limits of Chicago, informs me
that in the latter part of September, 1894, while shooting at Marengo,
Ill., he saw a flock of six flying swiftly over and apparently alight
in a small grove some distance off.
The above records will show that while in this section of the country
large flocks of Passenger Pigeons are a thing of the past, yet they are
still occasionally observed in small detachments or single birds.
A. B. Covert of Ann Arbor, Mich., wrote under date of Oct. 27, 1894:
"Prior to the spring of 1881 the wild pigeon was everywhere a common
bird of passage throughout the southern part of Michigan and nested
commonly in the northern part. My home, in 1880, and for a few years
after, was at Cadillac, Mich., and there was at that time a nesting
place near Muskrat Lake in Missaukee County. Thousands of the birds
were killed there. In the spring of 1881 the birds failed to make
their appearance, and since then have been very rare. Nov. 23, 1892,
I secured one male and two young females; these were killed in Scio,
Washtenaw County, Oct. 9, 1893; one male near Ypsilanti, Mich., Sept.
27, 1894; one female killed at Honey Brook, Scio, Washtenaw County.
There is also a female bird in this city that was killed in Livingston
County in October, 1892."
In a bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club, Vol. II, No. 3-4,
July to December, 1898, Mr. A. B. Covert, the club's president, tells
of seeing a flock of about two hundred pigeons. On Oct. 1, 1898, in
Washtenaw County, Mich., he watched a large number of them all day.
Mr. Stewart E. White writes from Ann Arbor under date of Feb. 9, 1894:
"My notebooks are not here so I cannot give exact dates, but I can
remember distinctly every specimen I ever saw. I observed one flock of
about sixty in Kent County in the fall, the last of October or first
of November, 1890. At Mackinac Island at various times in September
of 1889 I saw parts of a large flock, of say two hundred. My field
experience in the western part of Michigan has been quite extensive and
thorough, but these two flocks are all I ever recorded."
F. M. Falconer of Hillsdale, Mich., on Dec. 3, 1904, writes to Mr.
Warren as follows: "During the last week of March, 1892, one of the
students here shot a nice male. There were two together, but only one
was secured. That summer I saw a small flock feeding in some thick
woods along the banks of a stream in which I was fishing, in Chautauqua
County, N. Y. There were eight or ten birds at least, and perhaps many
more, as they scattered along in spots."
Mr. T. E. Douglas of Grayling, Mich., reports that in the year 1900
he saw three Passenger Pigeons on the East Branch of Au Sable River,
Michigan, and about five years previous to that date a flock of ten
was seen around George's Lake, which is eight miles southwest of West
Branch, Michigan.
I also have a record of one pigeon taken by Mr. John H. Sage, in
Portland, Conn., in October, 1889.
In May, 1904, Hon. Chase S. Osborn wrote:
Dear Mr. Mershon: I haven't much information relating to the pigeons
in this section of the country. In fact, the pigeon was practically
gone from the north when I first visited the country in 1880. I
remember seeing a flock of about three hundred in Florence County,
Wis., which would probably be on a line fifty miles south of here,
in 1883. In 1884 I saw a flock in that same section, in the woods
northwest of Florence, of about fifty. In 1890 I six of these birds
near the mouth of the Little Munoskong River in this county. This
river empties into Munoskong Bay, about thirty miles southeast of
here. In 1897 I saw a single wild pigeon, flying with the tame
pigeons around this town. It was a remarkable sight and attracted the
attention of many local bird lovers. There is no doubt that it was a
pigeon, and it was absolutely alone as far as we could discover.
Upon inquiry here among old residents, I am told that there was quite
a large roost on a beech ridge about forty miles west of here, which
would be at a point north of the present station of Eckerman. I have
been unable to learn just when this roosting place was discontinued,
but as near as I can make out from comparing statements and records, it
must have been in '78, '79, or '80.
I have heard of a large roosting place in northern Wisconsin which was
used as late as 1874 by vast numbers of birds. It was located to the
south and a little west of Lac Vieux Desert. At the head of the Pike
River in Wisconsin, a point probably sixty-five miles south of here,
and west into that State, the pigeons were seen in large numbers until
1872. As I understand it, in the early days they were very likely to
frequent the same section year after year when not too much disturbed.
Mr. Newell A. Eddy of Bay City, Mich., under date of Aug. 7, 1905,
wrote me as follows:
I find that I have but few notes regarding this species. On Sept. 13,
1880, I took a single bird near the city of Bangor, Maine. The sex
was not determined. This was an unusual capture for the place and the
time. A few years previous to that time, on a canoeing trip to the
headwaters of the Penobscot River, I fell in with a small flock of a
dozen or more in an old burnt-over swamp, but was unable to secure
any of them.
I presume that you have an abundance of notes on the Passenger Pigeon
in this section of the country at the time it was so abundant here, as
such information is readily obtainable from any of the old inhabitants
of this locality. I had a very interesting interview the other day
with Mr. C. E. Jennison of this city, who was one of our earliest
settlers, and he gave me a great deal of information about this bird
in the earlier days of Bay City. He also stated, which was quite
interesting, that six or seven years ago he saw a few birds at Thunder
Bay Island, near Alpena. This appears to be his last record of this
species.
The most interesting information I have was obtained from Mr. Birney
Jennison, his son, who advised me a few days ago while we were on
our way to Point Lookout, Saginaw Bay, that about the 15th of July,
this year, he saw a pair of these birds in a swale at Point Lookout
while roaming through the woods. He and I visited the same locality
about two weeks after that, but saw nothing of them. Of course there
is some likelihood that the birds Mr. Jennison saw may have been the
common Carolina doves. Mr. Birney Jennison also had a great deal of
experience with this bird in his younger days about Bay City, and
there would appear to be no question as to his ability to accurately
identify the bird.
From Mr. Neal Brown, Warsaw, Wis., May 20, 1904:
Mr. W. B. Mershon, Saginaw, Mich.
Dear Sir:--Your favor at hand with reference to the wild pigeon.
It was, I think, three or four years ago that, in hunting with Mr.
Emerson Hough near Babcock in this State in September, we killed an
unmistakable wild pigeon. I saw a few pigeons in the woods in Forest
County, in this State, about fifteen years ago. About seven years ago
I saw three near Wausau and shot one of them. There was a pigeon roost
for many years in Wood County, in this State, but it has long since
disappeared.
When I was a boy in southern Wisconsin in the 60's and 70's, wild
pigeons were so numerous as to almost darken the air. In the early 70's
there was a small roost on Bark River, near Ft. Atkinson, in this State.
The wild pigeon had practically disappeared in southern Wisconsin as
early as 1880, in fact, it was two or three years before that that I
saw the last of them.
Charles W. Ward of Queens, L. I., New York, reports that in October,
1883, he saw a flock of at least one hundred Passenger Pigeons along
the Manistee River in Township 26-5 and the following year about one
dozen nested in a Spruce swamp near Orchard Lake on his old homestead.
He often saw the nest and the birds. He remembers the time as being
the season of the year when huckleberries were ripe, for he was
berry-picking when he first observed them.
The writer of the following newspaper clipping of recent date is
emphatically skeptical regarding the present-day existence of even an
isolated pigeon:
LAST PIGEON FLIGHT IN IOSCO IN 1880
MILLIONS PASSED THROUGH THEN, BUT THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN THERE SINCE
Tawas, Mich., July 27.--John Sims, county game and fish warden,
ridicules the idea of flocks of wild pigeons being found in Iosco
County, as was reported in some of the State papers. He says: "There
are no wild pigeons in Iosco County; nor have there been any here since
April 1, 1880. There fell about six inches of snow on that day, then
the weather cleared and the sun rose bright and clear, but it was but
for a short time, as the air was clouded with pigeons going westward.
That was the first time they had been here for a number of years, and,
although it was Sunday, everyone who had a gun was shooting or trying
to shoot, and there were lots of pigeons killed that day in nearly
all the streets of Tawas. There were simply millions of them going
westward, and those that were killed were picked up out of the snow.
Since that day there have been no wild pigeons here. We have lots of
mourning doves here, and the writer has probably seen these. There
is a certain magazine that offers $50 for a pair of wild pigeons, and
I think the sportsmen would add another $50 to it to have the wild
pigeons with us again."
In the report of the Massachusetts commissioners on fisheries and game
for the year ending December 31, 1903, is to be found the following:
The occurrence of the wild pigeon is a matter of public and scientific
interest, and for this reason, and not because it is a game bird,
reference to it is introduced here. Deputy Samuel Parker, who is
perfectly familiar with the wild pigeon, makes mention of its
appearance at Wakefield this year as follows: "In September a flock of
wild pigeons, twenty-five or thirty in number, came over Crystal Lake."
This notice of the presence of a species believed to be extinct is
interesting and must be important to ornithologists.[C]
[Footnote C: I believe that this informant was mistaken--W. B. M.]
George King, guide and trapper, living in Otsego County, Michigan, told
me in 1904 that four years before he had seen along Black River a flock
of wild pigeons, a dozen or more birds. He said there is no mistake
about it, because he was familiar with the wild pigeon early in life.
These alighted in a tree near him. He said that in 1902, also, he heard
the call of two wild pigeons, although he hunted for the birds and did
not find them.
[Illustration: COMPARATIVE SIZE OF PIGEON AND DOVE
From photo furnished by Prof W. B. Burrows, of the Michigan
Agricultural College]
I believe that six wild pigeons were actually seen in the latter part
of April of 1905 near Vanderbilt, Mich., by this George King. I have
tested his honesty and truthfulness time and time again. He told me
he was seated in the branches of an apple tree when he saw six wild
pigeons alight in another tree near him. He kept perfectly still and
watched their movements for about thirty minutes. They flew from the
old tree in which they had alighted, underneath a beech tree and began
feeding on beech nuts from the ground. He says he heard them call and
they made the same old crowing call of the wild pigeon. He was close to
them; he is perfectly familiar with the dove and knows that these six
were Passenger Pigeons. King has for many years lived in the section
that formerly was the great pigeon nesting and feeding ground of
northern Michigan.
Michigan Agricultural College,
July 14, '05.
Dear Sir:--I have been away for the past three weeks and find your
letter of June 27 here on my return. The photographs sent you were
those of the Passenger Pigeon and the Carolina dove, the one of the two
birds being intended to show relative size and appearance. It was taken
from two of the best specimens in the museum, placed at exactly the
same distance from the camera so that the picture shows the comparative
size exactly. The birds being so similar in general appearance, the
smaller one looks as if it were further away than the larger, and
this, I think, shows clearly how impossible it is for the ordinary
observer to discriminate between these two species when seen separately
in the field. Of course a mixed flock would be a different proposition,
but so far as I know the two species never mingle, and, at least in
this State, it is an unusual thing to find the Carolina dove in large
compact flocks such as are characteristic of the Passenger Pigeon. In
several cases, however, during August and September I have seen large
scattered flocks of the Carolina dove which were feeding on weed seeds
and grain in open fields, and which when disturbed, gathered into small
bands of twenty to fifty each and flew and perched very much like
Passenger Pigeons. In one case I saw at least five hundred Carolina
doves acting this way, and had hard work to convince a sportsman friend
of mine that they were not Passenger Pigeons. Finally, after getting
directly under a small tree on which a dozen or more were perched, he
was able to see that characteristic black dot on the side of the neck,
and was also able to estimate more correctly the actual size of the
birds.
Yours very truly,
Walter B. Burrows,
_Professor of Zoology._
Agricultural College,
Ingham Co., Mich., June 17, 1905.
Mr. W. B. Mershon, Saginaw, Mich.
Dear Sir:--Yours of the 16th is at hand and in reply I would say that
the Carolina dove is _rarely_ found north of the Au Sable River, and I
should not expect _ever_ to see it there in flocks in the spring; on
the other hand it is just as likely to be found _early_ in the season
as the Passenger Pigeon, since the Carolina dove winters regularly in
southern Michigan and is one of the first birds to appear in the spring
in this county, in fact not infrequently staying _here_ through the
winter. On the whole, however, I think there can be little doubt that
Mr. King's report relates to the Passenger Pigeon and not to the dove.
I have had some photographs taken of the Carolina dove and Passenger
Pigeon together, and will ask my assistant, Mr. Myers, to mail you
prints of these within a few days as soon as he has time to make some
good ones. If these do not show what you desire we will try again.
Yours very truly,
Walter B. Burrows,
_Professor of Zoology._
Mr. George E. Atkinson, to whom I am indebted for much valuable data in
this book, writes from Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, July 21, 1905, as
follows:
I was on a holiday trip on the Assiniboia River last week, and a pair
of birds flew by me at a few yards' distance, flashing the pigeon color
to all appearances in the sun and alighting on the bank. I turned my
boat and until after I shot the bird, I would have sworn it was a
pigeon, but it proved to be a large, bright plumaged dove. Atmospheric
conditions considerably affected the size so that I am convinced that
it is possible for even the best of us to be deceived, and a scientific
record must not be formed on any supposition.
Iron Mountain, Mich.,
May 30, 1904.
Mr. W. B. Mershon, Saginaw, Mich.
Dear Sir:--In reply to your letter of inquiry respecting the Passenger
Pigeon, I will say that my knowledge of it is very limited except from
hearsay, but I am credibly informed that it nested at the east end of
Deerskin Lake, Sec. 30, N44 W31, as late as 1888. Mr. Armstrong, a
timber cruiser, late a resident of this city, gave me this information.
He said there was a small colony of less than a hundred birds then.
Fire has since destroyed the timber there and he doubted if they were
still there when he told me about them. Mr. A. was a keen observer and
thoroughly reliable; had been familiar with the species when abundant
in lower Michigan, and I have great confidence in the accuracy of his
reports. I used to see them as late as 1883 in this vicinity. They
were shot in the summer of 1883 during the blueberry season. I should
estimate that as many as fifty birds were taken that summer. I cannot
imagine why they should have disappeared from this region. I have no
reports concerning the birds from the north shore.
In 1897 a young bird was taken in the neighboring town of Norway with a
broken wing and identified by hunters who had known the species in the
day of its abundance.
Dr. J. D. Cameron of this city informs me that he saw a flock of about
fifty birds flying over the St. George Hospital of this place on the
28th of October, 1900. He was positive that he was not mistaken, as
the birds were flying low, and he had formerly been well acquainted
with the species in Canada. You can take this latter for what it is
worth. Dr. C's. veracity is beyond question, but whether he could have
mistaken some other birds for the pigeons I am not prepared to say.
He is not interested in ornithology and I would not expect him to
recognize ordinary birds, but he may have hunted the wild pigeon in his
younger days and so be familiar with its manner of flight. I cannot
imagine any other birds that he could mistake for them.
I have an idea that I may have seen one myself in the summer of 1900,
but am not sufficiently well acquainted with it to recognize it at
sight. I fired at it with a .22 rifle, and the peculiar maneuvers
which it executed in the air as the bullet passed, attracted my
attention. I was afterward told that the wild pigeon tumbled in the air
that way when fired at. I thought at first that it was hit.
Yours truly,
E. E. Brewster.