bodge] passenger pigeon INVESTIGATION 111 



for until nests have been reported and confirmed, or until ex- 

 penses have exceeded $100. Expenses to date, about $18. 



All above awards are offered solely and only for informa- 

 tion of location of undisturbed nestings. We do not desire 

 possession of any birds, alive or dead, but are working solely 

 to save the free, wild pigeon. 



To insure intelligence and good faith, informants of nest- 

 ings are advised to agree to forfeit at least $5 in case they have 

 failed to identify the birds correctly. This is only fair, since the 

 amount will cover but a small part of the loss occasioned by 

 a false report. The money will be immediately returned, if 

 the birds are found to be the true wild, or passenger, pigeon 

 (Ectopistes migratorius). In the case of nesting pigeons, there 

 can be no excuse for sending in false reports. 



Prioritv of claim will be decided by time of receipt at post 

 or telegraph office. Awards will be equally divided, if two or 

 more letters or messages bear record of same date and hour. 



A number of encouraging reports have been received cov- 

 ering a wide territory — New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Con- 

 necticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Ontario, Wisconsin, 

 Nebraska, Kansas — or pigeons observed during 1909. Still 

 not a single instance of the birds seen this spring has come in 

 to date. Now is the time. Bendire's earliest record of nesting 

 is for the first week in April, in Wisconsin and Iowa; latest 

 dates of nesting, June 5 and 12, for Connecticut and Minneso- 

 ta. The next two months ought to decide the question wheth- 

 er the great North American pigeon is extinct or not. 



As soon as a pigeon nesting is found and surely identified, 

 telegraph or write the undersigned, who will arrange for con- 

 firming party and for payment of the awards. 



Signed, C. F. Hodge, 



Clark University, 



Worcester, Mass. 



:;: :|: * :): * * 



The N. W. Pa. Science and Mathematics Ass'n will meet at 

 Alleghany College, April 30. The members are largely public 

 school teachers, many of them from country schools. Nature- 

 study will be prominent on the program. There is a movement 

 on foot looking toward the establishment in Pennsylvania of a 

 Nature-Study Ihireau similar to that of Cornell University. 



