112 



and with the basal half furnished with a soft, slightly swollen membrane in 

 which nostrils open (Figure 35, p. 24). The legs and feet are weak, fitted 

 only for walking on small level areas or for simple perching. Our common 

 domestic Pigeons, descended from the Rock Dove of Europe, show all the 

 niost distinctive characters of the family. There are no recognizable or 

 taxonomic differences between the so-called Pigeons and Doves. 



315. Passenger Pigeon, wild pigeon, fr. — le pigeon voyageur. Edopistes mi- 

 gi-atorius. L, 16-29. Plate XIA. 



Distinctions. The Mourning Dove is so often taken for this species that the two 

 should be diagnosed with care. The Pigeon is a considerably larger bird; the breast is 

 distinctly ruddy and the head and upper parts are slate-blue in the male. The female 

 is without the strong blue on the back, but the head retains a bluish shade that is never 

 present in the Mourning Dove, which is more evenly fawn coloiu"ed and has a small black 

 spot on the side of the neck just below the ear. 



Field Marks. As this species is now e.xtinct, field marks are unnecessary. ' 



Nesting. The Passenger Pigeon built a rough nest of sticks in trees, in large com* 

 munities. 



Distribution. Bred in the wooded sections of most of Canada east of the moim tains 

 and south to the middle states, wintered in the southern states and beyond. 



The immense flocks of Passenger Pigeons that once darkened the air 

 were one of the wonders of America. The descriptions of their numl^er, if 

 they were not circumstantial and well vouched for by men of undoubted 

 veracity, would sound like wild stretches of the imagination: flocks, so 

 dense that haphazard shots into them would bring down numbers, travelled 

 rapidly with a front miles in width and so long that it took hours to pass a 

 given point. Audubon estimates one such flock as containing over a 

 billion birds, basing his figures upon the density and area of the congre- 

 gation and not by mere guess. They bred in dense rookeries where their 

 weight often broke the branches from forest trees. Trees containing 

 their nests were cut down and though each nest contained only one squab 

 there were so many that the pigs were turned in to feed upon them. Later, 

 the netting of pigeons was the occupation of professional fowlers who 

 shipped their proceeds by the car load to the centres of population. Of 

 course, not even the immense numbers of the Passenger Pigeons could 

 stand such attacks without diminution and gradually they decreased. To 

 suggest a halt in the proceedings at that time, however, aroused nothing 

 but amusement. Their numbers were held to be inexhaustible, but to-day 

 the species is extinct and the last one, a captive bird, died in Cincinnati a 

 short time ago. The last great rookery was near Petoskey, Mich. In the 

 autumn of 1878 the birds left, but failed to return in any commercial 

 number the following spring. For a few years afterwards occasional small 

 flocks were seen and isolated rookeries were reported, but as the fowlers 

 investigated each case it became apparent that the netting of pigeons as an 

 occupation was a thing of the past. Thereafter, the birds became fewer 

 and fewer each year until records of them disappeared altogether. There 

 are occasional rumors even yet of flocks occurring in out of the way 

 places, in the western mountains in Mexico or South America and else- 

 where, but in each case, investigation has proved that the reports are based 

 on other species or on misinformation. For several years a large reward 

 was offered for news of a single nesting pair. Of course, the person who 

 offered the reward was flooded with reports but not a single case stood 

 examination, the reward was never earned, and was finally withdrawn. In 

 the east, the Mourning Dove was the usual basis of report, in the west the 



