LAND BIRDS. 247 



■for there is every reason to fear that the species is totally extinct not only 

 in Michigan but elsewhere. 



So far as we can learn, the last nestings of any importance in Northern 

 Michigan occurred in 1880 and 1881. In 1880, according to Chief Simon 

 Pokagon, there was a large nesting on the Platte River, Benzie county, and 

 in 1881, according to Mr. S. S. Stevens of Cadillac, there was a nesting of 

 moderate size, perhaps eight miles long a few miles west of Grand Traverse. 

 In 1886 Mr. Stevens found a small flock, "of about fifty dozen pairs," nesting 

 in a swamp near Lake City, Missaukee county, and this, so far as we can 

 learn, is the last instance in which more than two or three pairs have been 

 found nesting together. 



In 1888 Mr. William Brewster and Mr. Jonathan Dwight, Jr., of Cam- 

 bridge, spent several weeks in Northern Michigan in the hope of studying 

 a large nesting of the Wild Pigeon, but although thousands of pigeons 

 appeared in the neighborhood of Cadillac late in April of that year, and 

 a few pairs bred here and there in the surrounding woods, the greater 

 number disappeared before the middle of May, and are not known to have 

 returned. They were traced northward as far as Oden, Emmet county, 

 and are presumed to have crossed the Straits of Mackinac and nested some- 

 where in the Upper Peninsula, or even in the British possessions north of 

 Lake Superior. 



Since that date (1888) no large flocks of Passenger Pigeons have been 

 seen anywhere, and since 1890 the occurrence of single individuals or small 

 squads has been considered worth recording in the scientific journals, on 

 account of the rarity of the bird. A few individuals were taken here and 

 there in the eastern United States in 1894, 1895 and 1896, but they were 

 almost invariably single birds or pairs. 



In the summer of 1893 a careful observer (Vernon Bailey), at Elk River, 

 Minnesota, stated that two or three flocks, of four to six birds each, were 

 seen during the summer, and two pigeons were killed, but he had heard of 

 no nests (McUwraith, Birds of Ontario, 1894, p. 185). Another observer 

 reported a flock of 500 pigeons seen in Aitken county, Minnesota in the 

 spring of 1894 (Auk, XII, 1895, 80). One was shot in the northeast 

 corner of Delta county, Mich., October 1, 1895, by Dr. E. Copeland and 

 one was taken at Delevan Wisconsin, September 8, 1896. 



The last specimen taken in the United States, so far as we can learn, 

 was an immature bird shot September 14, 1898, at Chestnut Ridge, near 

 Delray, W^ayne county, Mich., by Mr. P. H. Clements of Detroit. This 

 bird was mounted by Campion of Detroit, and is now in the collection of 

 Mr. J. H. Fleming of Toronto (Auk, XX, 1903, 66). 



Of course there have been scores of reports of the occurrence of pigeons 

 during the last ten years, but in most cases investigation has shown them 

 to be based upon the Mourning Dove or Carolina Dove, which is so similar 

 in general appearance to the Passenger Pigeon that even the expert is likely 

 to be mistaken unless the utmost care is exercised (Examine Plate XVII). 

 It is barely possible that a few small flocks of Passenger Pigeons still exist 

 and nest somewhere in the more remote sections of Michigan or the 

 Dominion of Canada. It should be noted, however, that the reports of 

 the abundance of the Passenger Pigeon in California and the far southwest 

 are entirely erroneous, being based upon the presence there of an entirely 

 different bird, the Band-tailed Pigeon (Columba fasciata) which is restricted 

 to the western United States, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. 



