PASSENGEB PIGEON 381 



recrudescence of the belief that the bird still exists. In Science of 

 February 14, 1930, Prof. Philip Hadley (1930) notes on the au- 

 thority of others — not ornithologists — sight records of these birds in 

 northern Michigan. Unfortunately, the mourning dove is often 

 mistaken for the passenger pigeon, and in the West the band-tailed 

 pigeon has been similarly mistaken. The distinguishing field marks 

 of these birds will be discussed later, but it seems to be a common idea 

 that the passenger pigeon is easily recognized by its size, which is 

 larger than that of the mourning dove. All ornithologists know, 

 however, in the absence of direct comparison, how deceptive differ- 

 ence in size may be, and they are well aware that not only to an 

 uncritical observer but even to an expert ornithologist, a mourning 

 dove may often look as large as a passenger pigeon. The fact that 

 the observer has seen thousands of passenger pigeons in years be- 

 fore, and has handled and plucked them, does not necessarily mean 

 he is a good judge of the bird. The wish is father to the thought, 

 especially in the unscientific, and it has been proved over and over 

 again that birds reported as passenger pigeons have turned out to be 

 mourning doves. 



It may be worth while to enter here the following example among 

 many of the manner in which the will to believe in the existence 

 of the passenger pigeon surmounts all obstacles and all evidence. 

 Dr. C. F. Hodge (1912), who had charge of the offer of $1,000 

 for the location of a nesting pair of passenger pigeons, received a 

 letter from a man in Maine that he had shot a bird " that proved to 

 be a passenger pigeon," and that he had had it mounted. Doctor 

 Hodge sent him descriptions and colored plates of the passenger 

 pigeon and mourning dove, and he underscored in red ink the com- 

 parative lengths of these two birds, and he asked the man if, after 

 study of these, he still thought the bird a passenger pigeon to 

 send it to him. The specimen arrived and proved to be a mourning 

 dove. In a recent newspaper article, an old-time pigeon trapper is 

 quoted as saying : " No one familiar with this bird could possibly 

 make a mistake. The mourning dove, although it has the same 

 coloration, is smaller. I can tell a mourning dove from a pigeon 

 as far as I can see it." With this belief it is easy to see passenger 

 pigeons! This, however, is not conclusive that all the reports are 

 erroneous, and, although the evidence points strongly to the extinc- 

 tion of the passenger pigeon, it is proper to keep an open mind on 

 the subject and investigate plausible clues. 



There is a popular idea that the passenger pigeon mysteriously 

 disappeared, and that, while still enormously numerous, it suddenly 

 ceased to exist. Its annihilation has been popularly attributed to 

 various natural phenomena, and it has even been rumored that the 



