The Audubon Societies 



261 



The Last Pigeon 



■ Two years ago, it was generally sup- 

 posed that only seven live Passenger 

 Pigeons were in existence. Four of these 

 were in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the other 

 three were in the Zoological Garden at 

 Cincinnati. During the twelve months 

 which followed, the four in Milwaukee 

 died, as did also one of the Cincinnati 

 birds. Under date of November gth 1910, 

 Mr. S. A. Slephan, General Manager 

 of the Cincinnati Zoological Company, 

 writes : 



"As far as I know, the only two Wild 

 Pigeons in existence last spring were in 

 the Cincinnati Zoo, but in June the male 

 died of old age. He was about twenty- 

 two years old. The female that we still 

 have left is now about eighteen years 

 old. They were hatched in our cages here." 



Visitors to Cincinnati today, therefore, 

 have the privilege of seeing what is pro- 

 bably the last surviving member of that 

 species of birds whose numbers were once 

 the wonder of the ornithological world. 

 Apropos to the passing of the pigeon, the 

 following facts recently collected by Mr. 

 E. H. Forbush, New England Agent of 

 the National Association of Audubon 

 Societies, will be of interest to some 

 readers : 



"Eighty tons of Passenger Pigeons 

 were sent from one county in New York to 

 the market in New York City in 1849, 

 and at least 300 tons were dispatched 

 from Petoskey, Michigan in 1878. Sullivan 

 Cook states that there were caught and 

 shipped in forty days from Hartford, 

 Michigan, 11,880,000 pigeons. Also that 

 in the two succeeding years one-third 

 more than that number were shipped 

 from Shelby, or 15,840,000 birds. When 

 it is considered that this traffic went on 



wherever the [)igeons appeared, and that 

 they were slaughtered at all seasons, 

 particularly while nesting, there is no 

 mystery in the extinction of the Wild 

 Pigeon. '"^T. G. P. 



Cats and Petrels 



Another evidence of the destructiveness 

 of cats to wild-bird life has been furnished 

 by Mr. Wilbur F. Smith, of South Norwalk 

 Connecticut. During the height of the 

 nesting season the past summer, he vis- 

 ited the is?and of No-Man's-Land, off 

 the coast of Maine. There is here located 

 a flourishing colony of Herring Gulls, 

 which a warden of this Association has 

 been guarding for some time. Writing 

 of his observations there, Mr. Smith says: 



"There is not a tree or a bush on the 

 island, and very little soil. It is a bleak, 

 rocky island, with the ocean stretching 

 away to the shores of Europe, yet the 

 Leach's Petrels chose it, to hide their 

 burrows among the rocks and make it 

 their home. 



"We could not find an occupied nest; 

 but plentiful remains of the birds were 

 scattered about, and it was apparent that 

 the birds had been destroyed. 



"We passed close before one of the 

 fishermen's, cabins and found the ground 

 strewn with remains of Petrels, some 

 freshly eaten. The fisherman told us that 

 the cats caught them in the night and 

 brought them to the house to eat. He said 

 that they had three cats about the houses, 

 and that there was one wild one on the 

 island. 



"The whole colony appeared to have 

 been exterminated, and the man said he 

 guessed it was a good thing; for the birds 

 made a noise at night, and they also 

 smelled strong. "^T. G. P. 



