CHAPTER II 

 The Passenger Pigeon 



(Columba Migratoria) 

 From "American Ornithology," by Alexander Wilson 



THIS remarkable bird merits a distinguished 

 place in the annals of our feathered tribes — 

 a claim to which I shall endeavor to do justice; 

 and, though it would be impossible, in the bounds 

 allotted to this account, to relate all I have seen and 

 heard of this species, yet no circumstance shall be 

 omitted with which I am acquainted (however extraor- 

 dinary some of these may appear) that may tend to 

 illustrate its history. 



The wild pigeon of the United States inhabits a wide 

 and extensive region of North America, on this side of 

 the Great Stony Mountains, beyond which, to the west- 

 ward, I have not heard of their being seen. According 

 to Mr. Hutchins, they abound in the country around 

 Hudson's Bay, where they usually remain as late as 

 December, feeding, when the ground is covered with 

 snow, on the buds of the juniper. They spread over the 

 whole of Canada; were seen by Captain Lewis and his 

 party near the Great Falls of the Missouri, upwards 



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