THE OOLOGIST. 



237 



Oa May 19th, while ou an island iu 

 the river, J saw a female Merlin fly 

 from a large nest, from which I had 

 taken four eggs of the Rough-legged 

 Buzzard only ten days before, but was 

 very disappointed that I could not get 

 to the nest, as the fl'oods iu the moun- 

 tains made the river so high as to be 

 utterly impassable. 



J. E. Houseman, 

 Calgary, 2^. W. T. 



Nesting Habits of the Passenger Pigeon. 

 Bv Elgexe Pericles. 



There are hundreds and perhaps 

 thousands of the younger readers of the 

 OoLOGiST who have never seen a Pas- 

 senger Pigeon alive. In fact there are 

 many who have never seen a skin or 

 stuffed specimen, for the species is so 

 rare now that very few of the younger 

 collectors have had an opportunity of 

 shooting a bird. And of the present 

 generation of o5logists, the ones who 

 have secured a set (one egg) are indeed 

 very few. 



Many of the older ornithologists can 

 remember when the birds appeared 

 among us in myriads each season, and 

 were mercilessly and inconsiderately 

 trapped and shot whenever and where- 

 ever they appeai'ed. I could fill a book 

 with the accounts of their butcheries, 

 and could easily cause astonishment in 

 my readers by telling of the immense 

 flocks which were seen a quarter of a 

 century ago. But wonderful as these 

 tales would appear, they would be as 

 nothing comjiared to the stories of the 

 earlier writers on birds in America. 

 The readers of the OiiLOGiST may look 

 over the writings of Audubon and Wil- 

 son, if marvelous facts on the size of 

 the flocks of the wild pigeon are de- 

 sii-ed. 



No one can be surprised that the Pas- 

 senger Pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius, 

 Linn, has become so reduced in num- 



bers, for the war Avaged upon them for 

 generations was so severe, that next to 

 total extermination was bound to fol- 

 low, unless the birds selected different 

 routes of migration, and quarters for 

 nesting far removed from the habita- 

 tions of man. 



Of course we know that the net and 

 gun have been the principle means of 

 destruction, but it is almost fair to as- 

 sert that even with the net and gun 

 under proper restrictions, the Pigeon 

 would still be with us in hordes, both 

 spring and autumn. For many years 

 hunters (butchers) used to shoot the 

 birds regularly at their nesting places, 

 while the netters were also found near 

 at hand. 



I have seen many birds taken by un- 

 sportsmanlike netters, for the mai'ket 

 during spring imigrations, and the pub- 

 lished accounts of the destruction by 

 netters is almost beyond belief. Doctor 

 Kirtland states that near Circleville, 

 Ohio, in 1850 there were taken iu a sin- 

 gle net in one day 1285 live Pigeons. 



The Passenger Pigeon Avas in the 

 habit of crossing the Ohio River by 

 March first iu the si)i"ing migrations, 

 and I have noted the birds several 

 times in Michigan in February. But 

 this was not usually the case, for the 

 birds were not abundant generally be- 

 fore April first, although no set rule 

 could be laid down regarding their ap- 

 pearance or departure either in spring 

 or fall. They usually came with a 

 mighty rush. Sometimes they did not 

 appear, or at least only very sparingly. 

 Their nesting sites would remain the 

 same for years if the birds were unmol- 

 ested, but they generally had to change 

 every year or two, or as soon as the. 

 roost was discovered by the despicable 

 market netter. 



Where the mighty numbers went to 

 when they left for the South is not ac- 

 curately stated and of course this will 

 now never be know, but they were 



