162 THE PASSENGER PiaEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



however, was not erected until about thirty years ago. 

 His name as a naturahst is secure, and he occupies a 

 lofty and unique position in the ornithological world. 

 His interest in the Passenger Pigeon was very deep, 

 his illustrations of this noble bird being the best extant. 

 In Prof. Herrick's ''biography" \'ol. 1, facing page 

 292, appears a truly lifelike sketch of a male pigeon 

 made by the famous bird-lover in the Ohio Valley, on 

 December 11, 1809. It is interesting to note that he 

 calls it '"Passenger Pigeon, Cohimha migratoria . 



. appelc ici Wild Pigeon." While in Edin- 

 burgh, in the winter of 1827 he prepared and read a 

 paper entitled "Habits of the Wild Pigeon of America" 

 before the members of a learned society of that city. 

 He began the preparation of the paper and kept at the 

 work during an entire day finishing it at half past 

 three in the morning; so completely said he, was he 

 transported to the woods of America and to the pig- 

 eons, that his ears ''were as if really filled with the 

 noise of their wings." Evidently the poetry and ro- 

 mance of the pigeons were in his soul, as with every 

 other out-door American who came in contact with 

 them, or learned to know them in his dreams as the 

 result of conversations with the old people. If the 

 spirits of the dead hover in the ether surrounding their 

 final seputure the soul of Audubon must have been 

 stirred that wild night in the autumn of 187'6 when 

 as the result of a heavy storm in the Hudson valley a 

 large flock of those wonderful birds appelc ici Wild 

 Pigeon were driven into the Trinity Cemetery, and 



