CHAPTER XXVII. 



THE PASSENGER PIGEON— ITS LAST PHASE 



By HENRY W. SHOEMAKER 



MORE than ten years have passed since the writer 

 lirst came in touch with Prof. C. F. Hodge, 

 of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., the noted 

 naturahst who firmly believed that the Passenger 

 Pigeons were not extinct. The Professor, at his own 

 expense, carried on an expensive publicity campaign 

 for several years, but was unable to produce tangible 

 proofs of the actual existence of the elusive birds. 

 Through the co-operation of leading men, handsome 

 rewards were offered in each of the States in the 

 former range of the pigeons for the discovery of a 

 nest, and the protection of the young birds until they 

 were able to fly and, though hosts of claimants 

 appeared and the genial Professor indulged in sundry 

 "wild goose chases", some as far north as Canada, 

 he found nothing but the nests of flickers, doves and 

 cuckoos. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt had volun- 

 teered to help identify nests, but passed on nothing 

 nearer the object of quest than the nests of mourn- 

 ing doves. Early in 1912 Professor Hodge dissolved 

 his committees, abandoned the rewards, and refused 

 to pursue the question further. The writer recollects 

 Prof. Hodge very pleasantly. He was an enthusiast, 

 and at one time his faith in ultimately recovering the 

 pigeons was unbounded. How^ he became so deeply 



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