232 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



flocked in countless millions, not many years ago. The 

 apparently reliable testimony of Mr. O'Reilly and 

 those who corroborate him, should receive the atten- 

 tion of the naturalists who maintain that the wild pig- 

 eon is totally extinct. The matter is respectfully re- 

 ferred to John Burroughs. — Rochester, N. Y., Union- 

 Advertiser, (Aug. 12, 191i.) 



Note on the Passenger Pigeon 



About a year and one half ago, the Cornell Uni- 

 versity Museum came into the possession of a mounted 

 adult male Passenger Pigeon through the kindness of 

 its collector, Mr. J. L. Howard, of Clyde, N. Y., a 

 justice of that city. Pie is now over 80 years old, and 

 had the bird mounted by a local taxidermist, George 

 L. Perkins, who is now dead. According to Mr. 

 Howard's memory, the bird was taken in 1909, eleven 

 years after the last certain capture (Sept. 14, 1898) 

 of a Passenger Pigeon in the State. On the bottom of 

 the mount is the legend, "Geo. L. Perkins, July 5, 

 1898," — a date in close agreement with Mr. Wilbur's 

 record (Sept. U, 1898) at Canandaigua, N. Y. The 

 mount might be an old mount from some other bird. 

 Mr. Howard's letter follows : 



"My account of the shooting of the Passenger Pig- 

 eon must be short as there was but little of it. Upon 

 the John Heit farm about two and one-half miles 

 southwest of Clyde and near the Clyde River is, and 

 has been longer than I remember, a small pond nearly 

 round and about three rods in diameter. A low hill 



