JOURNAL OP MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 67 



rather than to the narrower fields of the strictly ornithological pub- 

 lications. 



It will be recalled that early in the year The American Orni- 

 thologists' Union, in order to save the Pigeons from extermination, 

 offered the prize of a heretofore unheard of sum for the discovery 

 of "one nesting pair" of the Wild Passenger Pigeon. This offer 

 brought out many articles giving much satisfactory and desired 

 information. As early as June 4th, 19 10, a letter in the Neiv York 

 Tribtine predicted the impossibility of the preservation of this bird 

 in the East, in its former numbers, as in the earlier half of the last 

 century. The fact of their leaving the East in the forties was at- 

 tributed to their persecution and destruction and to the disappear- 

 ance of the old oak woods, the acorns of which, with wheat, were the 

 staples of their food on their deliberate transit south in September. 

 It is also well known that the culture of wheat in the East, especially 

 in this state, was abandoned early in the forties on account of the 

 presence of the so-called weevil (midge) , and at that time our 

 dependence for flour was upon the wheat fields of the Genessee Val- 

 ley in New York, from which we in Maine had the famous "round 

 hoop" flour of that section. 



Following the above named article, Mr. J. A. Watson, of Chi- 

 cago, under date of July 8th, 19 10, sent a letter to the New York 

 Tribune, in which he stated that the Pigeons are safe in Argentina, 

 South America, in numbers as large as at the East in the long ago; 

 and that they have there abandoned their migratory habits and have 

 become permanent residents. Mr. E. DuBois, of Bluffton, vS. C, in 

 an article in the same journal, said that the Wild or Passenger Pig- 

 eon left the East in the early forties, explaining that by "the East" 

 he meant the New England States and eastern New York, or to the 

 Hudson River. Mr. DuBois says that while the failure of the wheat 

 crop in the East may have been a factor in their leaving this sec- 

 tion, he is sure the loss of the white oak acorn is the cause of the im- 

 migration of the Pigeon south' in September, as he has "seen too 

 many Pigeons shot with acorns in their crops" to be mistaken in 

 this particular. This statement is further confirmed by Mr. DuBois 



