JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 7 1 



A Quarterly Magcizine Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



Vol. XII Published December 1, 1910 No. 4 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $1.00 a year; 25 cents a copy 



The Maine Ornithological Society comprises in its membership the leading- 

 ornithologists and bird students of Maine. The membership is constantly in- 

 creasing and the interest in the Society was never greater than now. If you are 

 interested in birds and wish to know more about them you should by all means 

 send in your name for membership in this vSociety. The dues are one dollar a 

 year, and payment of this sum entitles each person elected to membership to the 

 Journal free of charge. Application for membership should be made to the 

 Secretary, Mr. Dana W. Sweet, Phillips, Maine. Mr. Sweet is also the Treas- 

 urer and the annual dues should be paid to him. All persons, both young and 

 old, are eligible to membership. It is not necessary for one to be versed in bird 

 lore in order to insure his election to this Society. The larger the membership 

 the more can be done in the way of improving the Journal and increasing its 

 size. Send in your name without further delay. The Society will be glad to 

 welcome you to its meetings, which are held once a year in different cities. 



In presenting on an earlier page an article on the Passenger 

 Pigeon, the editors feel called upon to offer this comment. 



While the views severally set forth as explanations of the dis- 

 appearance of the birds are of course understood to be forms of 

 popular speculation, having no basis in fact, they are presented as 

 quoted by the esteemed contributor of the paper, as it seems a part 

 of the duty of ornithological literature to record the prevailing views 

 which have a bearing, for good or for ill, on real problems of the 

 times. It might be added, however, that, "where the Pigeons did 

 go,"* is most vividly told in an article by F. E. S., in 1894, in the 

 Forest and Stream, volume 43, pages 28, 29 and 50. 



♦Consultation of Dabbene's Ornitologia Argentina shows that this bird has 

 not been known to occur in Argentina or adjacent territory, not even as a 

 straggler. 



