48 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 70. 



mestic bird. According to the late Major Charles E. Bendire, 

 and others, Pember's localities were taken at random, his col- 

 lectors fictitious, his data in his own handwriting- and creations 

 of his own mind. 



It is a popular opinion of the hunters of Monroe County, 

 that the vast flocks were blown out to sea and perished. The 

 hunters were accustomed to visit the nesting places at night 

 and kill the birds with clubs and poles : the breasts were re- 

 moved, smoked and strung up for future consumption ! Of 

 course this would have no effect upon its abundance? In 

 Chester County, the bird was netted with the aid of captives. 

 I have heard from good authority of one netter who stopped 

 marketing only when it no longer paid, the price having fell to 

 three cents a dozen. The collection of the late Mr. J. W. 

 Sharp, of Berwyn, contains a single mounted specimen, unfor- 

 tunately without data, but doubtless shot in the vicinity. Prob- 

 ably the last birds shot in the neighborhood were secured by 

 Dr. H. R. Wharton, in a wood near Strafiford, 1878. 



I copy from my Journal, under the date of April 17, 1901 : 

 " Father remarked to-day at noon that he had seen something 

 he had not observed for a good many years — a flock of Wild 

 Pigeons, fifteen altogether. He knew them from Doves, being 

 larger, darker and more robust. He said there was no mis- 

 take, he had shot and handled many of them in days gone by." 

 I referred the matter to Mr. W. J. Hoxie, another old-timer. 

 He replied : " In regard to the Wild Pigeon I would cer- 

 tainly say ' good,' for the dark underparts alone will distin- 

 guish the flying birds from the Doves. There are points of 

 movement and general modeling not at all easy to describe." 



It is barely possible that the species breeds somewhere in 

 eastern Pennsylvania. If so. may it be delivered from its 

 friends ! The only practical way of protecting the bird, if it 

 be not extinct, is to include the Mourning Dove in a general 

 protective law ; for not one person in a hundred can dififeren- 

 tiate the two species. Frank L. Burns. 



