56 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



unspeakable cruelty of the method by which these birds were 

 so ruthlessly butchered, is a blot on the fair page of ornitholog- 

 ical history in this country. The parent birds were trapped at 

 their nesting places while brooding their young, leaving the 

 helpless babies that had escaped the butchers to suffer a slow 

 death by starvation. 



Those who would read more in detail of how the wild 

 pigeons were destroyed, are referred to a book by W. B. Mer- 

 shon, entitled "The Passenger Pigeon" (Outing Publishing 

 Co., 1907). 



One foggy day in October, 1884, at 5 a. m., I looked out of 

 my bedroom window, and as I looked six wild pigeons flew 

 down and perched on the dead branches of a tall poplar tree 

 that stood about one hundred feet away. As I gazed at them 

 in delight, feeling as though old friends had come back, they 

 quickly darted away and disappeared in the fog, the last I ever 

 saw of any of these birds in this vicinity. 



14 



