154 EEPOET OF NEW JEESEY STATE MUSEUM. 



315 Ectopistes migratorius (Linnaeus). 

 Wild Pigeon, Passenger Pigeon. 



PLATE 28. 



Adult male. — Length, 15-17.25. Wing, 8-8.50. Head, neck and rump, 

 plumbeous ; back, grayish-brown ; some black spots on the wing-coverts and 

 scapulars ; an iridescent patch on each side of the neck ; under parts, vinaceous ; 

 belly and under tail-coverts, white ; tail, black at base, passing into blue-gray 

 with a white tip ; middle pair of feathers, uniform dusky brown. 



Adult female. — Similar, but head and breast grayish-brown, and iridescence 

 on neck much duller. 



Young in first summer. — Similar to female, but feathers of head, wing-coverts 

 and breast edged with white. 



Nest of small sticks, loosely put together on the branch of a tree ; eggs, one 

 or two, white, 1.50 x 1.02. 



We may safely say that the Wild Pigeon is extinct in New Jersey, 

 if not throughout its former range. While there have been numerous 

 rumors of Pigeons having been seen, the fact remains that for about 

 ten years none have been secured, while many supposed Pigeons 

 proved to be Doves. 



The former wonderful abundance of the bird and its wanton slaugh- 

 ter are now matters of history. 



David Pieterson DeVries, one of the early explorers of Delaware 

 Bay, states that in April, 1633, when he crossed from Cape Henlopen 

 to Cape May, an immense flight of Wild Pigeons obscured the sky, and 

 Peter Kalm in 1725 tells us how, in Philadelphia, people killed them 

 from their house-tops as they flew over. 



While such occurrences are long past, there are yet many men living 

 who remember the Pigeon as a common bird regularly shot in the 

 autumn. For thirty years, however, it has been rare, and it only 

 remains for us to list the last specimens that have been taken, so far 

 as they have been recorded : 



Englewood (two) ; September, 1878. F. M. Chapman.^ 



Haddonfield; March 22d, 1879. W. L. Abbott, M.D.^ 



Morris Plains; September 16th, 1885. Thurber.^ 



Morristown; October 7th, 1893. A. B. Frost.^ 



Englewood; June 23d, 1896. C. Irving Wood.* 



"■ Auk, 1889, p. 302. 



== Cassinia, 1907. p. 84, in Colin. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila. 



^ Birds of Morris county. 



* Chapman, Auk, 1896, p. 341. 



