28 COLUMBID^. 



been exhausted unless it came from some very great distance. 

 It never became tame, though I had it in confinement for 

 about two years, at first alone, and afterwards in company 

 with other pigeons. It would walk backwards and forwards 

 in a very shy manner when any one looked at it, and always 

 avoided the other birds." Thompson adds : " The account 

 of this individual leads one to believe that it may have 

 crossed the Atlantic." 



The fourth example is recorded in a note by Lord Binning 

 in Turnbull's * Birds of East Lothian,' p. 41 (1867), as being 

 in the collection of Lord Haddington, who shot it at 

 Mellerstain in Berwickshire ; adding that a gentleman in 

 that county was known to have turned out several Pas- 

 senger Pigeons shortly before this one was shot, and it was 

 rather remarkable that nothing was heard of the others. 

 A supposed Passenger Pigeon was recorded in ' The Field,' 

 September 11th, 1869, as having been shot near Melbourne, 

 in Derbyshire, but the bird was not preserved. The latest 

 undoubted occurrence is that of an example shot nearMulgrave 

 Castle, Yorkshire, by Lord Harry Phipps, and examined in 

 the flesh on 13th October, 1876, by Mr. John Hancock, who, 

 in the ' Natural History Transactions of Northumberland and 

 Durham,' v. p. 338, described it as follows : — " The quill- 

 feathers in the wings were much worn and broken, and in 

 the forehead above the bill they are apparently worn off to 

 the skull, as though the bird had been trying to get out of 

 a cage or some other enclosure ; therefore I cannot come to 

 any other conclusion than that this specimen, a female, had 

 made its escape from confinement." 



There is no authentic record of the occurrence of the 

 Passenger Pigeon on the Continent of Europe ; or even on 

 Heligoland, famed for its attractiveness to American strag- 

 glers. As regards two at least of the above examples 

 obtained in the British Islands, there seems to be a strong 

 probability that they were birds which had acquired their 

 freedom ; but with regard to the others, it may be borne in 

 mind that this species is capable of long-continued flights, 

 and is known to pass over a great extent of country with a 



