THE PASSENGER PIGEON. 



[With 1 colored plate.] 



Accounts by Pehr Kalm (1759) and John James Audubon (1831). 



[The former habitat of the passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) as given by the 

 American Ornithologists' Union check list (third edition, 1910) is as follows: 



"Bred formerly from middle western Mackenzie, central Keewatin, central Quebec, 

 and Nova Scotia south to Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and New York; win- 

 tered principally from Arkansas and North Carolina south to central Texas, Louisiana, 

 and Florida; casual in Cuba, eastern Mexico, and Nevada; now probably extinct." 



There is one living bird left. This is in the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens. 



The causes of the extermination of this pigeon are chiefly the greed of civilized 

 man. The destruction of forests within its range greatly reduced its natural food 

 supply, and the killing (by netting, shooting, clubbing, etc.) of enormous quantities 

 in the end produced the same effect as with the bison. When these pigeons were still 

 numerous great numbers were used in trap shooting. 



In a wild state the pigeon became extinct about the year 1900 — possibly a few 

 lingered after that date, yet Mershon x estimates (p. 92) that a total of 1,000,000,000 

 were killed in the Michigan "nesting" of 1878.] 



I.— A DESCRIPTION OF THE WILD PIGEONS WHICH VISIT THE SOUTH- 

 ERN ENGLISH COLONIES IN NORTH AMERICA, DURING CERTAIN 

 YEARS, IN INCREDIBLE MULTITUDES. 



By Pehr Kalm (1759) . 2 



In North America there is a species of wild pigeons 3 which, com- 

 ing from the upper part of the country, visits Pennsylvania and 

 others of the southern English settlements during some years, and 

 in marvelous multitudes. 



They have, however, already been described and exceedingly well 

 illustrated in lively colors by the two great ornithologists and match- 



1 Readers wishing to pursue the subject further should consult W. B. Mershon's book, The Passenger 

 Pigeon, 1907, New York, from which the colored plate herewith is reproduced. 



= Translated by S. M. Gronberger from Kongl. Vetenskaps-Akademiens Handlingar, for ar 1759, Vol. 

 20, Stockholm, 1759. Reprinted by permission from The Auk, Vol. 28, Jan., 1911. 



s The names given by ornithologists and others to these pigeons are as follows: 

 Columba {macroura) cauda cunei/ormi longa, pectore purpurascente. Linn. Syst. X, T. I, p. 104. 



Columba macroura. The long-tailed dove. Edwards's History of Birds, T. I, p. 15, 1. 15. 



Palumbus migratorius. The pigeon of passage. Catcsby's Nat. Hist, of Carolina, Vol. I, p. 23, t. 23. 



Dufvor, Villa Dufvor [pigeons, wild pigeons], so called by the Swedes in New Sweden. 



Pigeons, wild pigeons, by the English in North America. 



Tourtes, by the French in Canada. 



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