^ 1912 J Hodge, A Last Word on the Passenger Pigeon. 169 



A LAST WORD ON THE PASSENGER PIGEON. 



C. F. HODGE, CLARK UNIVERSITY, WORCESTER, MASS. 



The question with which we started out two years ago was: 

 Has scientifically adequate search of North America been made for 

 Edopistes migratoriusf The answer then was that such a search 

 had not been made. A year ago the fact that no nestings had been 

 discovered and that not a single feather of evidence had been sent 

 in seemed practically to prove that the species was extinct. How- 

 ever, since no definite time limits had been set for the rewards, 

 and since a number of apparently encouraging reports had been 

 received, we were impelled to continue the investigation. 



During the season of 1911 satisfactory and practically general 

 publicity had been secured through the educational, agricultural 

 and sporting press. Professor Lockhead has also continued his 

 cooperation for Canada through this season. The final result is: 

 No nestings reported, and there are no undecided cases and no 

 disputes. The slate is clean. None of the rewards were claimed, 

 and, as announced in all published, official statements, all offers of 

 reward terminated Oct. 31. 



Many false reports were received, but all except four of these 

 were settled by correspondence. In nearly every such case my 

 informant would describe two eggs or squabs in the nest. It was 

 only necessary to forward a reprint with the late Professor Whit- 

 man's emphatic statement that the Passenger Pigeon never laid but 

 one egg — containing also cuts from the excellent photographs re- 

 cently furnished by the American Museum of Natural History 

 of the eggs and adults of both Pigeon and Mourning Dove — to 

 induce the people to acknowledge that their birds were Doves. 



One case, investigated by myself early in May, is deserving of 

 permanent record. My informants reported a flock of ten pairs 

 or more nesting in a grove of evergreen trees, thirty to thirty-five 

 feet from the ground. They could not be induced to tell how many 

 eggs or squabs were in the nests. I found the evergreen trees to 

 be three clumps of large Norway spruces in a farm door-yard. 

 The house stood on a slight elevation in a valley, devoid for the 



