° 1911 J Hodge, The Passenger Pigeon Investigation. 51 



no such confusion will be permitted to occur in future. With 

 such large money prizes involved, it is necessary that one person 

 assume all ultimate responsibility. 



It was, of course, expected a year ago that one season's search 

 would settle the matter definitely one way or the other. How- 

 ever, negative evidence is proverbially inconclusive. I have to 

 show you two nests — I might have brought many more — of the 

 Mourning Dove and one nest of probably a Sharp-shinned or 

 Pigeon Hawk, some Mourning Dove feathers and wings, but not 

 a nest or even a feather of the long lost Ectopistcs migratorius. 

 Not an award has been successfully claimed. What is the reason 

 or sense in prolonging the misery? 



In the first place I find myself in the position of the man who 

 was holding the bear. He could not let go. No time limit has 

 been set in any of our announcements so that, in order to keep 

 faith with the public, we must let the awards stand for at least 

 one more season. With a full year's notice, it may be advisable 

 to print in our next announcement that the investigation is to 

 close definitely on October 1, 1911, and that all offers of rewards 

 not claimed by that date will be called off. With the general 

 stirring up the matter has had this year, the observations of 

 another season ought to settle the case for all time. 



Although we have no tangible evidence to show, the testimony 

 for the season is greater in amount than for any one year since 1900. 

 After sorting out the season's correspondence I have as possibly 

 true for pigeons seen during 1909 and 1910 reports as follows: 

 From Ontario, 10; from Pennsylvania, 9; from Massachusetts, 8; 

 from New York, 4; from Michigan, 3; from Iowa, 2; and from 

 Illinois, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Connecticut, New 

 Hampshire and Manitoba, 1 each. As a last hope it was thought 

 that these reports might be made to support one another by 

 indicating, when plotted on a map, a consistent course of one or 

 more flocks of pigeons migrating over the continent. So few of 

 these reports, however, give definite data as to number in flock 

 or direction of flight that even this slight hope finds little or no 

 support. The absence of any definite word from reputable natur- 

 alists or ornithologists, American or Canadian, is another extremely 

 discouraging and ominous feature of this season's investigation. 



