will ] Craig, Emotion in the Passenger Pigeon. 425 



but is an old, old belief, dating back at least to Aristotle. Thus, 

 when we examine Audubon's account of the expressions of the 

 Passenger Pigeon, we find that it came largely by reasoning by 

 analogy from the domestic pigeon and from the author's charming 

 but somewhat unscientific imagination; so much so as to cast 

 a shadow of doubt over other statements which we cannot now 

 verify. 



For the sake of our knowledge of this species, Audubon's figures, 

 just as his text, need to be criticised. The plate (Birds of America, 

 Vol. I, pi. lxii, portrays a male and a female Passenger Pigeon in the 

 act of billing, the female sitting on a separate perch, so high above 

 the male that they can just reach one another. But in truth the 

 birds when billing are always side by side; whenever they wish 

 to bill, they sit side by side and caress one another first. The artist 

 evidently intended to represent a female passing food to the male. 

 But this never happens; if any food is passed at all it is from male 

 to female. Coupled with this is the fact that the begging attitude 

 in which Audubon has drawn the male, belongs to the female only 

 among pigeons (and not even to her, I think, in the Passenger). 

 Nor should the tail of the male be spread. As to the bills, the 

 drawing is correct in that it shows the bill of the female inserted 

 into that of the male, but wrong in showing the female's bill in- 

 serted " transversely," as the text has it. The fact is, that as the 

 two birds sit side by side in billing, their heads are both in normal 

 position, the upper mandible being uppermost. Thus we see that, 

 however great the value of this plate in other respects, its value as a 

 record of the attitudes and habits of the species, is very little. 

 (Mention of other published figures was made on p. 411). 



A word as to the care of Passenger Pigeons, in case we may be 

 so fortunate as to find some still living. Professor Whitman kept 

 his in the same pen with other species, supplied with the pigeon 

 staples of mixed seed, grit, oyster shells, salt, and plenty of green 

 food such as lettuce. After he had had his flock many years, he 

 discovered that they would greedily devour earthworms, and when 

 abundantly supplied with this delicacy the birds improved so much 

 in health and vigor that Professor Whitman thought if only he had 

 known of this diet early enough he might have saved his stock 

 from dving awav. 



