V ° 1 ig : o : 7 IV ] Recent Literature. 357 



Pigeon was limited to the mixed hardwood forest region of the eastern 

 United States and Canada, and any that occurred beyond were stragglers, 

 pure and simple." 



Subsequent chapters bring down the record to date of stragglers seen, 

 or supposed to have been seen, in various parts of the country, east as 

 well as west; and Mr. Deane's paper on the Passenger Pigeon in confine- 

 ment is republished from 'The Auk' (XIII, 1896, pp. 234-237, together 

 with letters from Professor C. O. Whitman on the same subject. 



The work has as a frontispiece a colored plate of the Passenger Pigeon, 

 drawn by L. A. Fuertes; a reproduction in color of Audubon's plate of 

 this bird; two half-tone plates of the Passenger Pigeon and Mourning 

 Dove, showing both species side by side photographed to the same scale; 

 a colored plate of the Hand-tailed Pigeon, by Allan Brooks, for comparison 

 with the Passenger Pigeon; and other pertinent illustrations of interest. 



Although Mr. Mershon nowhere gives a summary of the evidence respect- 

 ing the practical disappearance of the Wild Pigeon, he expresses himself 

 as "satisfied that the destruction of the pigeons was wrought to gratify 

 the avarice and love of gain of a few men who slaughtered them until they 

 were virtually exterminated" (p. 1G3, footnote). — J. A. A. 



Fleming on the Disappearance of the Passenger Pigeon. 1 — The capture 

 of single birds from 1887 to 1893 is mentioned, as also the shipment in 

 1892 and 1893 of several hundred dozen each year from the Indian Terri- 

 tory to New York and Boston, these being "the last records we have 

 of the Passenger Pigeon as anything more than a casual migrant. The 

 records ceased after this till 1898 when three were taken at points widely 

 apart .... For all practical purposes the close of the nineteenth century 

 saw the final extinction of the Passenger Pigeon in a wild state." He 

 states that none of the "persistent rumours of the return of pigeons. . . . 

 has borne investigation." — J. A. A. 



Report on the Immigration of Birds in England and Wales in the Spring 

 of 1908.— The second Report of the Committe appointed by the British 

 Ornithologists' Club on the spring migration of birds into England and 

 Wales 2 conforms in plan and general character with the Report for 1905, 

 fully described in a previous number of this Journal. 3 Thirty-four species 

 — five additional to those reported upon for the spring of 1905 — are 

 specially treated, a resume of the dates and manner of arrival for each 



1 The Disappearance of the Passenger Pigeon. By James H. Fleming. Ottawa 

 Naturalist, Vol. XX, pp. 236, 237, March 22, 1907. 



2 Report on the Immigration of Summer Residents in the Spring of 1906. By 

 the Committee appointed by the British Ornithologists' Club. 8vo, pp. 189, April, 

 1907. = Bulletin British Orn. Club, Vol. XX. 



3 Auk, XXIII, Oct. 1906, p. 472. 



