1922.] The lad rireat Jiight of the Passenger Pigeon. 137 



IV. — A Jleniiniscenre of I he last great fight of the Passenger 

 Pigeon (Ectopiritcs uiigratorius) in Canada. By Percy 

 E. Lowe, from infoniiation derived from Dr. A. B. 

 Welfokd of Woodstock, Ontario, (*anada. 



Ox one of the hot days of last July there walked into the 

 Bird-room of the British Museum a gentleman from Wood- 

 stock, Ontario, in Canada. This was Doctor A. B. Welford, 

 who had not been to England for forty years^ and in his 

 hand he bore a fine skin of a Passenger Pigeon which he 

 wished to present to the Museum. Almost at the last moment 

 of leaving his home for England, he had packed it in one of 

 his trunks — a happy thought, — for although it had been well 

 preserved in his house as a precious relic of one of the most 

 remarkable phenomena in the history of birds and was in 

 fact, in a very excellent state of preservation, such relics 

 are perhaps safer in an institution like the British Museum. 

 Gratefully as we accepted Dr. Welford's gift, we were 

 still more grateful for the very interesting account which 

 the donor gave us of his own personal experience of 

 the lasc great flight of the Passenger Pigeon. It must be 

 getting a rare event, nowadays, to listen to the storj- of a 

 man who had actually witnessed one of the last devastating 

 flights of this remarkable bird, and as we listened, wholly 

 absorbed, I came to the conclusion that such a story was too 

 good to be lost in the hazy limbo of mere hearsay recollec- 

 tion. I therefore asked Dr. Welford if he would kindly jot 

 down for publication a few notes as to the main facts and 

 incidents of his ex[)(>rience, and here they are, woven into 

 what I think is a story which may well interest the readers 

 of 'The Ibis.' 



"The Passenger Pigeon which I have presented to the 

 British Museum of Natural History was shot by me in 

 the spring-flight (April) of 1870 (about), near Woodstock 

 in Ontario. 1 am not absolutely clear as to the year or 



