74 CTbc Warmer 



Passenger Pigeon Nesting in Minnesota 



TTH SKETCH OF NESTING SITE DRAWN FROM MEMORY 



By TV. Otto Emerson 



IN THE general notes of the "Auk," July, 1897, is mentioned (p. 316) by- 

 Mr. Ruthven Deane of Chicago, 111., that Simon Pokagon had informed 

 him that the Passenger Pigeon had been observed nesting the spring of 1896 

 along the head waters of Au Sable River, Michigan. There is no published 

 account of the nesting habit, that I am aware of, in the past twenty years. 



It is with pleasure I am led to give such facts to the readers of The 

 Warbler as came under my personal observation in June, 1890, during a 

 visit to Minneapolis, Minn., and its vicinity. While there I had the oppor- 

 tunity of being shown some of the vast breeding grounds of water birds of 

 that region along what is known as the overflowed bottom-lands of the Miss- 

 issippi river, out from the city of Minneapolis some 16 miles, by my old 

 friend Ewd. S. Stebbins, an oologist of Minn, birds. 



It was while photographing and sketching among the thousands of nest- 

 ing birds of this vast area of shallow waters that we rowed to a long narrow 

 strip of land we noted as having a few straggling cottonwoods over it, be- 

 tween us and the river. ' It was here we aimed to stretch our stiffened legs 

 from being in the boat and lunch under the shade of a tree, little expecting 

 to find a Passenger Pigeon nest. On going under the first old cottonwood, 

 that was badly weather-beaten, I saw up some 40-odd feet a dove's tail show- 

 ing over a slightly built twig-nest. As the bird heard our voices she flew 

 and I saw my first Passenger Pigeon since leaving my prairie home in old 

 Illinois twenty years before. Calling my friend Stebbins to the tree I 

 showed him the Pigeon's nest and it was not long before he was up to it and 

 down with the single egg it contained. 



As I remember the eo-gr it was about six davs incubated and resembled 

 the common dove's, only larger. It was given to my friend for his col- 

 lection. During our stay of an hour or more on this waste of land the 

 Pigeon did not return, nor were others seen by closely hunting over the re- 

 maining trees. 



The drawing here presented is of the nest and egg as it appeared, from 

 my notes. The nest was placed on a forked limb close to the main body of 

 the tree. Many of the branches were nude of foliage and dead, and the tree 

 stood all alone by itself, as all others did on this strip of land. Off over by 

 the river side they were of a thicker growth, and this may account for the 

 Pigeon choosing an open situation as a better outlook to a protection of her 

 humble home. 



In the years 1860-68, when a lad about my grandfather's farm in Illinois, 



