OCT .-^^-rr) 



THE PASSENGER PIGEON ESf WISCONSIN AND NEBRASKA. 



[See Vol. Ill, p. 23.] 



UR records of this species 

 during the past few years 

 have referred, in most 

 instances, to very small 

 flocks and generally to pairs 

 or individuals. In The Auk for July, 

 1897, I recorded a. flock of some fifty 

 Pigeons from southern Missouri, 

 but such a number has been very 

 unusual. It is now very gratifying to 

 be able to record still larger numbers, 

 and I am indebted to Mr. A. Fugle- 

 berg of Oshkosh, Wis., for the follow- 

 ing letter of information under date of 

 Sept. I, 1897: "I live on the west 

 shore of Lake Winnebago, Wis. About 

 six o'clock on the morning of August 

 14th, 1897, I saw a flock of Wild 

 Pigeons flying over the bay from 

 Fisherman's Point to Stony Beach, 

 and I assure you it reminded me of 

 old times, from 1855 to 1880, when 

 Pigeons were plentiful every day. So 

 I dropped my work and stood watch- 

 ing them. This flock was followed by 

 six more flocks, each containing about 

 thirty-five to eighty Pigeons, except 

 the last which only contained seven. 

 All these flocks passed over within 

 half an hour. One flock of some fifty 

 birds flew within gun shot of me, the 

 others all the way from one hundred 

 to three hundred yards from where I 

 stood." Mr. Fugleberg is an old 

 hunter and has had much experience 

 with the Wild Pigeon. In a later 

 letter dated Sept. 4, 1897, he writes : 

 " On Sept. 2, 1897, I was hunting 

 Prairie Chickens near Lake Butte des 

 Morts, Wis., where I met a friend 

 who told me that a few days previous 

 he had seen a flock of some twenty-five 

 Wild Pigeons and that they were the 

 first he had seen for years." — This 

 would appear as though these birds 



were instinctively working back to 

 their old haunts, as the Winnebago 

 region was once a favorite locality. 

 We hope that Wisconsin will follow 

 Michigan in making a close season on 

 Wild Pigeons for ten years, and thus 

 give them a chance to multiply and 

 perhaps regain, in a measure, their 

 former abundance. 



In Forest and Stream^ of Sept. 25, 

 1897, is a short notice of 'Wild Pigeons 

 in Nebraska,' by 'W. F. R.' Through 

 the kindness of the editor he placed 

 me in correspondence with the 

 observer, W. F. Rightmire, to whom I 

 am indebted for the following details 

 given in his letter of Nov. 5, 1897 : 

 "I was driving along the highway 

 north of Cook, Johnson County, Neb., 

 on August 17, 1897. I came to the 

 timber skirting the head stream of 

 the Nemaha River, a tract of some 

 forty acres of woodland lying along 

 the course of the stream, upon both 

 banks of the same, and there, feeding 

 on the ground or perched upon the 

 trees were the Passenger Pigeons I 

 wrote the note about. The flock con- 

 tained seventy -five to one hundred 

 birds. I did not frighten them, but 

 as I drove along the road, the feeding 

 birds flew up and joined the others, 

 and as soon as I had passed by they 

 returned to the ground and continued 

 feeding. While I revisited the same 

 locality, I failed to find the Pigeons. I 

 am a native of Tompkins County, 

 N. Y., and have often killed Wild 

 Pigeons in their flights while a boy on 

 the farm, helped to net them, and 

 have hunted them in Pennsylvania, so 

 that I readily knew the birds in ques- 

 tion the moment I saw them." 



— RuTHVEN DeanE in April Auk^ 



25 



