The Audubon Societies 
The Last Pigeon 
Two years ago, it was generally sup- 
posed that only seven live Passenger 
Pigeons were in existence. Four of these 
were in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the other 
three were in the Zodlogical Garden at 
Cincinnati. During the twelve months 
which followed, the four in Milwaukee 
died, as did also one of the Cincinnati 
birds. Under date of November 9th 1910, 
Mr. S. A. Stephan, General Manager 
of the Cincinnati Zodlogical Company, 
writes: . 
“As far as I know, the only two Wild 
Pigeons in existence last spring were in 
the Cincinnati Zoo, but in June the male 
died of old age. He was about twenty- 
two years old. The female that we still 
have left is now about eighteen years 
old. They were hatched in our cages here.” 
Visitors to Cincinnati today, therefore, 
have the privilege of seeing what is pro- 
bably the last surviving member of that 
species of birds whose numbers were once 
the wonder of the ornithological world. 
Apropos to the passing of the pigeon, the 
following facts recently collected by Mr. 
E. H. Forbush, New England Agent of 
the National Association of Audubon 
Societies, will be of interest to some 
readers: 
“Highty tons of Passenger Pigeons 
were sent from one county in New York to 
the market in New York City in 1840, 
and at least 300 tons were dispatched 
from Petoskey, Michigan in 1878. Sullivan 
Cook states that there were caught and 
shipped in forty days from Hartford, 
Michigan, 11,880,000 pigeons. Also that 
in the two succeeding years one-third 
more than that number were shipped 
from Shelby, or 15,840,000 birds. When 
it is considered that this traffic went on 
261 
wherever the pigeons appeared, and that 
they were slaughtered at all seasons, 
particularly while nesting, there is no 
mystery in the extinction of the Wild 
Pigeon.”—T. G. P. 
Cats and Petrels 
Another evidence of the destructiveness 
of cats to wild-bird life has been furnished 
by Mr. Wilbur F. Smith, of South Norwalk 
Connecticut. During the height of the 
nesting season the past summer, he vis- 
ited the island of No-Man’s-Land, off 
the coast of Maine. There is here located 
a flourishing colony of Herring Gulls, 
which a warden of this Association has 
been guarding for some time. Writing 
of his observations there, Mr. Smith says: 
“There is not a tree or a bush on the 
island, and very little soil. It is a bleak, 
rocky island, with the ocean stretching 
away to the shores of Europe, yet the 
Leach’s Petrels chose it, to hide their 
burrows among the rocks and make it 
their home. 
“We could not find an occupied nest; 
but plentiful remains of the birds were 
scattered about, and it was apparent that 
the birds had been destroyed. 
“We passed close before one of the 
fishermen’s, cabins and found the ground 
strewn with remains of Petrels, some 
freshly eaten. The fisherman told us that 
the cats caught them in the night and 
brought them to the house to eat. He said 
that they had three cats about the houses, 
and that there was one wild one on the 
island. 
-“The whole colony appeared to have 
been exterminated, and the man said he 
guessed ‘it was a good thing; for the birds 
made a noise at night, and they also 
smelled strong.’—T. G. P. 
