Recollections of the Passenger Pigeon in Captivity 93 



a considerable time before they become the last rank, but strictly adhere 

 to their regulations, and never rise until there are none behind them." In 

 1758. DuPratz, when on the Mississippi River, "heard a confused noise which 

 seemed to come along the river from a considerable distance below us. . . . 

 How great was my surprise when I . . . observed it to proceed from a 

 short, thick pillar on the bank of the river. When I drew still nearer to it, 

 I perceived that it was formed by a legion of wood-pigeons, who kept con- 

 tinually up and down successively among the branches of an evergreen oak, 

 in order to beat down the acorns with their wings. Every now and then some 

 alighted, to eat the acorns which they themselves or the others had beat 

 down; for they all acted in common, and eat in common; no avarice nor pri- 

 vate interest appearing among them, but each labouring as much for the 

 rest as for himself." 



If only the human species would emulate this communal spirit, act in 

 unison for bird-protection without commercial quibbling, curb its mania for 

 bird-adornment, check excessive "sport for sport's sake," and annihilate pot- 

 ting for market, some of our threatened birds would reestablish their slender 

 hold and escape their impending extinction. In the early settlements, Pigeons, 

 Turkeys, Paroquets, and Heath Hens were plentiful; civilization and culture 

 came; the hills and valleys were deforested; the lowlands were cultivated; 

 in short, the balance of nature was excessively disturbed; yet where have we 

 collectively provided these original occupants refuge, or how have we restrained 

 ourselves, to promote their greater increase, when they were most rapidly 

 lessening? The conscience balm has always been, "They will be evei 



Recollections of the Passenger Pigeon in Captivity 



By WALLACE CRAIG 



THE Passenger Pigeon was easily kept in captivity. All species of Pigeon 

 take more or less well to cage-life, but the Passenger Pigeon throve 

 and bred much more readily than some of the others. My own obser- 

 vations of it at close range were due to the privilege of studying in the pigeonry 

 maintained by the late Prof. C. O. Whitman. In Chicago and in Woods Hole, 

 Professor Whitman kept Passenger Pigeons in pens of modest dimensions, 

 yet they bred, and would probably have maintained their numbers perma- 

 nently, had it not been for in-breeding, the flock being all descended from 

 one pair. They took readily to the nest-boxes, nesting materials, and all other 

 artificial arrangements of the aviary. They did not become exceedingly tame, 

 did not eat out of one's hand (so far as I saw) ; but, if effort had been made to 

 tame them to this degree, who knows but it might have been successful? 

 It is a great pity that attempts were not made earlier to breed these birds in 



