Birds. 45 



93. Ectopistes migratorius. 



PASSENGER PIGEON. 



In the 1886 list I wrote of this species : "A common migrant 

 till within a few years, but is now less common than formerly. 

 Breeds in Herkimer and Hamilton Counties." A great change 

 has taken place since then. Undoubtedly it had taken place 

 at that time, although I had no idea of it, nor had any other 

 observer. This bird was then far on its way to extinction, 

 which extinction is now complete. They disappeared quite 

 suddenly from some cause which is yet undiscoyered. It is 

 customary, even among ornithologists, to claim that they were 

 exterminated by man, as the bison were, but all the evidence 

 is against this. At the State Sportsmen's convention held in 

 Utica in 1873 Wild Pigeons were used as targets. From my 

 scrap book I find that the number of birds shot at during two 

 days of this convention was 2,860, in the regular matches. 

 There were probably sweepstakes and outside matches requir- 

 ing many more. So cheap were they that my recollection is 

 that the price for sweepstakes was only 25 cents per bird shot 

 at. Up to that time, therefore, and probably for a year or two 

 after they were common enough to be used by thousands for 

 targets at the State Association meetings. Ten thousand were 

 purchased each year, I am informed. In the "Auk," Vol. 

 'XVIII, page 191, Mr. G. C. T. Ward says these birds became 

 very rare about 1870. He certainly hag the date too early. My 

 personal journal shows that they were common in the West 

 Canada Creek Valley in 1878. In June of that year I found a 

 neit at Jones' Lake, on the Herkimer-Hamilton County line, 

 on which the female was setting, and from which I collected 

 one egg, which was the usual number laid by the bird. A male 

 in my collection I shot near Joe's Lake (now Honnedaga) 

 June 27 of the same year and my journal entry concludes: 

 "Have seen a good many during the past month." The records 

 of others, marketmen, dealers and observers, show that these 

 birds nested in millions, perhaps billions, in the States about 

 the Great Lakes, yearly, up to 1878. During this year they 

 were killed, trapped and shipped alive zn^ dead in as great 

 numbers as ever (a million and a quarter birds from one disr 

 trict). It seemed impossible that these immense numbers 

 could be much reduced except by years of persecution. But 



