LAND BIRDS. 247 
for there is every reason to fear that the species is totally extinct not only 
in Michigan but elsewhere. 
So far as we can learn, the last nestings of any importance in Northern 
Michigan occurred in 1880 and 1881. In 1880, according to Chief Simon 
Pokagon, there was a large nesting on the Platte River, Benzie county, and 
in 1881, according to Mr. 8. 8. Stevens of Cadillac, there was a nesting of 
moderate size, perhaps eight miles long. a few miles west of Grand Traverse. 
In 1886 Mr. Stevens found a small flock, ‘of about fifty dozen pairs,” nesting 
in a swamp near Lake City, Missaukee county, and this, so far as we can 
learn, is the last instance in which more than two or three pairs have been 
found nesting together. 
In 1888 Mr. William Brewster and Mr. Jonathan Dwight, Jr., of Cam- 
bridge, spent several weeks in Northern Michigan in the hope of studying 
a large nesting of the Wild Pigeon, but although thousands of pigeons 
appeared in the neighborhood of Cadillac late in April of that year, and 
a few pairs bred here and there in the surrounding woods, the greater 
number disappeared before the middle of May, and are not known to have 
returned. They were traced northward as far as Oden, Emmet county, 
and are presumed to have crossed the Straits of Mackinac and nested some- 
where in the Upper Peninsula, or even in the British possessions north of 
Lake Superior. 
Since that date (1888) no large flocks of Passenger Pigeons have been 
seen anywhere, and since 1890 the occurrence of single individuals or small 
squads has been considered worth recording in the scientific journals, on 
account of the rarity of the bird. A few individuals were taken here and 
there in the eastern United States in 1894, 1895 and 1896, but they were 
almost invariably single birds or pairs. 
In the summer of 1893 a careful observer (Vernon Bailey), at Elk River, 
Minnesota, stated that two or three flocks, of four to six birds each, were 
seen during the summer, and two pigeons were killed, but he had heard of 
no nests (Mcllwraith, Birds of Ontario, 1894, p. 185). Another observer 
reported a flock of 500 pigeons seen in Aitken county, Minnesota in the 
spring of 1894 (Auk, XII, 1895, 80). One was shot in the northeast 
corner of Delta county. Mich., October 1, 1895, by Dr. E. Copeland and 
one was taken at Delevan. Wisconsin, September 8, 1896. 
The last specimen taken in the United States, so far as we can learn, 
was an immature bird shot September 14, 1898, at Chestnut Ridge, near 
Delray, Wayne county, Mich., by Mr. P. H. Clements of Detroit. This 
bird was mounted by Campion of Detroit, and is now in the collection of 
Mr. J. H. Fleming of Toronto (Auk, XX, 1903, 66). 
Of course there have been scores of reports of the occurrence of pigeons 
during the last ten years, but in most cases investigation has shown them 
to be based upon the Mourning Dove or Carolina Dove, which is SO similar 
in general appearance to the Passenger Pigeon that even the expert is likely 
to be mistaken unless the utmost care is exercised (Examine Plate XVII). 
It is barely possible that a few small flocks of Passenger Pigeons still exist 
and nest somewhere in the more remote sections of Michigan or the 
Dominion of Canada. It should be noted. however, that the reports of 
the abundance of the Passenger Pigeon in California and the far southwest 
are entirely erroneous, being based upon the presence there of an entirely 
different bird, the Band-tailed Pigeon (Columba fasciata) which is restricted 
to the western United States, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. 
