146 The Passenger Pigeon 



From " The Auk," July, 1895, xmder the title, " Additional Records 

 of the Passenger Pigeon in Illinois and Indiana." 



The occurrence of the wild pigeon (Ectopistes mi- 

 gratorius) in this section of the country, and, in fact, 

 throughout the West generally, is becoming rarer every 

 year, and such observations and data as come to our 

 notice should be of sufficient interest to record. 



I have, in the past few months, made inquiry of a 

 great many sportsmen who are constantly in the field 

 and in widely distributed localities, regarding any ob- 

 servations on the wild pigeon, and but few of them 

 have seen a specimen in the past eight or ten years. N. 

 W. Judy & Co., of St. Louis, Mo., dealers in poultry, 

 and the largest receivers of game in that section, wrote 

 as follows: "We have had no wild pigeons for two 

 seasons ; the last we received were from Siloam Springs, 

 Ark. We have lost all track of them, and our netters 

 are lying idle." 



I have made frequent inquiry among the principal 

 game dealers in Chicago and cannot learn of a single 

 specimen that has been received in our markets in several 

 years. I am indebted to the following gentlemen for 

 notes and observations regarding this species, which 

 cover a period of eight years. I have various other 

 records of the occurrence of the pigeon in Illinois and 

 Indiana, but do not consider them sufficiently authentic 

 to record, as to the casual observer this species and the 

 Carolina dove are often confounded. 



