The Last of the Pigeons 157 



the latter part of April of 1905 near Vanderbilt, Mich., 

 by this George King. I have tested his honesty and 

 truthfulness time and time again. He told me he was 

 seated in the branches of an apple tree when he saw six 

 wild pigeons alight in another tree near him. He kept 

 perfectly still and watched their movements for about 

 thirty minutes. They flew from the old tree in which 

 they had alighted, underneath a beech tree and began 

 feeding on beech nuts from the ground. He says he 

 heard them call and they made the same old crowing 

 call of the wild pigeon. He was close to them ; he is 

 perfectly familiar with the dove and knows that these 

 six were Passenger Pigeons. King has for many years 

 lived in the section that formerly was the great pigeon 

 nesting and feeding ground of northern Michigan. 



Michigan Agricultural College, 



July 14, '05. 

 Dear Sir: — I have been away for the past three 

 weeks and find your letter of June 27 here on my return. 

 The photographs sent you were those of the Passenger 

 Pigeon and the Carolina dove, the one of the two birds 

 being intended to show relative size and appearance. 

 It was taken from two of the best specimens in the 

 museum, placed at exactly the same distance from the 

 camera so that the picture shows the comparative size 

 exactly. The birds being so similar in general appear- 

 ance, the smaller one looks as if it were further away 



