EXTINCT PASSENGER PIGEON 
477 
in size. E. Lear drew Selby’s figures of the pigeons, and they were 
engraved by Lizars. 
We may now enquire as to who published the first figure or plate 
representing the Wild Pigeon; and, in so far as I have been able to 
discover, it would seem to have been Mark Catesby, whose elephant 
folio work appeared in 1771; it is entitled “The Natural History of Car¬ 
olina, Florida, and Bahama Islands, with a lengthy sub-title. The col¬ 
ored plate of the Wild Pigeon occurs in Volume I., and is Plate 23, 
its caption being “The Pigeon of Passage” (Palumbus Migratorius). 
(Fig. 13). 
The bird is quite recognizable, although figured in the quaint style 
so characteristic of the ornithological artists of those times. The ac¬ 
cessories consist of the leaves and acorns of the Red Oak, the bird 
standing on the upper surface of one of the separated leaves, the indi¬ 
cations being that the leaf is on the ground and not floating in mid-air. 
There is an elaborate Preface to this work (pp. V.-XII.), on page 
XI of which Catesby tells us that “As I was not bred a Painter, I hope 
some faults in Perspective, and other Niceties may be more readily ex¬ 
cused, for I humbly conceive Plants, and other Things done in a Flat, 
tho’ exact manner may serve the Purpose of Natural History, better in 
some Measure than in a bold and Painter like way. In designing the 
Plants, I always did them while fresh and just gathered: And the Ani¬ 
mals, particularly the Birds, I painted them while alive (except a few) 
and gave them their Gestures peculiar to every kind of Bird, and where 
it would admit of, I have adapted the Bird to those Plants on which 
they fed, or have any Relation to.” 
Catesby had considerable trouble, on account of the expense, in 
securing an engraver; but as he adds in his Preface, “At length by the 
Kind Advice and Instructions of that inimitable Painter Mr. Joseph 
Goupy, I undertook and was initiated in the way of Etching them my¬ 
self, which, though I may not have done in a Graver-like manner, 
choosing rather to omit their method of cross-Hatching, and to follow 
the humour of the Feathers, which is more laborious, and I hope has 
proved more to the purpose.” 
Next follows a long discussion of the colors used in this work, and 
other matters of interest. 
This ancient classic is still consulted from time to time, and we turn 
to it for many reasons in a reverential way; and by no means the least 
one of the reasons is, that nearly a century and a half ago, its author 
published for us a plate of the Passenger Pigeon, little dreaming as he 
did so that this splendid species, then existing in unnumbered millions 
in this country, would so soon be utterly exterminated by those living 
in the regions where it occurred. 
It would appear that Count de Buffon never published a fisure or 
