458 
THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY 
PUBLISHED FIGURES AND PLATES OF THE 
EXTINCT PASSENGER PIGEON 1 
By Dr. R. W. SHUFELDT 
WASHINGTON; D. C. 
(Photographs by the Author) 
W ITH the view of portraying its natural appearance in life, few 
birds, either living or extinct, have exceeded the Passenger 
Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) as a subject for artists and engravers. 
For nearly two centuries, representations of this now extinct species 
have been published in all sorts of avenues, ranging all the way from 
the cuts found in dictionaries and school-books to reproductions of 
life-size colored figures illustrating the most sumptuous of the world’s 
great works devoted to ornithology. It would seem to be quite a safe 
statement to make that upwards of five hundred figures or more of this 
bird, published in many quarters of the world, have appeared, illus¬ 
trating the great variety of accounts, both popular and scientific, that 
avian biographers have given us upon its natural history. 
No species of bird known to man, in all time, can in any way rival 
the extraordinary series of chapters that go to make up the history of 
the life-span of this now totally extinct pigeon. As a story filled with 
romance, prodigality, cruelty and short-sightedness, it outranks the 
most unbelievable fables of the ancients. For one among many who 
witnessed the marvelous flight of these birds in the early seventies, I 
never for a moment thought how soon the species would be in the same 
category with those other birds, of which the world shall never again 
see living specimens. We can now only regretfully look back on the 
picture and systematize the data at hand with respect to the literary 
part of this, and not a little has been accomplished by those competent 
to undertake it. But with all this we have nothing to do here, as it is 
a subject quite apart from a consideration of what we have by way of 
portraits of a form that man shall never see again in life. 
As just stated, there is a very extensive array of these portraits in 
the many biographies that have appeared of the bird, and they repre¬ 
sent a great variety of grades of excellence, of caricature, of faithful¬ 
ness, and of grotesqueness. Many of these will here be ignored, as 
they contribute nothing of any value in aiding one to correctly visualize 
our subject: indeed, in most instances, such cuts convey a decidedly 
jRead at the Thirty-eighth Stated Meeting of the American Ornithologists’ 
Union. Washington. D. C., November, 1920. 
