170 



an adult male at Winnipegosis, Manatoba, on April 14, 5 an immature male at 

 Owensboro, Kentucky, on July 27, now in the Smithsonian Institution, and 

 another immature bird taken at Detroit, Michigan, on September 14, now in 

 my collection ; these are the last records that can be based on specimens. 



" In 1903 I published a list including sight records, one as late as May, 

 1902; this latter is possibly open to doubt, but the ones I gave for 1900 are, I 

 feel confident, correct, as the birds were seen more than once and by different 

 observers. For all practical purposes, the close of the Nineteenth Century 

 saw the final extinction of the Passenger Pigeon in a wild state, and there 

 remained only the small flock, numbering in 1903 not more than a dozen, that 

 had been bred in captivity by Prof. C. O. Whitman, of Chicago ; these birds 

 are the descendants of a single pair, and have long ago ceased to breed. It 

 was in an effort to obtain fresh blood for this flock that I started a newspaper 

 enquiry that brought many replies, none of which could be substantiated as 

 records of the Passenger Pigeon, and many referred to the Mourning Dove. 

 I am aware that there has been lately wide-spread and persistent rumours of 

 the return of the pigeons, but no rumour has borne investigation, and I feel 

 that Prof. Whitman's small flock, now reduced (in 1906) to five birds, are the 

 last representatives of a species around whose disappearance mystery and 

 fable will always gather." 



1. Proceedings of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club, II, 1898, 17. 



2. Wintle, Birds of Montreal, 1896, 51. 



3. In collection of Dr. J. Dwight, Jr. 



4. Minot, Birds of New England, 1895, 395. 



5. Auk, XX, 1903, 66. 



