Auk, XIII, July, 1886, pp. ^3 <i-Z 37 , 
SOME NOTES ON THE PASSENGER PIGEON ( ECTO - 
PISTES MIGRATO PIUS') IN CONFINEMENT. 
BY RUTHVEN DEANE. 
In the ‘American Field’ of December 5, 1895, I noticed a 
short note, stating that Mr. David Whittaker of Milwaukee, Wis., 
had in a spacious enclosure, a flock of fifty genuine Wild Pigeons. 
Being much interested of late in this bird, I at once wrote to Mr. 
Whittaker, asking for such information in detail regarding his 
birds as he could give me, but owing to absence from the city, he 
did not reply. Still being anxious to learn something further 
regarding this interesting subject, I recently wrote to a correspon- 
dent in Milwaukee, asking him to investigate the matter. In due 
time I received his reply, stating that he had seen the Pigeons, 
but that the flock consisted of fifteen instead of fifty birds, and 
inviting me to join him, and spend a few hours of rare pleasure. 
On March 1, 1896, I visited Milwaukee, and made a careful 
inspection of this beautiful flock. I am greatly indebted to Mr. 
'Whittaker, through whose courtesy, we saw and heard so much of 
JJOIfciS are useci lor ruoisLlll^j HULL iwu iancivcij duc ujdl wtuc 
and partitioned off, though not enclosed, are where the nests are 
built and the young are raised. It was several years before Mr. 
Whittaker successfully raised the young, but by patient experi- 
menting with various kinds of food, he has been rewarded. The 
destruction of the nest and egg, at times by the female, more often 
by others of the flock, and the killing of the young birds, after 
they leave the nest, by the old males, explains in part the slow 
increase in the flock. When the Pigeons show signs of nesting, 
small twigs are thrown on to the bottom of the enclosure, and 
on the day of our visit, I was so fortunate as to watch the opera- 
tions of nest building. There were three pairs actively engaged. 
The females remained on the shelf, and at a given signal which 
they only uttered for this purpose, the males would select a twig 
or straw, and in one instance a feather and fly up to the nest, 
drop it and return to the ground, while the females placed the 
building material in position and then called for more. In all 
of Mr. Whittaker’s experience with this flock he has never 
known of more than one egg being deposited. Audubon in his 
51. Among the Pigeons. By Prof. H. B. Roney Ibid., X, pp. 345 -347.— 
On the habits, methods of capture, and nesting of the Wild Pigeon, with 
a highly interesting account of the “Michigan nesting of 1878.” The 
nesting area, situated near Pelosky, covered “ something like 100,000 acres 
of land,” and included “not less than 150,000 acres within its limits,” r -3 
being in length about forty miles by three to ten in width. The number 
of dead birds sent by rail was estimated at 12,500 daily, or 1,500,000 for Q .; 
the summer, besides 80,352 live birds ; an equal number were sent by water. 
We have, says the writer, adding the thousands of dead and wounded ones :t 
not secured, and the myriads of squabs left dead in the nest, “ at the low- 
est possible estimate, a grand total of 1,000,000,000 Pigeons sacrificed to 
Mammon during the nesting of 1878.” The article concludes with observa- 
tions on the Michigan Pigeon law, and suggestions as to what the law should 
be, and a notice of the efforts made to check the shameful slaughter. 
