Auk. XII, July. 1896 
Additional Records of the Pass 
pb.X^9-3ffo 
Passenger Pigeon in Illinois and Indiana. 
— The occurrence of the Wild Pigeon ( Ectopistes migratorius) in this 
section of the country, and in fact throughout the west generally, is be- 
coming rarer every year and such observations and data as come to our 
notice should be of sufficient interest to record. 
I have, in the past few months, made inquiry of a great many sports- 
men who are constantly in the field and in widely distributed localities, 
regarding any observations on the Wild Pigeon, and but few of them 
have seen a specimen in the past eight or ten years. N. W. Judy & Co. 
of St. Louis., Mo., dealers in poultry and the largest receivers of game in 
that section, wrote me as follows : “ We have had no Wild Pigeons for 
two seasons ; the last we received were from Siloam Springs, Arkansas. 
We have lost all track of them and our netters are lying idle.” 
I have made frequent inquiry among the principal game dealers in 
Chicago and cannot learn of a single specimen that has been received in 
our markets in several years. I am indebted to the following gentlemen 
for notes and observations regarding this species, which cover a period 
of eight years. I have various other records of the occurrence of the 
Pigeon in Illinois and Indiana but do not consider them sufficiently 
authentic to record, as to the casual observer this species and the Carolina 
Dove are often confounded. 
A fine male Pigeon was killed by my brother, Mr. Chas. E. Deane, April 
18, 1877, while shooting Snipe on th£ meadows near English Lake, Ind. 
The biid was alone and flew directly over him. I have the specimen 
now in my collection. 
In September, 1888, while Teal shooting on Yellow River, Stark Co., 
Ind., I saw a Pigeon fly up the river and alight a short distance oft'. I 
secured the bird which proved to be a young female. 
On Sept. 17, 1887, Mr. John F. Hazen and his daughter Grace, of Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio, while boating on the Kankakee River, near English Lake, 
Ind., observed a small flock of Pigeons feeding in a little oak grove bor- 
dering the river. They reported the birds as quite tame and succeeded 
in shooting eight specimens. 
Mr. Frank M. Woodruff, Assistant Curator, Chicago Academy of Sci- 
ences, informs me that on Dec. 10, 1890, he received four Passenger Pig- 
eons in the flesh, from Waukegan, 111 ., at which locality they were said 
to have been shot. Three of the birds were males and one was a female. 
One pair he disposed of, the other two I have recently seen in his col- 
lection. In the fall of 1891 Mr. Woodruff also shot a pair at Lake Forest, 
111 ., which he mounted and placed in the collection of the Cook County 
Normal School, Englewood, 111 . 
In the spring of 1893, Mr. C. B. Brown, of Chicago, 111 ., collected a 
nest of the Wild Pigeon containing two eggs at English Lake, Ind., and 
secured both parent birds. Mr. Brown describes the nest as being placed 
on the horizontal branch of a burr oak about ten feet from the trunk and 
from forty to fifty feet above the ground. He did not preserve the birds 
but the eggs are still in his collection. The locality where this nest was 
found was a short distance from where the Hazens found their birds six 
years before. 
Mr. John F. Ferry informs me that three Pigeons were seen near the 
Desplaines River in Lake Co., 111 ., in September, 1893. One of these was 
shot by Mr. F. C. Farwell. 
In an article which appeared in the Chicago ‘Tribune,’ Nov. 25, 1894, 
entitled ‘ Last of his Race,’ Mr. E. B. Clark gives his experience in 
observing a fine male Wild Pigeon in Lincoln Park, Chicago, 111 ., in April, 
t 893 - I quote from the article: “ He was perched on the limb of a soft 
maple and was facing the rising sun. I have never seen in any cabinet 
a more perfect specimen. The tree upon "which he was resting was at 
the southeast corner of the park. There were no trees between him and 
the lake to break from his breast the fullness of the glory of the rising 
sun. The Pigeon allowed me to approach within twenty yards of his 
resting place and I watched him through a powerful glass that permitted 
as minute an examination as if he were in my hand. I was more than 
astonished to find here close to the pavements of a great city the repre- 
sentative of a race which always loved the wild woods and which I 
thought had passed away from Illinois forever.” 
Mr. R. W. Stafford of Chicago, 111 ., who has shot hundreds of Pigeons 
in former years within the present city limits of Chicago, informs me 
that in the latter part of September, 1894, while shooting at Marengo, 111 ., 
he saw a flock of six flying swiftly over and apparently alight in a small 
grove some distance off. 
The above records will show that while in this section of country large 
flocks of Passenger Pigeons are a thing of the past, yet they are still 
occasionally observed in small detachments or single birds. — Ruthven 
Deane, Chicago , III . 
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