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THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN WISCONSIN AND NEBRASKA. 
[See Vol. Ill, p. 23.] 
UR records of this species 
during the past few years 
have referred, in most 
instances, to very small 
flocks and generally to pairs 
or individuals. In The Auk for July, 
1897, I recorded a flock of some fifty 
Pigeons from southern Missouri, 
but such a number has been very 
unusual. It is now very gratifying to 
be able to record still larger numbers, 
and I am indebted to Mr. A. Fugle- 
berg of Oshkosh, Wis., for the follow- 
ing letter of information under date of 
Sept. 1, 1897: "I live on the west 
shore of Lake Winnebago, Wis. About 
six o'clock on the morning of August 
14th, 1897, I saw a flock of Wild 
Pigeons flying over the bay from 
Fisherman's Point to Stony Beach, 
and I assure you it reminded me of 
old times, from 1855 to 1880, when 
Pigeons were plentiful every day. So 
I dropped my work and stood watch- 
ing them. This flock was followed by 
six more flocks, each containing about 
thirty-five to eighty Pigeons, except 
the last which only contained seven. 
All these flocks passed over within 
half an hour. One flock of some fifty 
birds flew within gun shot of me, the 
others all the way from one hundred 
to three hundred yards from where I 
stood." Mr. Fugleberg is an old 
hunter and has had much experience 
with the Wild Pigeon. In a later 
letter dated Sept. 4, 1897, he writes: 
"On Sept. 2, 1897, I was hunting 
Prairie Chickens near Lake Butte des 
Morts, Wis., where I met a friend 
who told me that a few days previous 
he had seen a flock of some twenty-five 
Wiid Pigeons and that they were the 
first he had seen for years." — This 
would appear as though these birds 
were instinctively working back to 
their old haunts, as the Winnebago 
region was once a favorite locality. 
We hope that Wisconsin will follow 
Michigan in making a close season on 
Wild Pigeons for ten years, and thus 
give them a chance to multiply and 
perhaps regain, in a measure, their 
former abundance. 
In Forest and Stream, of Sept. 25, 
1897, is a short notice of 'Wild Pigeons 
in Nebraska,' by 'W. F. R.' Through 
the kindness of the editor he placed 
me in correspondence with the 
observer, W. F. Rightmire, to whom I 
am indebted for the following details 
given in his letter of Nov. 5, 1897 : 
" I was driving along the highway 
north of Cook, Johnson County, Neb., 
on August 17, 1897. I came to the 
timber skirting the head stream of 
the Nemaha River, a tract of some 
forty acres of woodland lying along 
the course of the stream, upon both 
banks of the same, and there, feeding 
on the ground or perched upon the 
trees were the Passenger Pigeons I 
wrote the note about. The flock con- 
tained seventy-five to one hundred 
birds. I did not frighten them, but 
as I drove along the road, the feeding 
birds flew up and joined the others, 
and as soon as I had passed by they 
returned to the ground and continued 
feeding. While I revisited the same 
locality, I failed to find the Pigeons. I 
am a native of Tompkins County, 
N. Y., and have often killed Wild 
Pigeons in their flights while a boy on 
the farm, helped to net them, and 
have hunted them in Pennsylvania, so 
that I readily knew the birds in ques- 
tion the moment I saw them." 
I — Ruthven DeanE in April Auk. 
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