332 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 4, 1911. 
Passenger Pigeon Investigation. 
The following list of rewards with conditions 
governing them has just been issued: 
One thousand dollars reward for first infor¬ 
mation, exclusive and confidential, of the loca¬ 
tion of a nesting pair or colony of passenger 
pigeons, anywhere in North America; when 
properly confirmed and if found by confirm¬ 
ing party with parent birds and eggs or young 
undisturbed': 
Col. Anthony R. Kuser will pay a reward of $300. 
John E. Thayer will pay a reward of $700. 
For first nesting discovered thereafter in the 
following States will be paid by: 
John Burroughs, New York. $100 
A. B. F. Kinney, Massachusetts. 100 
Anonymous, Massachusetts, for second find 100 
Allan B. Miller, for first nesting found in 
Worcester county, Mass. 20 
Edward Avis, Connecticut. 100 
Harry S. Hathaway, Rhode Island. 100 
Worthington Society, New Jersey. 100 
John Drvden Kuser, for second nesting 
found in New Jersey. i° 
Henry W. Shoemaker, Pennsylvania, $200 
(adds $25, if nest is protected). 225 
W. B. Mershon, Michigan. 100 
R. W. Mathews, Minnesota. 100 
Ruthven Deane, Illinois . 5 ° 
John E. Thayer, Maine, New Hampshire, 
Vermont, Ontario, Wisconsin, $100 each 500 
John Lewis Childs, for first three nestings 
not entitled to any of the above re¬ 
wards, $200 each . 600 
The purpose of these offers is to secure an 
intelligent search of the American continent for 
breeding pigeons in the hope that, if found, the 
species may be saved from extermination. 
All above rewards are offered solely and only 
for information of location of undisturbed nest¬ 
ings. We do not desire possession of any birds, 
alive or dead, but are working solely to save 
the free, wild pigeon. 
To insure intelligence and good faith, infor¬ 
mants of nestings are advised to inclose or agree 
to forfeit at least $5 in case they have failed to 
identify the birds correctly. This is only fair, 
since the amount may cover but a small part of 
the costs occasioned by a false report. The 
money will be immediately returned if the birds 
are found to be passenger pigeons ( Ectopistes 
migratorius). In the case of nesting pigeons 
there can be no excuse for sending in false re¬ 
ports. Disregard all nests on the ground. The 
wild pigeon always nests in trees, generally ten 
feet or more from the ground. 
Priority of claim will be decided by time of 
receipt at post or telegraph office. Rewards will 
be equally divided, if two or more letters or 
messages bear record of same date and hour. 
All nestings within one mile of one another will 
be counted as one co’ony. 
Please report all pigeons seen, giving exactly 
date, hour, number in flock, direction of flight. 
Unless absolutely certain that you know the 
band-tailed, Viosca and red-billed pigeons, do 
not report that you have seen the passenger 
pigeon in the Rocky Mountains or Pacific coast 
region, from British Columbia to Mexico. 
As soon as a pigeon nesting is surely identified 
write the undersigned, who will arrange for con¬ 
firming party and for payment of the reward. 
All rewards not claimed by Oct. 31, 1911, will 
be withdrawn. C. F. Hodge, 
Clark University, Worcester, Mass. 
Note.—You are millions to one, already busy, 
man. Please do not write Dr. Hodge for infor¬ 
mation. One hundred dollars pays the postage 
on only 5,000 letters. 
The Snowy Heron in Missouri. 
At a meeting of sportsmen where the question 
of real and artificial plumage was being dis¬ 
cussed, the snowy heron was spoken of. It was 
positively asserted by the gentleman addressing 
the assembly that in the State of Missouri the 
snowy heron was entirely extinct. I was much 
surprised at this statement, for I had seen at 
least 200 during the spring and summer months 
of 1910. 
If the speaker had referred to particular sec¬ 
tions of the State, I might not have noticed his 
error or at least not offered an answer. 
On the mountain streams I saw only three dur¬ 
ing the entire year, and I floated down every 
mountain stream in Southeast Missouri last sum¬ 
mer. The snowy heron was peculiarly conspicu¬ 
ous in Southeast Missouri, in the. southeastern 
part of my county that borders Arkansas. The 
swift mountain stream, Little Black River, sud¬ 
denly changes its character and becomes slug¬ 
gish on its journey the moment it enters the 
alluvial country. A few miles east a stream of 
similar character, called Cane Creek, changes in 
the same way when it meets the same condi¬ 
tions, making two streams of but mediocre 
capacity for the task of draining the immense 
area of level lands. 
Their impotence to accomplish this task is 
evident by the large overflowed territories in 
this section that remain in that condition nearly 
the whole year if the rainfall has been normal. 
On the east, Cane Creek jumps its banks and 
forms the series of ponds in the cypress and 
tupelo gum brakes, called the Red Sea. On the 
west a branch of Little Black River does the same, 
cutting into the Dandy Lake, and forms Bethel 
Lake, Running Lake, Open Pond and joins with 
Cane Creek in widening the Red Sea, which at 
this point is named the Main Overflow by the 
swamp natives. At this point of juncture among 
cypress, gum, willow and water oaks, we find 
the roosting and nesting places of the snowy heron. 
For many years the plumage hunters waged 
a ceaseless war of extermination on these beau¬ 
tiful creatures, buyers at different points eagerly 
paying the price demanded by the hunters for 
the few feathers secured from each bird. The 
rest of the inoffensive creatures remained in the 
swamps to add to the putrid smell of the mias¬ 
matic waters. At first the lightly loaded shot¬ 
gun was used as the most formidable weapon; 
later, it was supplemented by the heavier gun, 
then the .22 long rifle, and lastly, as the quarry 
became more wary, high power rifles were 
brought into requisition. 
Plumage hunters from different States flocked 
into this section and it was not unusual to see 
ten or twelve in a day scouring the swamps for 
aigrette feathers. When the Western Tie and 
Timber Company began cutting the white oak 
for ties, the birds left suddenly, and for several 
years snowy herons were seen only now and 
then in that formerly frequented locality. 
During the year 1901, birds began once more 
to nest in this place, but the building of the 
Frisco R. R. brought a horde of ignorant 
Italians here who pursued the birds not alone 
for their plumage, but for food purposes. So 
persistent were they in devouring all wild life 
with which they came in contact, that the buz¬ 
zard, the most loathsome of carrion eaters, was 
killed and eaten by them. This inroad was a 
severe check on the snowy heron's increase, and 
again for a few years they refused to visit these 
swamps. 
During all this time the tie companies kept an 
army of men at work in the overflow. Suddenly 
the limit of their operations was reached, the 
work ceased, and the swamps once more became 
as devoid of human beings as before. Then and 
only then the herons began to return. The plum¬ 
age hunters learned of this and made ready for 
devastation once more. But for once their plans 
failed. The timber operators left in the swamps 
such a mass of down timber that the hunters in 
their small bateaus could not gain access to their 
former fields of slaughter, and in the late autumn, 
the only time the swamps can be waded in boats, 
the birds have left. So everything now favors 
an increase of the herons. 
It is strange how they cling to a certain roost, 
and almost adjoining it is a large blue heron 
roost. The noise from the latter can be heard 
at great distances throughout the overflow—a 
dismal, ominous sound on a dark stormy night. 
During the months of June and July I had 
frequent occasions to visit this territory, and 
greatly enjoyed seeing the birds in their flights 
to different parts of the overflow. But this is 
the only region where I saw them in large num¬ 
bers the last year. And I might add I have been 
in every township of the sunken lands. 
J. B. Thompson. 
Birds of the Olympic Peninsula. 
At the recent meeting of the Central Branch 
of the American Society of Zoologists, many in¬ 
teresting papers were read, most of them very 
technical. One, however, of much interest to- 
ornithologists is entitled, “Birds of the Olympic 
Peninsula,” by Albert B. Reagan, U. S. Indian 
Service. 
The Olympic Peninsula, long famous for its 
game, its fish, its snowy peaks and its tangled 
forests, extends from Gray’s Harbor north to 
the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and east to Puget 
Sound. So far as the birds are concerned, the 
region divides itself into three parts—the islands 
off the coast, the strip of coast land, and the 
mountains that lie back of this strip. The cen¬ 
tral high mountains range from 6,000 to 8,000 
feet in height, and the whole mainland area ex¬ 
cept the highest mountains is heavily forested 
and covered with a dense tangle of underbrush. 
The islands on the Pacific side number some¬ 
thing like a hundred, and by position are divided 
into three groups, each of which was made a 
bird reserve by President Theodore Roosevelt. 
These islands swarm with water birds, gulls, 
murres, puffins, petrels, cormorants, grebes, loons, 
surf ducks and oyster catchers. It has been 
estimated that—including the migratory birds— 
the birds of the island groups number at least 
100,000. 
The land birds of the coast strip and of the 
mountain are many, and altogether 137 species 
have been listed from the Olympic Peninsula. 
