Juke io, 1911.] 
899 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Mm M 
Passenger Pigeon Notes. 
Godbout, Canada, May 29. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: In reference to queries re passenger 
pigeon ( Ectopistcs migratorius) I beg to state 
that I have not seen any myself since igo8, but 
have heard of some being seen by others. 
A hunter of Mille Vaches, County of Sague¬ 
nay, named Tremblay, claims to have seen one 
about the end of September, 1910. He is an 
old man and says he is quite sure about the 
species, having killed many wild pigeons in for¬ 
mer years. The lighthouse keeper of Point des 
Monts, Mr. Fafard, claims to have seen a male 
wild pigeon about two weeks ago. He is cor¬ 
roborated in this statement by his assistant, the 
latter being quite familiar with the bird. This 
would lead us to suppose that the bird is not 
extinct yet, though getting very near it. 
In 1872 they were still very abundant on the 
north shore of the St. Lawrence, and I remem¬ 
ber seeing some very large flocks—two to three 
hundred in one flock—at Point aux Outardes, 
Trinity Bay, Egg Island and here. After that 
year they decreased very fast, and flocks of over 
fifteen or twenty were rare. 
I noticed, however, that we continued seeing 
a few here long after they were supposed to be 
quite rare elsewhere. I am quite familiar with 
all that has been recently written on the bird 
arid also with the offers made for the finding of 
their nests. I have spread this information in 
our section of the country as much as possible 
and advised hunters and trappers not to shoot 
the birds if by chance any were seen. 
Nap. A. Comeau. 
Saginaw, Mich., May 28 .— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I believe that all of the passenger 
pigeons are dead, and that Mr. Mellish is mis¬ 
taken. The pigeon laid but one egg. Oc¬ 
casionally two were found in the nest, but I 
never yet have seen a record of two squabs 
found in a nest, so it is safe to say positively 
that there was but one young bird raised at a 
hatching. When they lived in vast communities, 
the young birds could mate and reproduce. 
After the colonies were broken up they nested 
singly. It strikes me that it may have been 
pretty hard for the young birds to find mates. 
In certain localities all might have been males, 
but if they were of both sexes there is no cer¬ 
tainty that they could keep together and return 
north for breeding purposes the following year. 
I have noticed that after the nesting the old 
birds left, and the local birds were all young 
ones, that the shooting was entirely young 
birds. I do not mean to say that you would 
not find old birds, but when you did, they were 
all old birds together. That is my recollection 
of the situation, but unfortunately there are not 
enough of absolutely accurate data in existence 
relative to these minor details. 
In 1878 the big nesting was broken up. In 
1881 there was a big flight of them but no one 
seems to have located their nesting. Very early 
in the ’90s the last ones were marketed. After 
that pigeon reports were rare and they soon 
became objects of interest. How long it was 
before we realized that the reports were mis¬ 
takes or false reports, I do not know, but the 
chances are that for the last seven or eight 
years, there has not been an authentic pigeon 
report. 
I do not know how long the wild pigeon 
would live. I do not believe the average life 
would go over fifteen years, but we will say 
that they did exist in the wild state and become 
twenty-five years old. If they ceased breeding 
as far back as 1883 or 1884, as I think they did, 
all of the pigeons would have been dead if they 
lived to be twenty-five years old, by 1909. There 
might have been an occasional old one that 
lived up to that time, but I doubt it. I think 
that the pigeons that bred in the ’80s were 
probably all gone ten or fifteen years afterward. 
Many of the young ones never found mates or 
bred at all, and that the wild pigeon breeds at the 
present time is simply an impossibility. 
W. B. Mershon. 
New York Zoological Society. 
The Executive Committee of the New York 
Zoological Society has submitted to the Board 
of Managers a report from which the following 
items are taken: 
An effort will be made to secure some living 
gorillas from the west aoast of Africa, and the 
Society has invested $1,000 toward the prelimi¬ 
nary cost of an expedition for this purpose. 
An order has been placed with Henry Tarlton 
of Nairobi, British East Africa, for the collec¬ 
tion and transportation to New York of a large 
collection of characteristic African animals, the 
most important of which are, three white 
rhinoceroses; pairs of giraffes, hartebeests, 
grevy zebras, kudus, cheetahs, bushpigs; and in 
addition some gazelles, a baboon, colobus 
monkeys, and that rare and interesting animal, 
the aardvark. 
Recent births include one Beatrix antelope; 
three American bison; two axis deer; two Tld 
deer, and one Rocky Mountain goat. Many 
more births are expected during the next four 
weeks. 
The collections have sustained practically no 
losses of importance since the first of the year, 
and the health of the animals has continued ex¬ 
cellent. 
The building of the eagle and vulture aviary 
is well under way. The foundations are com¬ 
pleted and the iron work will be delivered 
shortly. The new bear dens are progressing 
satisfactorily and will probably be ready for use 
about Aug. 1, 1911. 
1 he contract for the zebra house will be 
awarded in the immediate future for an amount 
well within the appropriation for this purpose. 
Since the first of the year 102 new members 
have been elected as follows: Annual members, 
89; life members, 9; patron, 1; founder, 1; 
founders in perpetuity, 2. 
The land in the eastward extension of Bronx 
Park has at last been transferred to the Park 
Department. 
Woodchuck Ways. 
Poland, N. Y., May 24.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: From an observation recently made 
I am wondering if the woodchuck has developed 
a game. 
On the morning of May 9, while returning 
home after an early tramp in the woods to note 
the new arrivals in the way of birds, a friend 
and I suddenly came in sight of a pair of wood¬ 
chucks at play. We had not yet come out of 
the edge of the woods, and the animals were at 
the mouth of their burrow in a large meadow 
some distance away. They would sit up, take 
hold and wrestle, and we noticed that when one 
was thrown, he usually landed in the hole and 
disappeared from sight for a second or two. 
We watched this performance for a consider¬ 
able time and at first thought it accidental when 
one woodchuck or the other landed in the open¬ 
ing, but it was repeated too many times not to- 
have been intentional. 
This gives rise to my question and I would 
be glad to learn if any other observers have 
seen the little red monk at his game of “hole” 
your partner. The woodchucks were probably 
the young of the previous year, as the young 
of this year at this date would have been too 
small for such game. 
I have watched woodchucks a great deal both 
with and without murder in mind, but never be¬ 
fore have I seen them at play. 
While on the subject of woodchucks I will 
relate the curious and fatal conduct of one yes¬ 
terday. Taking my rifle, I wandered off back 
of the house to a grassy hill, capped by three 
maples, and a favorite lookout of mine. From 
this point I have a considerable view of the sur¬ 
rounding m.eadows and pastures, and I seldom 
climb there without seeing woodchucks. This 
day I fired and overshot one some distance away. 
At this she ran for her burrow and disappeared 
and here her strange performance commenced. 
She reappeared at the entrance. I shot again 
and missed, and she took to her heels and started 
running up a small depression in the hill straight 
toward me, and I finally killed her about ten 
feet away. Just over the crest of the hill be¬ 
hind me were some burrows and for these this 
woodchuck was undoubtedly headed, but why 
she left the security of the first burrow and ran 
sixty or seventy yards up the hill toward me will 
always remain a mystery. Possibly there was 
an occupant in the first hole to whom the other 
was unwelcome. I may find out on my next 
vlslt - Charles A. Gianini. 
[\\ e imagine that the young of all mammals, 
great and small—from men down to mice_in¬ 
dulge in play, a favorite form of which is pre¬ 
tended fighting. This is seen in children, pup¬ 
pies, squirrels, and indeed in all animals that we 
have an opportunity to observe. Years ago, in 
Montana, we watched two three-quarter grown 
Richardson’s ground squirrels at play for some 
minutes at a distance of only a few yards. They 
were on the shelf of a flat block of weathered 
yellow standstone in which there were several 
large cracks. They sat up on their hind legs, 
wrestled, pretended to bite necks and shoulders,' 
and the one thrown down, when he fell, at once 
ran into a crack in the rock, to emerge a few 
seconds later and resume the game. We took 
it for granted then that this was a part of the 
sport, the defeated animal running away and 
