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Show fTN' "and 'th country 'sports- ffvVAJPiW J men told Mr. Burroughs jM''vki -' that they had seen pig- XJgfeSi''Ss eons that spring, at least WWl0. Kl-' 1,000 of them, but that WYA, O WJv none of 016111 had been MF fbf Mr- lu"onsh? wa3 fM ' bf55V:? 1 : inclined to believe the re- yy S. "fX &"s- port, for the men who f ( r"li - S made it were old-time -ZJ- ' v iA ZrrSA sportsmen and supposed- 'A- W1' - I ly knew the bird wel1- I -yy ' t b r i However, there is no pos- A wA i -"'"X I itive proof today that the I -r-V'l J" New York farmers and c Tv f1 " ' t gunners were not just as (JZJ Lfj-Wifcivgjjl-' Zfwffi much mistaken as were "'I ii'- ZrfrfjWKW ttie old-timers who told - "t" " - -.r' the Btory the return of v Z?fy 'r--fWi! the piseons to the upper jv-nAli-- "t-"' WMiSs Michigan country. -r-tjtrsx'ikHtj 2 gfer In The Auk, a quar- ) -rr ( f terIy ournal of ornithol- " 'j SzS- ogy Published by the -3- J7 ) rrrrjhu American Ornithologists' SH- jSfJ'i, '4s union, there recently ap- C peared a paper by Albert "iSri ." " Hazen Wright on "Some ZJ Early Records of the Pas- ---fSLMiA , senger Pigeon." In this t 'JSSK)sCL paper are reported some v -L" - J. of the first accounts y"" t which ever saw print of -tf'iJxt? the pigeon multitudes of the early days. When one . 4 RESUMABLY everybod; J j knows by this time tha b I there Is a standing offer o jf- 'Jfr 1 $400 In cash for the man S ,'.,j woman, boy or girl whi F finds the nest of a wild pig eon (ectopistes migratorl us), otherwise known ai K I the passenger pigeon, ant finds with it the nestlinj birds. In order to get th reward the person who makes the dis covery must leave the nest and th birds unmolested and prove the truth ol It by making a report and giving the sci entists an opportunity to verify the case Magazine and newspaper articles literally lit-erally by the thousands have been written writ-ten about the disappearance of the wild pigeons which once, as It is always al-ways put, "darkened the sun with their flights." The members of the biological biologi-cal survey in Washington are specially interested in the subject of the disappearance disap-pearance of this bird of passage from its wild haunts. For years it has been hoped that nesting pairs might be found in some part of the country and that with proper protection the bird might he restored in part at least to its place in nature. Recently there was a story published to the effect that the birds, wearied of the constant persecution which met them in the United States, had changed the course of their flight and had gone into Mexico and there were living peacefully peace-fully and happily. This story proved to be absolutely without foundation. Still another tale was to the effect that the pigeons had gone into the heart of South America and there finding conditions pleasant were leading a non-migratory life. This tale also proved to be entirely en-tirely fictitious. In all parts of the southern states in the winter seasons there are people watching sharp-eyed for a glimpse of the bird that once was a common sight. In the summer sharp eyes of the north are constantly on the alert for the same , , purpose, but as yet no authentic report has been received that the bird of mysterious mys-terious disappearance has revisited the scenes familiar through the centuries to its ancestors. One of the scientists most interested in 'he search for the wild pigeon is Ru.hven Deane, fellow of the American Ornithologists' union and president of t the Illinois Audubon Society for the Protection of Wild Birds. Mr. Deane virtually has given up all hope that any living specimen of the passenger pigeon ever will be found, but he is as tireless today as ever in tracing reports of the bird's reappearance to their sources The offer of $400 for the discovery of a nesting pair of the pigeons and their undisturbed nest comes from Clifton R. Hodge of Clark university, but $100 additional ad-ditional will be paid for the discovery of a pair of birds and their nest if found in the state of Illinois. The additional reward is the joint offer of Mr. Deane and the country sportsmen sports-men told Mr. Burroughs that they had seen pigeons pig-eons that spring, at least 1,000 of them, but that none of them had been shot. Mr. Burroughs was inclined to believe the report, re-port, for the men who made it were old-time sportsmen and supposedly supposed-ly knew the bird well. However, there is no positive pos-itive proof today that the New York farmers and gunners were not just as much mistaken as were the old-timers who told the story of the return of the pigeons to the upper Michigan country. In The Auk, a quarterly quar-terly Journal of ornithology ornithol-ogy published by the American Ornithologists' union, there recently appeared ap-peared a paper by Albert Hazen Wright on "Some Early Records of the Passenger Pas-senger Pigeon." In this paper are reported some of the first accounts which ever saw print of the pigeon multitudes of the early days. When one reaas mem it seems almost al-most incredible that a bird species which numbered num-bered its individuals almost, it would appear, by tiie million millions could ever disappear from the fnce of the earth. The account of the great pigeon flocks which Is most familiar to the people of the country is that written by John James Audubon, the naturalist. natural-ist. It seems from Mr. Wright's paper, however, that a century and a half before Audubon was born records were made of the immense numbers of the birds which were seen in America. The earlieft writers called them turtle doves. Mr. Wright quotes from the Jesuit father, Le Jeune, who h? the year 1637 likened the American Indians Indi-ans to the pigeons. "Our savages are always savage; sav-age; ttiey resemble the migratory birds of their own country. In one season turtle doves are sometimes some-times found in such abundance that the end of their army cannot be seen when they are flying in a body." Mr. Wright found another reference to the im-sense im-sense numbers of the pigeons in the writings of another Jesuit father in the year 1671. The observation ob-servation was made at Cayuga lake in New York state. "F'Dur leagues from hero I saw by the side " '"cimei it, or rrotessor Whitman of the University of Chicago. One of the most curious features of the search for the wild pigeon is the mistakes which are made constantly by men who years ago trapped the pigeons and were as familiar with their appearance as they were, and are today for that matter, with the appearance of the com mon robin of the dooryard. Reports have come in from all sections of the country of the reappearance reap-pearance of the pigeon, but on investigation it invariably has been found that the discoverers had seen nothing more nor less than the common com-mon wild dove (venaidura macroura), or mourning mourn-ing dove, which is so familiar a bird that it seems almost impossible that any man of the countryside could have failed to overlook it as his constant neighbor and could confuse it with its much larger cousin, the passenger pigeon of other days. To give an example of how the search Is con- ducted for the wild pigeon and how conscientious are the scientists in attempting to verify reports of its reappearance this one instance, taken from a hundred instances, may be noted. Recently a report from northern Michigan reached the president presi-dent of the Illinois Audubon society that the' passenger pigeon in very truth had reappeared in the vicinity of a club house frequented by fishermen and gunners, many of whom had known the pigeon well in the old days and who were certain that in this case they could not he mistaken us to the identity of the bird visitors. vis-itors. It was a long Journey to the northern Michigan Michi-gan club house, but an ornithologist undertook the trip believing in his heart that finally the passenger pigenn had been found, for he knew that the men who had made the report had been familiar with the bird in the old days and supposedly sup-posedly know the appearance of its every feather. At the end of the journey he was told that the pigeons were there and he was led out to see them. . They proved to be mourning doves, a bird common in nearly all parts of Michigan and In most of the states of the Union. The disappointment dis-appointment was keen, and keener in this case because this was one report which seemed to have about it every mark of truth. When I was a boy I knew the wild pigeon fairly well. It was nothing like as abundant as it had been in the years gone by, but occasionally occa-sionally small flocks were seen in the vicinity of my birthplace in tie foothills of the Adirondack mountains in central New York. I am sorry to say that I shot some of the birds before I fully realized the value of giving protection to a vanishing van-ishing nice. The mourning dove I know as well as 1 know the English sparrow, and I think that there is no chance of confusion in my mind respecting re-specting the Identity of the dove and its bigger relative, the pigeon. It is possible, though I am not sure that such i a fact, that I s.-w the last wild pigeon reported In Illinois. Others may have been seen since that time within the borders bor-ders of the state, but if so I have not seen their appearance reported. At five o'clock on the morning of a late April tay, fifteen veArs ago. I went Into Lincoln park. Chicago, to look for migrating birds which had dropped down into the pleasure ground from their night flight in order to rest and feed. I had just entered the park when my attention was attracted to a large bird perched on the limb of a maple tree and facing the sun, which was just rising out of Lake Michigan. My heart gave a sort of leap, for I recognized it instantly as the passenger pigeon, a bird of which I had not seen a living specimen for at least twelve years.-Then years.-Then instantly I began to doubt and thought that my eyes must be mistaken and that the atmosphere at-mosphere was magnifying the bird and that what was before me was really a mourning dove. I drew closer and then I knew there was no possibility pos-sibility of deception. Before me was n beautiful specimen of the male passenger pigeou with the sun striking full on the burnished feathers of his throat. I stood within 15 yards of the bird for fully half an hour and then it left the made and went in arrowy flight down the Kike store drive toward the heart of the city. I have often wondered since what was its fate. Theodore Roosevelt is deeply Interested in the outcome of the search for .surviving members, mem-bers, if such there may be, of the passenger pigeon tribe. Mr. Roosevelt knew the bird when he was a boy and in his trips afield he always has kept a watchful eye open for a possible sight of a specimen of the species now feared to be extinct. When Mr. Roosevelt was president of the United States he occasionally went to a wild spot in Virginia where he owned a cabin. He called the place Pine Knot. While there one day he saw what he believed to be nine wild pJgeons. It would be perfectly proper today for a man who saw as many pigeons as this together to shoot one of them one only in order to prove beyond peradventure that the tribe still has existence. ex-istence. When one simply reports the appearance appear-ance of a pigeon or of a flock of pigeons everyone every-one doubts very naturally the truth of the tale, holding that the mourning dove has been again mistaken for its cousin bird. President Roosevelt did not have a gun with him on the occasion of his meeting with what he thought were wild pigeons. If he had he probably would have shot one of them. He told no one except a few scientists and a few friends of his discovery. He knew as well as anyone el&e did that in the absence of the proof furnished fur-nished by a bird in the flesh it would be said fit once that he made the common error. No one knows positively today whether the nine birds which the president saw were or were not passenger pas-senger pigeons. Every time that Mr. Roosevelt has been to I'iue Knot since he has hoped for another sight of the birds which made him glad some years ago. John Burroughs heard from his friend, Theodore Theo-dore Roosevelt, that the nine pigeons had been seen In Virginia. Burroughs believed the story because he knew how accurate an observer of nature his friend the president was and Is. The stories of the pigeons in Virginia l--d Mr. Burroughs Bur-roughs to irake Inquiries at once in Ihi counties in New York state west of the lower Hudson lying In the eld line of flight of the migrating pigeon armies of vjrs ago. There the farmers of a river within a very limited space eight or nine extremely fine salt springs. Many snares are set there for catching pigeons, from seven to eight hundred t eing often taken at once." Another father fa-ther of th church in the latter part of the seventeenth seven-teenth century writes of the passenger pigeons of the St. Laurence country: "Among the birds of every variely to be found here it is to be noted that pigeons abound in such numbers that this year one mm killed 132 at a single shot." Within the last five or six years reports have come of the reappearance of the pigeon in Missouri, Mis-souri, Oklahoma, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsjlvania, New York and Virginia and perhaps from some other states. In no instance has proof been adduced that the real passenger pigeon, the bird of the old time, was the species seen. The disappearance of the flocks which once covered the sky as with a cloud is one of the mysteries mys-teries of nature. Man's persecution of course had much, if not everything, to do with the annihilation annihila-tion of the species, but it would seem that some-ting some-ting else, disease perhaps, must be held accountable account-able at least in part for the dying out of a noble race of feathered game. |