File:Handbook of birds of eastern North America; with introductory chapters on the study of birds in nature (1912) (14563251898).jpg

Identifier: handbookofbird00chap (find matches)
Title: Handbook of birds of eastern North America; with introductory chapters on the study of birds in nature
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Chapman, Frank M. (Frank Michler), 1864-1945
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York, London, D. Appleton and Company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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t least 2,230,-272,000 individuals. Captain Bendire, writing in 1892, says: . . . Itlooks now as if their total extermination might be accomplished withinthe present century. The only thing which retards their completeextinction is that it no longer pays to net these birds, they being tooscarce for this now, at least in the more settled portions of the country,and also, perhaps, that from constant and unremitting persecution ontheir breeding-grounds they have changed their habits somewhat,the majority no longer breeding in colonies, but scattering over thecountry and breeding in isolated pairs (Life Histories of North Amer-ican Birds, p. L33). An article by William Brewster on The Present Status of the WildPigeon as a Bird of the United States, with some Notes on its Habits(Auk, VI, 1889, pp. 285-291), gives much information concerning therecent history of the bird in Michigan, one of its last strongholds.According to an informant of Mr. Brewsters, the last nesting in Michi- Plate XVI
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ASSEXGER PlUEON PIGEONS AND DOVES 283 gan of any importance was in 1881. It was of only moderate size^perhaps eight miles long. The largest known Michigan nesting occurredin 1876 or 1877. It was twenty-eight miles long and averaged three orfour miles in width. The Passenger Pigeon is now so nearly extinct that although ithas been reported as seen on numerous occasions, there appears tobe no unquestionable record of its actual capture since 1898. Singu-larly enough two specimens were taken on September 14 of that year,an immature bird at Detroit, Mich. (Fleming, Auk, 1903, p. 66), and anadult male at Canandaigua, N. Y. (Eaton, Birds of New York,which see also for many other records). Through Mr. E. H. Forbush I learn that a female Passenger Pigeonis said to have been shot at Bar Harbor, Me., in the summer of 1904.It was mounted in July of that year by J. Bert Baxter, a taxidermist ofBangor, who received it in the flesh. The present whereabouts of thisspecimen are unknoWTi. 1907. Meesho

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