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The Passenger Pigeon

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The Passenger Pigeon (1907)
edited by William Butts Mershon
580356The Passenger Pigeon1907William Butts Mershon

PASSENGER PIGEON (Columba Migratoria)

Upper bird, male ; lower, female


The

Passenger Pigeon


BY

W. B. MERSHON



NEW YORK

THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY

1907


Copyright, 1907, by
W B MERSHON


THE OUTING PRESS
DEPOSIT, N. Y.


CONTENTS

CHAPTER

PAGE

Introduction ix
I My Boyhood Among the Pigeons 1
II The Passenger Pigeon

From "American Ornithology," by Alexander Wilson

9
III The Passenger Pigeon 25
IV As James Fenimore Cooper Saw It 41
V The Wild Pigeon of North America

By Chief Pokagon, in "The Chautauquan"

48
VI The Passenger Pigeon

From "Life Histories of North American Birds," by Charles Bendire

60
VII Netting the Pigeons

By William Brewster, in "The Auk"

74
VIII Efforts to Check the Slaughter

By Prof. H. B. Roney

77
IX The Pigeon Butcher's Defense

By E. T. Martin, in "American Field"

93
X Notes on a Vanished Industry 105
XI Recollections of "Old Timers" 119
XII The Last of the Pigeons 141
XIII What Became of the Wild Pigeon?

By Sullivan Cook, in "Forest and Stream"

163

XIV A Novel Theory of Extinction

By C. H. Ames and Robert Ridgway

173
XV News from John Burroughs 179
XVI The Pigeon in Manitoba 186
XVII The Passenger Pigeon in Confinement

By Ruthven Deane, in "The Auk"

200
XVIII Nesting Habits of the Passenger Pigeon

By Dr. Morris Gibbs, in "The Oölogist"

209
XIX Miscellaneous Notes 217
ILLUSTRATIONS
 
The Passenger Pigeon Frontispiece

FACING
PAGE
Audubon Plate (color) 24
Passenger Pigeon and Mourning Dove 88
Fac-simile of "Among the Pigeons" 92
H. T. Phillip's Store 104
Band-tailed Pigeon (color 130
Comparative Size of Pigeon and Dove 156
Young Passenger Pigeon 198
Pigeon Net 218

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1943, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 80 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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