Chapter I: Front Matter

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THE PASSENGER PIGEON

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 9
_From "American Ornithology," by Alexander Wilson_

III The Passenger Pigeon 25
_From "Ornithological Biography," by John James Audubon_

IV As James Fenimore Cooper Saw It 41

V The Wild Pigeon of North America 48
_By Chief Pokagon, in "The Chautauquan"_

VI The Passenger Pigeon 60
_From "Life Histories of North American Birds,"
by Charles Bendire_

VII Netting the Pigeons 74
_By William Brewster, in "The Auk"_

VIII Efforts to Check the Slaughter 77
_By Prof. H. B. Roney_

IX The Pigeon Butcher's Defense 93
_By E. T. Martin, in "American Field"_

X Notes of a Vanished Industry 105

XI Recollections of "Old Timers" 119

XII The Last of the Pigeons 141

XIII What Became of the Wild Pigeon? 163
_By Sullivan Cook, in "Forest and Stream"_

XIV A Novel Theory of Extinction 173
_By C. H. Ames and Robert Ridgway_

XV News from John Burroughs 179

XVI The Pigeon in Manitoba 186
_By George E. Atkinson_

XVII The Passenger Pigeon in Confinement 200
_By Ruthven Deane, in "The Auk"_

XVIII Nesting Habits of the Passenger Pigeon 209
_By Dr. Morris Gibbs, in "The Oölogist"_

XIX Miscellaneous Notes 217

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Passenger Pigeon _Frontispiece_
_By Louis Agassiz Fuertes_

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