A H'i•To OF. RY THEPASSENGER PIGEON 'MISSOURI* IN
DANIEL MCKINLEY
T!tE.Passenger Pigeon(Ectopistes migratorius)hasbeenextinctfor nearly.half a century. But, long before its final disappearance, Mis-
souri's. weresometimes skies dramatically withflocks pigeons, filled of
and oak-hickory forests the stateoncefed a shareof these of wandering
arian armies.
This account a reportof the misfortunes the Passenger is of Pigeon in Missouri, as revealedin histories,diaries, travelers' journals, and
popular. lore. To so complete general a historyas that of Schorger (1955), I.can addonlythe richness localmaterial a clarification of and
of certain details. Abundant new material undoubtedly awaits the
searcher earlynewspapers market into and records.
Recordshave been arrangedchronologically decades by and, when possible, yearswithin the decade. by Early days. Many quotations from early Frenchexplorers the in Mississippi valleymay be foundin Wright's papers(1910, 1911). As
a rule, it is difficult placesuchquotations muchgeo_graphical to with pre'dsion, two identifiable but references maybe mentioned.Granvier (Thwaites,1896-1901(65): 109-111) wrote from belowthe mouth of the Ohio River, October. 1700: "We saw so great a numberof wood-pigeons theskywasquitehidden them." In 1750,Vivier that by (ibid., 69: 145) credited countryin the latitudeof St. Louis with the wild pigeons "the autumnthroughthe winter, and duringa portion in
of the spring."
1800.. While at DuboisRiver, Illinois,waitingto begintheir ascent of the MissouriRiver, Lewis and Clark (1893: 1282) notedon 12 February1804: "Pigeons, geese, ducks . . havereturned." and . In travelsnorthwardon the Mississippi, before he beganhis great southwestern journey,Pike found a nesting colonyof pigeons. In his journal for 28 April 1806,he wrote (1895 (1): 212):
Stoppedat some islands about ten miles above Salt river, where there were pigeon-roosts, in about 15 minutesmy men had knockedon the head and and brought on board 298 .... the most fervid imaginationcannot conceivetheir
numbers.... Their noise in the woods was like the continuedroaring of the wind, and the ground may be said to have beenabsolutelycoveredwith their excrement. The young ones which we killed were nearly as large as the old, they could fly about ten.steps,and were one massof fat; their craws were filled with acorns
* ContributionMissouri from Cooperative Research Columbia, Wildlife Unit,
Missouri. 399
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and the wild pea. They were still reposing on their nests,which were merely small bunchesof sticks joined, with which all the small trees were cøVered.• Met four canoesof the Sacs [Indians], with wicker baskets filled with young
pigeons ....
Bailey (1939) placed this nesting in Pike County, Missouri; Schorger (1955: 124) referredit to Pike County, IllinoisßUnless one is fairly certainas to the size of the islandinvolvedand the precision of Pike's estimateof distance aboveSalt River, it is probablynot possible decide whichstatethe nesting to to oughtto be accredited.At
any rate it is a matter of political,not pigeon,geography. AlthoughLewis and Clark from May to July followedthe Missouri River to the northwestern cornerof the state,and Pike'sparty ascended the Osageto the western borderof Missouriin July and early August, neithergroupmadefurther remarks aboutPassenger Pigeons. There were acuteand interested observers both groups,and suchcircumin
stances tend to substantiate suggestions Schorger the of (1955: 257; in lift., 1956) that Missouri wasoutside mainnesting the range the of
pigeon.
ChristianSchultz(1810 (2): 17-18) stopped the mouthof the at Ohio on the Missouriside,24 October1807. Large grovesof willows
along mudflatsof the river "at a distance the appearance the had of
havingsufferedfrom a hurricaneor tornado,but... I discovered that this scene destruction beencommitted a tribe of the leathered of had by creation! Here wasa space aboutforty acres willows of of Which had not only all the branches brokenoff, but likewisemanyof the middling sizedsaplings were bentto the ground,while the surfacewas literally
coated over with dung and feathers. I soon discoveredthat this was
a pigeon roost, andthat, from the myriads whichcome everyevening to the sameplace,the branches crowded everytwig, until, by the are at increase weight,they are brokenoff." Schultz(ibid., 85) againsaw of
pigeonsjust north of the Ohio's mouth on 6 March 1808, the "woods beingliterally coveredwith them." 1810. When Audubon wascamped across Mississippi the River from
Cape Girardeauin December 1810 (Audubon,1942; 1831-39 (4): 538), pigeons, among othergame,werekilled. He apparently no saw great flightsß At the NodawayRiver, on the Missouri,18 April 1811,JohnBradbury (1819: 68-69) wrote:
I proceeded examine neighboring to the country, and soon discovered pigeons that ß . . were in the woods. I returned,and exchanged rifle for a lowling-piece, my
and in a few hours shot two hundredand seventy-five, when I desistedß had an 'I opportunity this day of observing mannerin which they feed: . . . au example the
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of the rigid disciplinemaintainedby gregariousanimals .... One of these flocks, when on the ground, will cover an area of several acres . . . the birds so close to each other that the ground can scarcelybe seen .... that all may have an equal chance,the instant that any rank becomes the last, it rises, and flying over the whole flock, alights exactly ahead of the foremost .... there is a continuedstream
of them in the air.
About'the sameplace,on 7 May 1811, Brackenridge (1816: 75) also killed somepigeons. if either of thesemen saw other pigeons during the rest of the Missouripart of their journeysup the Missouri River, they made no mentionof it. Schoolcraft (1821: 22) sawpigeons while in the Bryant Creekarea of Douglasand Ozark counties, November 1818, but he assuredly 21 did not see them in spectacular numbersduring his long midwinter journey in Missouri and northernArkansas. 1820. From Warren County,Duden (1829: 150) wrote in 1826: "Wild pigeons appearat times in swarmswhich darkenthe sky like stormclouds. The branches treesbreakwhenthey sit down." That of Duden'sstatement was no exaggeration may be gatheredfrom a contemporarynewspaper item. Despitethe injury doneby the drought, the St. Louis"MissouriRepublican" (Anon., 1825) assured readers its on 10 October1825,"therecan be no apprehension starvation, we of if may judge from the number of wild pigeonsdaily passing,and the
quails; arerunning that about streets flyingintohouses order our and in
to escape pursuitof boys." the 1830. PrinceMaximiliankilledsome pigeons whenon the Missouri, near the mouth of the KansasRiver, 21 April 1833 (Wied, 1839-41
(1): 272). in assessing observationsAmerican his on birds, Maximilian later wrote (Wied, 1858: 425): "On the Missourithe specimenswhichwe killed in the autumnand which stayedin the high poplar woodshad filled up their cropswith the fruits of thesetrees." if the latter reference was meantto apply to the state of Missouri (Schorger,1955: 41), Maximiliansupplied wrongdate,for he was the not in Missouriin autumn (Wied, 1839-41); Schorger has suggested (in litt., 1957) that he meantpoplarcatkins(not seeds), the spring in
of the year.
Townsend (1839:126) observed "large flocks wildpigeons of passing
over" 31 March 1834, in St. CharlesCounty. Hesse (1946-48 (41):
171)wrote from lower the Osage River about thatthe"passenger 1835
pigeon arrivesin spring and fall. Some flocks timesstayfor weeks at
in the forests."
t840. Audubon shottwo wild pigeons near St. Joseph early May in 1843 (Audubonand Coues,1898 (2): 473, 475). He saw no large
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flocks pigeons of whileon his round-trip tour of the MissouriRiver in
MarkTwain(1924)remembered of "millions" plgeori• roosts of near
Hannibalin the 1840's; gunswere not necessary, clubsWereused and to kill the birds at night. An early settlerof CallawayCounty told (Anon., 1884b: 140) of "a few pigeons" being amonganimalskilled in the 1840's a springhuntingcontest relieveyoungcornf.rompest in to
damages.
1850. On 30 September 1851, a St. Louis newspaper reported
(Anon., 1851a): Wild pigeons, immense in flocks, continue pass to overourcity. As an'article of
food, these birds are no longer a luxury,--they overstockthe market, and for cheapness recommend themselves over every other species flesh or fowl Our of population, havebecome sporting too, a population, is evlnced the continuous as in and deafening discharge fire-armsin the vicidity [sic] of the city eachmorning, of for severalhours. On somedays, no one who has not seenthem, can form an idea of the large numbers pigeons of that fill our woods .... We hear every'day of instances when a single shot has brought down from ten to fifteen.birds,and
ß . . as many as twenty-six.... a friend of ours, a few days since, in the course
of three or four hours,baggedsomeninety-sixbirds.
Pigeons apparently andthenreturned, on 24 December left for 1851, the samenewspaper recorded (Anon., 1851b): "
Immense flocks wild pigeons been, the lastfew days, the woods of have for in
west of the city. A resident in the country says he saw a flock day before yester-
day, at least half a mile long, and many thousands numberß They 'have been in
so numerous as to break the small limbs of trees when they alighted. It is a singular thing to see them in flocks at this season. .
I believe that thereis in this reportan understanding pigeons that were properlyfall and springmigrants. When Kurz visitedthe St. Louis region, wrote (1937: 340) 25 May 1852,that the "season passenhe for ger pigeons... wasalreadyover." Pigeons visited Harrison County in immenseflocks, accordingto
A. F. Woodruff, arrived who therein 1858(Wanamaker, ! :'305). 192
Limbs would be broken from trees,and hunterskilled the birds by the
thousandsß
Moniteau County•vasalsothe siteof largeroosts the fifties (Ford, in 1936:76), andto those roosts, pigeons beencoming manyyears. had for
When it [the pigeon] did come,it came in countless thousands. A roostingplace
was selected, all returned it at night. In the daytime and to theyseparated into
droves foraged and fromthirtyto fifty miles fromthe'roosting .... place
.About
six miles northwest of California is what is known as the pigeon roost' country. ß . . The signsstill remain in the broken timber and the wonderful ridhness'o{ the
;960]
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tn .1852.the'l•igeons had a roost on the Gravois,about twenty miles south of
The greatest •f the flights was in 1859 [not seen by the narrator, as he was
absent] .... At that time the roosts were about ten miles south of California near
the Burris' .... fork
the carload.
The deadbirdswerebrought the townby the wagon to load,
and as the railroad had then reachedthe town, they were shippedto St. Louis by
2860.: intelligent ofthe days the :,An account last of Passenger Pigeon
in the NewtonCountyregionhasbeenwrittenby Britton (1929: 5160), basedon his own memories. He saw immense flocksup to the time of the Civil War. They cameto eat mast,competing with the hogs,and stayedin the fall until freezingweather came,the flocks increasing size until they covered visiblehorizonfor an hour or in the soat a•time in the afternoons.They passed through country the again in March. They gaveno trouble cornfields, in andnesting, Britton if makesno mistake his report,was not at all colonial. Late in spring, in
as the 'matingand nestingseason cameon, they "were seenin pairs by thosehavingoccasion be huntingor passing, the mostinaccessible to in
woods oi-'forests."He considered nesting his region mere those in as stragglers from areasmore densely populated pigeons. Excreta by accumulated a depthof two or three feet after an area was usedfor to several 'yearsby roostingpigeons. In the 20 years following 1883, Britton traveled in all the timbered country of southern Missouri, northernArkansas,and westernTennessee without seeinga single pigeon.' Feed lots around cow barns were full of pigeonsduring the winter in CooperCountyas late as 1862 (George,1911). In the late fifties and early sixties,great flockscameto a large rooston MoniteauCreek --a tract that was still (1911) knownas "The PigeonRoost."
They would start ont early in the morning for their feeding groundsand in the afternoon,about four o'clock, they would begin returning to this roost. From
that time until it was too dark to see, I have watched that unbroken line stretched against the sky as far as the eye could reach .... I rememberthinking it looked like somemighty river winding its way through the air.
An immigrant Englishmanwho lived in Van Buren County, Iowa, kept meticulous records birds and mammals of killed and seenfrom 1856 to 1863 (Savage,1933-37). He mentioned pigeons the folon lowingdates: 2/21/60 ("flock"), 4/1/60, 9/16/60, 4/5/61, 7/31/61, 8/12/61, 3/15/63 ("pigeons plentiful"), 3/20/63, 4/5/63, 4/6/63,
7/4/63, 7/18/63, 9/6/63, 9/26/63, 9/30/63, and 10/4/63. For this Iowa countythat borders Missouri's northeastern counties Clark and of Scotland,it will be seen tl•at of 16 records,there are no real winter
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dates; the recordsfall as follows: one for February,two f. •.M•arch, or
fourfor April,threefor July,onefor August, for .September, four
and one for October. I am not certainthat Savage's pigeoarec•0rds wereas complete the earlyyearsas for 1863--if theywere,ß saw for he none in 1856-59 and 1862. Unfortunately,publication Savage's of diary was cut shortwith the 1863 entries. According the county to historian, lastflight of pigeons Monithe in
teauCounty 1868wasgreeted theusual in in manner (Ford, 1936:76). "They settled the treesand shrubbery in aboutthe Catholic church. Someof the boyswent out and got a few sackfuls. They left in the
morningand neverreturned." 1870. In 1872,large flocksof pigeons were observed Franklin in Countyby Elmbeck(\Vidmann,1907:84), and from manyreports it becomes obvious that the decade the 1870'swas a time of sporadic of abundance Passenger of Pigeons. •[ohnA. Bryant told Harris (1919: 258) that pigeons were present in the KansasCity regionin 1873 and 1874: "'Killed fifteen at one shotin September, 1873.'" I find no more reportsfor 1873,but in the spring 1874,Scott(1879: 147) noted birdsat Warrensburg, of the •[ohnson County: "A flockof seven seenon April 6." Then, in the autumn of 1874, a spectacular colonial roost began in southwestern
biissouri.
A Springfieldpaper reportedon 29 October (Anon., 1874a): "Twenty-fivehundred pigeons were killed onenight near bit. Vernon," and on 5 November samepapercarriedthe report (Anon., 1874b): the "Wild pigeons so plentifulin Lawrence are countythat they soldfor ten centsper dozen." CharlesBoutcher,a Pennsylvania sportsman, arrived in Springfield in December. He described (Boutcher,1875: 7) a large pigeonroost
that had been located near there:
ß . . we regretted that an unusual and severe snow storm for this latitude broke up and dispersedthis roost just about a week before our arrival .... We saw a portion of the camping grounds of these birds, and had descriptionsof them.... It covered a space of about thirty square miles of closely wooded large timber anti scrub oak (ten miles by three miles) .... it would be impossibleto compute their numbers .... Tons upon tons of them were nightly killed, and the shipments and local supplies were so great that they were a glut and a drug . . . and could
be...
boughtin quite distant markets for 5 centsa dozenor less ....
They were
packed so densely that the strong oak limbs and saplings were snappedand crushed like pipe stems. The part of the "roosting ground" that we saw looked as if it might have been the sceneof a battle with grape and canister .... [At the roost]
throughout the day scarcely a bird was to be seen. Again at night and until midnight they would pour into their "roosts."
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A great pigeon roost in 1874, apparentlythe one describedby
Boutchef referred by theSpringfield and to newspaper, been has mentionedin the historyof the Ozark region (Haswell, 1917: 116, 234). It was said to have included"the whole southwestern country." One of the big roostswas in the valley of Wilson Creek, west of Springfield; anotherwas in a thickly settled community near Mt. Vernon. Thereare no reports pigeons 1875,andnonethat I havefound of in for early 1876. However, at JeffersonCity, 29 September1876 (H.C.M., 1876), a manwrotethat "onlya few wild pigeons havemade their appearance." It is unfortunate that more dispatches this of nature were not published, for we might then know more about the genesisof a great pigeon roost in central Missouri in the autumn of that year. "Rod and Gun" (Anon., 1876) on 18 November1876,carrieda dispatchsaidto haveoriginated the "Southland in (Mo.) Rustic"(Stoutland, CamdenCounty,was certainlythe placemeant,but no one has beenableto identifythe publication)ßA pigeonroostwas described.
Pigeonshave comeinto this part of the countryby the millions. Of evenings the sky is darkened with them. They have made Dobson's [Dodson's?--see 1877] farm their headquarters, and at nights the trees and underbrushare loaded with multitudes. A little before sundownlarge armies of pigeonsare seencomingfrom different points of the compass, but each army passes onward .... After a while they return and settleon the treesaroundthe roost,not many of themnearer than a mile of the place. They make suddenflights from these trees, and the soundof their wings is like that of a great storm.... After dark they fly toward the roost and for a long time they fly to and fro, and have the appearance beesswarming. of ß. . The pigeons keep up a constantchattering,which can be heard for miles away. ß . . sleep. . . is out of the question with pigeons. They are disturbed themby selves. . . and the incessant dischargingof firearms among them causesthem to changetheir location almost constantly. This roost is visited every night by crowds of men, some with guns others with poles .... But no one can ever imagine what a pigeon roost is, or how much noise they make, until one is seen
and heard. There is an abundance of mast here now .... One curious circumstance
is that in the neighborhood this pigeon roost we never see a pigeon from the of time they leave of mornings until they return of evenings .... but somewhere they are all feastingabundantly,for they are all fat.
It was said (Anon., 1877) that over 100,000 pounds pigeons of were shipped from Stoutland 1876. in Passenger Pigeonsroostedin large numbersat Stoutlandagain in the autumnof 1877 (Anon., 1877):
A pigeon-roost a big thing, and they have a big pigeon-roost the Auglaize is on river, near Dodson's camp-ground,Camden county, Missouri. It is an annual roost, and disturbsthe quiet of the peopleof the section .... There is a frightful confusionof noises .... The crashing of limbs--the roaring of multitudinous
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pigeons, and the crackingof shot-guns sweeping birds down [make it difficult the to sleep] .... Besides this, there is a darkening the air by the birds in their of flight, whichmakescontinual'. cloudyweather .... The pigeonhasbecome leading a article of commerce . . and the pigeonyield this year promises be as good . .tO [as last year].... everything elsestopsin the pigeon-roosting season exceptthe
newspaper.
The pigeon roostwas a remunerative kind of nuisance! In a report obviously unrelatedto the Stoutlandroost, a Chicago gamedealerclaimed (Bond, 1877) that thereweretwo major nesting groups pigeons 1877: onein Ripley County,Missouri,and onein of in BentonCounty,Arkansas. If any reliance all is to be placed his at on
statement, current beliefs concerning nesting the Passenger of Pigeon
in Missouri will have to be somewhat revised. I have not discovered
any corroborating evidence 1877,exceptfor another for baldstatement (Mann, 1880-81)thatpigeons nested RipleyCounty 1877,which in in Schorger(in litt., 1956) has labeled"doubtful." My guess. that is
some people, through ignorance intent, notalways or did distinguish
betweenroostsand nestings pigeons. of In one of the periodicefforts by sportingmagazines chart the to flightsof pigeons, editorof "Forestand Stream"wroteon 14 Febthe
ruary1878(Anon.,1878b): "Correspondents oblige bykeeping will us us informedof the whereabouts wild pigeons. The birds.werein of southwestern Missouriat latestadvices." From Audrain Countycame the information(Anon., 1878c): "Mexico, March 2. Pigeonshere for two weekspast; are now flying northeast." I haveno moreinfor-
mation thespring on season 1878, in except reports for (Anon.,1878a)
of an extensive roosting Van BurenCounty, in Iowa, nearnortheastern Missouri. There,a letterpublished the weekof 30 Marchindicated for that "countless millions of pigeonshave been coveringabout three thousand acresof jack-oaktimber" for at leasta two-weekperiod. Thousands beenkilled beforethe roostbeganto move. had In 1879, anotherlarge movement pigeons of was in progress, this time in the southern part of the state. The St. Louis "Republican" (Anon., 1879b) for 21 March reported: The woods Shannon, in Oregon Howell and counties full of pigeons,' are which
are being killed by the thousands shipmentto easternmarkets. Piedmont [in for Wayne County, Missouri], on the Arkansas division of the Iron Mountain railroad, is the shippingpoint, and from there are shippedevery day from seven hundredto one thousand dozenof pigeons, bringing into the countyfrom six to eight hundred dollars, net cash per diem. The birds are sent to Boston and New
York, wherethey sell at $1.30and $1.60per dozen. The roosts the pigeons of
are from sixty to eighty miles from Piedmont.' . . The pigeons . are continually moving toward the north, but their progress doesnot exceedeight, or, at the
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utmost, twelve miles per day.... The hunterswatch their game settle down, and then range through the woods . . . and when a body of pigeonssettled on the limbs of a pine or oak is outlined . . . a half dozen men fire at a signal .... In the morning all handsare set to work to pick up the game.
Doubtless referringto the 1879pigeonroostnear Piedmont, T. E. Martin, a Chicago live pigeondealer,told to Chicago "Field" (Anon., 1879a)about22 Marchthat he hadlocated largenesting pigeons." "a of The congregation pigeons about120milesfrom St. Louis,and of was "over fifty milesfrom any railroad,and it seems impossible get them to to any market [in a livingstate, meant]. The nearest he railroadstation is saidto be Piedmont, Mo. In as muchas feed is very abundant thereand is scarce Wisconsin in and Michigan,it seems likely that the birds will remainthere for several hatchings, hence and there will be few, if any, for the many tournaments advertisedfor May." Since Schorger(1955: 125) admonishes "Martin is not to be believed that on details,"one may suppose that Martin was engaging a little in propaganda keephighthe priceof live pigeons wereusedin the to that then-popular pigeon-shooting tournaments. In this case, however, pessimism was justified. On 10 May, for instance, the editor of "Field" (Anon., 1879d)warned:
We are afraid the tournaments going to have much troubleto get birds are .... An inquiry . . . reveals the fact that wild birds are not to be had. The only
nesting place known of is in Missouri, and that is so far from a railroad as to
render it impossible almost to get the birds . . . at a price at which associations
can afford to buy them for their tournaments.
However,on the samepageof the "Field" there is an editorial note (Anon., 1879c): "The St. Louis tournament.--The Missouri State Sportsmen's Association tournament have secured and have in coops all the birdsthey will require." No information the originof the on latter birds is given. 1880. The storyof the Passenger Pigeon the 1880's in reflects the erraticqualities the species of itself. Eventhough some observers saw their last pigeons during that period,the bird still appeared conin
siderablenumbersin a few sections. It was harried to the last by market shooters, who killed for food, and by netters,who took for the sportof trap shooting.The useof live pigeons trap-shooting in tournamentswas almostover by about 1880, however,due mostlyto the
uncertain supplyof pigeons(Schorger,1955: 164-165). In 1885, St. Louisand Indianapolis shooters trap were"engaged a laudable in endeavor prove the adaptation the English sparrowto trapto of shooting,"thereby solving simultaneously sparrow pest problem the and pigeonshortage(Anon., 1885c). (Before glassballs and clay
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"pigeons"finally replacedlive birds, sparrows,Purple Martins, and batswere suggested--bats were usedrather successfully, for some and time, in the sporting weeklies the day, scores of wereregularlyreported uponfor bats,particularly Louisiana in and California.)
In the realm of folklore, at least,the bird still flourished. One rather wild report (G.S.B., 1880) divided the nesting pigeonsinto three groups. One of thoseflockswas foundin Missouri,drifting "about from season seasonfollowingthe crop of nuts and rarely going to beyond boundaries their own States." the of On 29 September 1880,J. D. Kastendieck killed his last specimen of the Passenger Pigeon,at Billings,ChristianCounty (Widmann, 1907: 84). For 1881, one can only acceptthe word of the editor of Chicago "Field" (Anon., 1881a): "As is well known,this is what is termedthe 'off year' for wild pigeons." In Januaryit was said (Anon., 1881b) that "immense flightsof wild pigeons have established nestings the in
dense timber lands bordering Southwestern on Missouri" in (i.e.,
IndianTerritory). Birdswereshotin greatnumbers, the point but was75 milesfrom a railroad, and netted birdscouldnot be supplied
with food (Anon., 1881a). W.W. Judy (ibid.) in late March advised associations put off tournaments to until later in the year in the hope that the pigeons wouldmoveinto Missourifor anothernesting. These dispatches only samples the pigeonmarket literature: it would are of be difficultto learn how muchof the massof fabrications, self-deception, and slanted information the marketeersthemselvesbelieved. At
any rate, with their bland announcements about "nestings," first, second,or evenmorenestings, theywentabouttheir business hounding of
the pigeons into extinction(see Schorger, 1955; also see Chicago
"Field," 15: 168, 232, 1881, for further information on the Atoka,
IndianTerritory,"nesting"). At least oneMissouri sportsman (Occident, 1881) endorsed standof "Forestand Stream"against the the
shooting live pigeons tournaments. of at
In a longletter writtenin November 1881,William King (1881)
painted a somewhatglowing picture of game in "the mountains"of Washington and Crawford counties. It appears, however,that the information wasbased considerable on experience the region. After in includingPassenger Pigeons amongthe large quantities gameaniof
mals found there, he wrote:
Wild pigeons mostlybirds of passage, are althoughthey have their pigeon-roosts sometimes the mountains, in where thousands be slaughtered, many are can and
killed by clubs alone. The wild pigeonsannually appear in the fall about the
beginning October of and continue throughthe winter and spring; they fly in
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large flocksover and throughall parts of the mountains, darting through.the air
with immense velocity. Frequently from twenty to thirty may be broughtdown
by the doubleshot; they are also caughtin netsin large numbers.
Without statingthe month,George(1911) wrote of seeing10 or 12 pigeons near GunnCity, CassCounty,about1882. He had seensince
his arrival there in 1865 "a few small flocks and killed two or three
pigeons."
Widmann (1907: 84) saw severallarge flocksgoingnorth at St. Louis on 5 and 6 February 1882. At Keokuk, Iowa, near the northeastern cornerof Missouri,on 6 February,a man wrote (Scott, 1882): "A largeflockof wild pigeons passed overSugarCreekyesterday;two werekilled,a maleanda female." From Thomasville, Oregon County, 7 February,word was (Sassafras, 1882): "Wild pigeons roosting are in large numberswithin four miles of this place,and every 'shooting iron' in the place is kept hot in their destruction." W. W. Judy, famouspigeondealer,wrote (Judy, 1882a) from St. Louis, 12 February: "Wild pigeonsin considerable numbersare feeding opposite this city in the AmericanBottom [Illinois]. Quite a quantityhave
already beenshot." According a dispatch American to to "Field" in March (Anon.,1882), "a very largeroost"wasat Brunswick, Chariton
County. A little later in 1882,Judy (1882b) reportedon the spring's success
in trapping: "This springthey madetheir appearance southwest in Missouriearlyin February, and shortlyafter largeroosts were formed
in Lincoln and Chariton counties in north Missouri .... " There had
been no success with netting, and the pigeonswere said to have then goneon to Michiganand Pennsylvania.There is little information on the pigeon the restof 1882. Cooke's for observer Vesta,southeastern at Nebraska, reported(Cooke,1882) pigeons "goingnorthin largeflocks 4/21-25; two large flockson 5/5."
On 21 April 1883,"Field"announced fromChicago (Anon.,1883b):
"Messrs. Bond & Ellsworth inform us they have receiveda telegram from W. W. Judy,of St. Louis,stating that he is at Augusta,Mo., and thereis a large nesting wild pigeons of near there." Bondand Ellsworth were mistakenin identifyingthe placeas Augusta,St. Charles
County,as the town Judy referredto was Thayer, OregonCounty,
which was given the name "Augusta" for a short time (Pottenger, 1945). They later (Bond and Ellsworth,1883) amended their report:
The nesting is said to be about forty miles from Augusta, Oregon county, Mo., on the south line of the state. We do not hear of any birds being caught; none
cominghere, or going to New York.... The birds may cometo Michigan by the middleof May, as by that time they will havehatched their youngin Missouri. out
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Judyhimself(1883) reported 12 May: on
I returned to-day from the wild pigeon roost, locatedeight miles south of Augusta, Oregon county, Mo., where there is a small body of birds nesting. There are about forty netters there, but thus far the catch has been very light, as the pothunters are shooting them out, and will not allow the main body to nest. I am in hopesthe birds will be driven north.... Unless there is a changesoon. . . clubs
will have to look elsewhere for birds.
The distances givenby BondandEllsworth andJudyare in contradiction; the figureswere probablyround numbers, and they may have beengarbled. If eithereightor 40 milesare takenas a literal distance duesouthfrom Augusta(i.e., Thayer), the alleged nesting tookplace in Arkansas. Both reports,however,specifyMissouri, and that birds were present that general in area in the springof 1883is confirmed by an accountfrom Ripley County, some20 to 30 miles northeastof Thayer. The Doniphan "Prospect-News" 30 March (Anon., 1956) for
noted: There have been more than 10,000 dozen wild pigeons shipped to St. Louis from
Piedmont with[in] the last two months and more are constantlybeing shipped. The "roost" where most of these pigeonsare killed is in the northwest corner of Ripley, close to the Oregon and Carter County lines.
It is significant that the local dispatch refers to this pigeonflock as "roosting";but it oughtto be notedthat the communications Judy of callingit a "nesting" of somewhat are later date. This endsthe discussion the pigeon the springof 1883,unless of for thereis some connection a reportof M.R.B. (1883), whoreported with from Chicago 12 June: "It hasbeenreported on latelythat the pigeon nestingin Missourihas been robbedof all the young. One man is said to have 60,000 young birds in his possession, severalothers and 10,000each"(the implication beingthat the menraised young the birds until they were old enough be usedin trap shooting). In commentto ing on this eventin 1884 (M.R.B., 1884a; 1884b), the sameperson related that 40,000 (of 60,000) of the birds had died before their holder coulddispose them. He told of anotherman who lost all but of 3,300out of 20,000birdssecured Missouri 1883. Specifik in in nesting datesand localities were not given. In the autumn of 1883, pigeonswere commonfor the last time at Keokuk,Iowa (Widmann,1907: 84). The winter that followedmust havebeenvery nearlythe last timethat the wild pigeon waspresent in really impressive numbersin Missouri. For that occurrence, Tena nessee reportquoted a New York magazine by mustbe reliedupon.
Thatundated dispatch, carried "Forest Stream" in and (Anon.,1884a)
1960J
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McKIm,•:¾, Passenger Pigeon Missouri in
411
in early January 1884 (creditedto the Memphis,Tennessee, "Avalanche"), recorded pigeonmassacre a Missouriroost." "a at
Hearing that game was abundanton the line of the Kansas City Railroad... we formed a party to go out.... Near Augusta, Mo., . . . the roost of pigeonswas representedto us to be "perfectly enormous.". . . Early Thursday morning . . . with four days' rations . . . we made the start over the hills.... On the way we shot a few quail.... [We encamped the first eveningand next day] before the light of morningcameour tent and all handswere in the wagon,and as the sun rose, the birds beganto fly over us, and all day at short intervals we were shooting right and left in the roost. The trees were literally crowded with them .... Their roost occupies spaceof about five miles long and three miles wide, and a when the pigeonscome in at night and leave in the morning they actually darken the earth around. At 10 o'clock the secondnight we had one wagon box full and left for a campingground. En route we met joe Bowlinghouse, experienced an
hunter, Whose luck that day brought him three fine deer.... At this juncture another crowd of hunters, with two teams filled with pigeons,came upon us....
At daybreaknext day we all started for Augusta, and got there a little after dark. When our pigeonswere counted (three wagons), we had 5,415, and in our own
we had 1800.
The reference here was probably againto Augusta (i.e., Thayer), OregonCounty,as the correspondence originated a Memphispaper, in and since"Augusta"was on the Memphis-Springfield segment the of Kansas City railroad,whichwascompleted about1884 (Thomas,1917: 8). I alsosuspect that one wouldhavebeenmore likely to kill three deer in one day in Oregon than in St. CharlesCounty (to which Schorger (1955: 218) referredthe pigeon roost). In 1884, Mrs. Musick (Cooke, 1888: 108) saw pigeons Mt. Carat mel, Audrain County, from 9 to 21 September. M.C. (1886) on 24 February1885,"Saw five Passenger Pigeons" at Wayland, Clark County. At Mt. Carmel, in 1885, Mrs. Musick (Cooke,1888: 108) sawpigeons April and 27 (20 seen),28 (50 18 seen), and 30 September. Widmann (1907: 85) saw them, his last recordat St. Louis, on 19 September. A total of 4,929 wild pigeons and 8,129 turtle doveswere killed in Missourifor the year ending1 March 1886 (West, 1886). There is no way to evaluate thesefigures; they comefrom a long list of game
animals,and were presumably drawn from somesourceconcerned with the St. Louis gamemarket. At this late date,one of the few publicmoves providelegal proto tectionfor Passenger Pigeonswas proposed a convention sportsby of menandgamemarketoperators St. Louisin 1885. They suggested at (Anon., 1885b) that in stateseastof the RockyMountains pigeons be huntedonly from Octoberto March inclusive.
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McKxN•,•;¾, Passehoer inMissouri Pioeon
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From Alexandria,Clark County,JasperBlines (1888) wrote in November 1888that duringthe year he had seen"but few.passenger pigeons.They were in formeryearsvery numerous here,and could
be seen... every springand autumn." Since food was still abundant, he supposed that their disappearance might be due to locomotive whistles, steamers,and the noise of cities.
1890. In the 1890's,reportsof pigeons Missouribecame in more scattered.One man writing from Macon Countysaid (Truitt, 1891) therewasa roost Blackwater on River,Saline County, 1890; pigeons in were occasionally seenin the Macon Countyarea. The editor of "Shooting and Fishing"wrote in February1891 (Anon., 1891), that despitereportsof the pigeon's extinction,a hundred dozenor more choice "'dodos'" from Pennsylvania Missouri and might be seenin the Bostonmarkets. Wild pigeons were not at all nearextinction, maintained, a change nesting he and in habits could yet be expected save species. to the The shooting interests not easily did
admit defeat !
Emerson Hough (1892) was told in 1892that wild pigeons visited southeastern Missouriregularlyevery other year. The roostof the birds thattimewasin IndianTerritory, at where netting nolonger was profitable, "but the bird is not extinct." Blines (1892) did not seea single pigeon ClarkCounty in during1892.
No pigeonswere placedon sale in St. Louis markets in 1894 and
1895; andthose soldin 1893hadcome from Arkansas (Deane,1895). Currier saw 10 pigeons April 1894,at Keokuk,Iowa--the first he 15 had seensince1888 (Widmann, 1907: 85). In September 1896,the
last specimens the Passenger of Pigeon from Iowa were taken in Lee
Countyon the northeastern borderof Missouri(the last Iowa sight record,however(DuMont, 1933: 80, 81), was in KossuthCounty, anothercountyborderingMissouri,in 1903). Early in 1896,Goss(1896) wrotefrom Arcadia, Iron County, 14
March that a few daysbeforehe "saw in the woodsnear here a flockof
nine." (His statement he had not seenany for about10 years that doesnot apply to Missouri,as he Wasliving in Iowa as late as 1895; see"Iowa Ornithologist," (4): 76-79, 1895.) 1 On 17 December 1896(Deane,1898:185), Charles Holden, U. Jr.,
shot two pigeonsfrom a flock of about 50, and sent them to Ruthyen
Deane (Deane, 1897: 317). The pigeons had beenkilled at Attie, Oregon County. (Attie was oncea hamletone and one-halfmiles southwest Rover (Pottenger,1945), so the placewas not Alton, of "Altie," or "Attic," as various ornithologists mistakenly have sug-
196o]'
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McKx•z,•¾, Passenger in Missouri Pigeon
41'3
gested.• •Residents Attie reportedto Holdenthat they had not seen of any pigeOns several for yearsprevious that time. to Deane's was the last verified record of the PassengerPigeon in Missouri,but thereis an interesting sidelight the report. In a column to published26 December 1896, Emerson Hough (1896) related that, while huntingwith friendson "a quail trip in Missouriand Arkansas," William Knight had seen"a large flock of real wild pigeons, and he had killed two of them," bringingthem home for mounting. Despite differences namesof the shooters in and slight variationsin circum~
stances,one wonders if Deane and Hough did not refer to the same huntingincident. The decade ended,so far as records with the report (Widmann, go, 1907:85) that a flockof 75 to 100pigeons seen Johnson was in County, southeastern Nebraska,17 August 1897. 1900. Otto Widmannreportedto Forbush(1913: 1t30)that Miller, a St. Louis pigeonmarketman, received12 dozenpigeons from Rogers, Benton County, Arkansas, in 1902, and a single bird from "Black River" in 1906. Black River probably refers to southeastern Missouri or northern Arkansas. In 1902, Dr. Elmbeck saw pigeons (number not stated)at New Haven, Franklin County,26 September (Widmann, 1907: 85). Eimbeck'swas apparently the last sight record of the Passenger Pigeonin Missouri; while it is opento question, sight as records always are, Elmbeck apparently stood high in the respectof
Widmann.
SUMMARY
Reallylargeflocks Passenger of Pigeons persisted Missouri in longer thandid the flocks parakeets of (Conuropsis carolinensis), another eminentlysocial bird that earlytravelers foundcommon Missouri.While in the parakeet's passing remainsa mystery (McKinley, MS), there is lessuncertainty to why the pigeon as disappeared. Some the reasons of are plain enough, despite vesteddisclaimers the pigeontrade the of facedwith a declining resource that it had treated,and meantto continue to treat, as inexhaustible. Railroads,of course,speeded the up exploitation Missouri,and their effects in were felt at a crucialtime in the bird's strugglefor survival. Barrelsof deadbirds were carried swiftlyby train to distant citiesfrom smalltownsformerlycut off from easternmarkets. Armies of pigeonhunters,made dangerously mobile by the new transport,hounded the flocksof pigeons into the most remotepartsof the state,wherever they sought refuge. Sucha pattern of decimating factorsbecomes apparent, even from a studyof limited
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McK•N•¾, Passenger inMissouri Pigeon
[ Vol. 77 Auk
data from Missouri. When thesefactorsare magnified a nationwide to
scale and linked with the bird's fundamental need to nest, travel, and
feed in large flocks,there is not muchmysteryleft. Pigeonswere often common Missouri. They may have been in somewhat.sporadic their occurrences, there are many reports of in but them in fall and spring,and somefor winter and summer. Records from the stateor bordering counties neighboring of states wheredates or seasons indicated are may be summarized roughlyas follows:
January February
March
0 10
11
September 13 October 7
November 3
April May June July August
13 6 0 3 2
December Spring Summer Autumn Winter
4 7 0 7 6
The question relative of numbers present various in yearsandin different seasons never be very satisfactorily can settled. When Missouri newspapers thoroughlystudiedand greater use can be made of are manuscript material,a clearerpicturemay emerge. It will probablybe found that pigeonsdid not commonly nest in the state. However, at leastoneunrecorded nesting, nearDykes,TexasCounty, perhaps the in 1860's,is amongtraditionsof my family. That record,togetherwith the smattering references of citedhere,oughtto be further investigated. Newspaperaccounts of extremeabundance times up to the tell at 1870'sand 1880's. Then, reportsbecome hazier and more isolated, until the kill records 1896in RipleyCounty of anda few sightrecords up to 1902 endthe storyof the Passenger Pigeonin Missouri.
APPENDIX
Some indefinite references to the Passenger Pigeonin Missourihave been placed here. General references are arrangedchronologically; the rest are listedby county.
County
Reference,Date, and Other Comments
General
Stoddard,1812: 231. No date or specific locality. Schoolcraft, 1819: 37. Generalterms only, 1818-1819. Flint, 1832 (1): 291. Numerous some in seasons; time or locality uo
given. Wetmore, 1837: 29. No date or locality given.
PassengerPigeon in Missouri
415
Douglass, 1912 (1): 50. SoutheastMissouri; present in seasonin
early days.
Hayden, 1862: 172. Pigeons said to be quite abundant on the lower Missouri River, 1855-57; no locationscited, but Hayden collected along northwestern Missouri. Mershon, 1907: 139. See Van Cleef, below. Anon., 1874c. Echoes referenceAnon., 1874b,without citing county. Mershon, 1907: 107. Pigeonswintered "in southernMissouri and the Indian Nation" in 1874; they were shot at night and sold in St.
Louis.
Van Cleef, 1899. Another attempt to attribute periodic,migratory nestingsto pigeons. He says there was a nestingnear Poughkeepsie,New York, in the early seventies: pigeonsnestedfirst in Missouri,then in Michigan, and finally in the Catskills. Schaff, 1905: 109. A flock of 75 to 100 birds was seen eating "the
little acorns of the water oak" on Black River, Southeast Missouri; probablywinter of 1877-1878. Anon., 1935. No placegiven (JeffersonCity?); a spectacular flight
in late winter, 1882.
Anon., 1913. "Main body" of pigeonsreportedon 9 May 1886, to be
in Missouri.
Barry
Cass
Chariton Howard
Jackson
Anon., 1888: 564. Still presentin 1880's (?). Glenn, 1917: 87. Author could rememberseasonal visits, when flocks, "fully a mile wide and many miles long flew acrossthe country, obscuringthe sunlight." Anon., 1883a:390. Still presentin the 1880's(?). Widmann, 1907: 84. Pigeons were seen last at Fayette in 1878; information given in 1885. Anon., 1883a: 390. Still presentin 1880's (?). Latrobe, 1835 (1): 105. Late September1832; Latrobe went on % morning'spigeon shooting,"but left no indicationif any were
seen or killed.
Laclede
Lafayette
Lawrence
Gleason,1949: 2. Once present; no date given. Anon., 1881c: 241. Still presentin 1880's (?). Neff, 1923: 179. NeWs father (born ca. 1869) oncehuntedthem;
they were abundant.
Anon., 1888: 208. Still roostedthere in the 1880's(?). Newton Anon., 1888:208. Still roosted there in the 1880's(?). St. Charles Anon., 1885a:145. Said to be still present the 1880's. in Texas Anon., 1889: 429. Still presentin the 1880's(?).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study wasoriginally of a thesis part (McKinley, 1957) completed under direction WilliamH. Elder,Zoology the of Department, University Missouri, of and to him I owe special thanks. A.W. Schorger, authorof the splendid monograph the Passenger on Pigeon, helped verygenerously references thespecies Missouri with to in and cleared a few of my earlydifficulties. up
416
McKINLEY, Pigeon Passenger inMisshurl
LITERATURE CITE•
[ Vol. 77 AUK
ANON. 1825. (Wild pigeons.) St. Louis Repablican,10 Oct. ANON. 1851a. Fine spirit [sport?] St. Louis Missouri Republican, Sept., 80 30 (233): 3.
ANON. 2. ANON.
ANON.
1851b. Wild pigeons. St. Louis Missouri Republican,24 Dec., 80 (304):
1874a.
1874b.
(Pigeonsat Mr. Vernon, Lawrencecounty.) SpringfieldPatriot,
3.
29 Oct., 11 (7):
(Pigeons in Lawrencecounty.) SpringfieldPatriot, 5 Nov., 11
(8); 2. ANON. 1874c. (Wild pigeons Missouri.) For. and Stream,8: 246. in ANON. 1876. A Missouripigeonroost. Rod .andGun, 18 Nov., 9 (7): 103. ANON. 1877. Stoufiand'spigeon-roost. St. Louis Republican,18 Oct., p. 4. (Reprinted, For. and Stream, 9: 289, 1877.) ANON. 1878a. A pigeonroost. ChicagoField, 9: 100. ANON. 1878b. Wild pigeons. For. and Stream, 10: 21. ANON. 1878C. (Wild pigeons.) For. and Stream, 10: 100.
ANON. 1879a. A large nesting. Chicago Field, 11: 89.
ANON. 1879b. Pigeons in southern Missouri. St. Louis Missouri Republican,21 March, p. 4. ANON. 1879C. The St. Louis tournament. Chicago Field, 11: 200. ANON. !879d. Wild pigeons. ChicagoField, 11: 200.
ANON.. 1881a. Bad newsfor the spring tournaments. ChicagoField, 15: 120. ANON. 1881b. Great pigeonnestings. ChicagoField, 14: 363. ANON. 1881C. History of Lafayettecounty,Missouri. St. Louis: MissouriHistorical Co., 702 pp. ANON. 1882. (Pigeonsin Charitoncounty,Mo.) Am. Field, 17:197 (repeated
on p. 214).
ANON. 1883a. History of Howard and Chariton counties,Missouri. St. Louis: ßNational Historical Co., 1225 pp. ANON. 1883b. (Wild pigeons nestingin Mo.) Am. Field, 19: 311. ANON. 1884a. A big pot-hunter's raid. For. and Stream,21: 498.
ANON. 1884b. History of Callawaycounty,Missouri. St. Louis: National Historical Co., 954 pp. ANON. 1885a. History of St. Charles,Montgomery,and Warren counties, Missouri. St. Louis: National Historical Co., 1131 pp. ANON. 1885b. The St. Louis convention. For. and Stream, 25: 206-207.
ANON. 1885C. To join the wild pigeon. For. and Stream,25: 141. ANON. 1888. History of Newton,Lawrence,Barry, and McDonald counties, Missouri. Chicago: Goodspeed Publ. Co., 1092 pp.
ANON. 1889. History of Ladede, Camden,Dallas, Webster, Wright, Texas, Pulaski,Phelps and Dent counties, Missouri. Chicago:Goodspeed Publ. Co. ANON. 1891. The wild pigeon. Shooting Fishing,19 Feb.,9: 325. and ANON. 1913. Pigeons the millions; the great nestinggrounds Pennsylvaby in nia. Cassinia, 1912,16: 21-25. (From New York Times,9 May 1886,p. 10.) ANON. 1935. (Pigeon flight, late winter, 1882.) MissouriMagazine (Jan.), B
(1): 29.
ANON. 1956. (On a big pigeonroost,Ripley county,1883.) Doniphan ProspectNews,29 March, 78 (26): 2. (Reprintof 1883newsitem.)
1960J
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McK•.•¾, Passenger Pigeon Missouri in
417
AuDubON, J.J. 1831-1839. Ornithological biography, an account the habits or of of the birds of the United States of America. Edinburgh: Adam Black, $
vols.
AuDubON,J. J. 1942. Audubon's"Journeyup the Mississippi." Ed. by J. F. McDermott. Jour. Illinois St. Hist. Soc., 115: 148-173. (From the Winter's Wreath, 1829,pp. 104-127,London,1828.) AuDubON,M., and E. Cou•:s. 1898. Audubonand his journals . .. zoologicaland
other notes by Elliott Coues. London: John C. Nimmo, 2 vols.
B^n,gY, A.M.
335.
1939. Passenger Pigeonsrecordedby Pike in 1806. Auk, 56:
B(IaN•S), J(Asmm). 1888. Notes from Missouri. For. and Stream,111: 343. B•,IN•S,J. 1892. Bird notesfrom Missouri. For. and Stream,119:294. BOND, S. 1877. Wild pigeons. ChicagoField, 8: 281-282. E. BoND(E. S.) and E•,•,swoR?H. 1883. (Pigeonsnestingin Oregoncounty,Mo.)
Am. Field, 19: 334.
BoutcHug,C. S. 1875. Notes of a westernhunting trip. A seriesof letters of a hnnting expedition in Missouri, Kansas, and the Indian Territory in the winter of 1874. Easton, Pa., 34 pp. BP,•c•r•:Nanx•,H. M. 1816. Journal of a voyageup the river Missouri. Performed in eighteenhundred and eleven. 2d ed. Baltimore: Coale & Maxwell, viii q- 247 pp. In R. G. Thwaites (ed.), Early Western Travels, vol. 6,
1904.
BP,•DBuR¾, 1819. Travels in the interior of North America in the years 1809, J. 1810,and 1811 . . . 2d ed. London: Sherwood,Neely & Jones,346 pp. Ia
R. G. Thwaites (ed.), Early Western Travels, vol. 5, 1904.
Bm•'roN, W. 1929. Pioneer life in southwest Missouri. Revisedand enlarged edition. Kansas City: Smith-Grieves Co., 402 pp. (Also Mo. Hist. Rev., 16-17, 1921-23.)
Coo•r•, W.W.
19: 384.
1882. Bird migration in the Mississippivalley. For. and Stream,
Cooz•, W. W. 1888. Report on bird migration in the Mississippivalley in the years 1884 and 1885. U.S. Dept. Agric. Div. Econ. Orn. Bull., 2: 1-313. D•.N•:, R. 1895. Additional records of the Passenger Pigeon in Illinois and Indiana. Auk, 12: 298-300. D•.N•, R. 1897. Additionalrecordsof the Passenger Pigeon (t•ctop•stes •ni9ratoriu.O. Auk, 14: 316-317.
D•.N•:, R. 1898. The PassengerPigeon Ectopistes•ni9rator• in Wisconsin and Nebraska. Auk, 15: 184-185. Dov½•^ss, R. S. 1912. History of Southeast Missouri. Chicagoand New York: Lewis Publ. Co., 2 vols. Dvm:•, G. 1829. Bericht tiber eine Reise nach den westlichen Staaten Nordamerika's und einen mehrj•ihrigenAufenthalt am Missouri (in den Jabten 1824,25, 26 und 1827).... Elberfeld, Germany: Author, xvi q- 348 pp. DvMo>•?, P.A. 1933. A revised list of the birds of Iowa. Univ. Iowa Studies Nat. Hist., 15 (5): 1-171. F•?, T. 1832. The history and geographyof the Mississippivalley . . . 2d ed.
Cincinnati: E. H. Flint & L. R. Lincoln, 2 vols. in 1.
FoaBusH, E. H. 1913. The last PassengerPigeon. Bird-Lore, 15: 99-103. Foan J. E. 1936. A history of Moniteau county Missouri. California, Mo.: M. H. Crawford, 528 pp.
418
McK•r•Z•r, Passenger inMissouri Pigeon
[ Vol.
77
G.S.B. 1880. Trappingwild pigeons. For. and Stream,14: 433. GmReZ,T.J. 1911. The Passenger Pigeonin Missourififty years ago. Auk,
28: 259-261.
GLvatsor;, F.E.
GLZss, A.
1949. The first hundred years. Lebanon:LadedeCountyCen-
tennial, Inc., 130 pp.
1917. History of Cass county,Missouri. Topeka and Cleveland:
Historical Publ. Co., 837 pp.
Goss,R. D. 1896. Bluebirds and Passenger Pigeons. Nidiologist, 87. 3:
H.C.M.
7:
1876. Gamenow in season, JeffersonCity, Sept.29th. For. and Stream,
134.
HaRvas, H. 1919. Birds of the Kansas City region. Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis, 23: 1-371. Hasw•r,L, A.M. 1917. The Ozark regionits historyand its people. Springfield: Mo. Interstate Hist. Soc., 353
HaYre;s, F. ¾. 1862. On the geology and natural historyof the upperMissouri river. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc.,n.s., 12 (art. I): 1-218. HZssZ, N. 1946-1948. NicholasHesse,Germanvisitor to Missouri,1835-1837; transl. by William G. Bek. Mo. Hist. Rev., 41: 19-44, 164-183, 285-304,
373-390; 42: 34-49, 140-152, 241-248. (From Hesse'sbook, Das westliche Nord-Amerika .... Paderborn,1838.) Houca, E. 1892. Wild pigeons. For. and Stream, 39: 138. Houca, E. 1896. Wild pigeons. For. and Stream, 47: 512.
J(•nY), W.W.
17: 132.
1882a. (Market noteson pigeons, ducks,Feb. 12.) Am. Field,
1882b. Notes: St. Louis, March 31. Am. Field, 17: 243.
Jm)Y, W.W.
Jm)¾, W.W.
1883. (Wild pigeons Oregon in county, Mo.) Am. Field,19: 381.
Kxr;c, W. 1881. The game of Mineral Mountain. For. and Stream, 17: 329. K•Rz, R. F. 1937. Journal of Rudolph Friederich Kurz . . . 1846 to 1852. Transl. by M. Jarrell. Ed. by J. N. B. Hewitt. Bur. Am. Ethnol. Bull. 115, ix q- 382 pp. La•eaom;, C. J. 1835. The rambler in North America, MDCCCXXXIIMDCCCXXXIIL New York: Harper & Bros., 2 vols. LzwIs, M. and W. CLARK. 1893. History of the expedition under the command of Lewis and Clark.... Ed. by Elliott Coues. New York: F. P. Harper,
4 vols.
McKx•LZv, D. 1957. A wildlife chronology for Missouri. Unpubl. M.A. thesis, Univ. Missouri, Columbia, 283 pp. M.C. 1886. From Missouri. Ooi., 3: 26.
M.R.B. M.R.B.
1883. (Wild pigeons.) Am. Field, 19: 513. 1884a. Game protection. Am. Field, 21: 227.
M.R.B. 1884b. Treatmentof stoolpigeons.Am. Field, 21: 395-396.
M.•;•;, C. L. 1880-1881. Die Wandertaube. Jahres-Berichtdes naturhlstorischen
Vereins yon Wisconsin,pp. 43-47. (Referencefrom A. W. Schorger; not seen by me; this also appears to have been reprinted in Ornithologisches Centralblatt,6 (21): 164-166, 1 Nov. 1881.) M•;RS•o>,,W. B. 1907. The PassengerPigeon. New York: Outing Publ. Co.,
N•v,
225 pp. J.A.
1923. The woodcock in Missouri. Ooi., 40: 179-180.
19601
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McKI:½•,v.¾, Passenger Pigeon Missouri in
419
OccI•)v-:½•. 1881. (Endorsement of Forest and Stream's stand against pigeon shootingtournaments.) For. and Stream, 17: 269-270. PZK•, Z. M. 1895. The explorationsof Zebulon Montgomery Pike.... Ed. by Elliott Coues. New York: F. P. Harper, 3 vols. Po•a'•Gm, C.A. 1945. Place names of five southern border counties of Mis'. s0url. Unpubl. M.A. thesis,Univ. Missouri, Columbia,xi + 590 pp.
SASSA•V.•S. 1882. (Wild pigeons Oregoncounty,Mo.) Am. Field, 17: 132. in S^v^Gw, W. 1933-1937. William Savage; Iowa pioneer,diarist, and painter of birds.Ann. Iowa, 3d set., 19: 83-114, 189-220,470-474; 20: 140-150,459-471, 535-543 (publication diary not completed). of Sc}I^•, M. 1905. Etna and Kirkersville. Boston: HoughtonMifflin Co., 157pp.
Sc}Ioo•,cv.•, H. R. 1819. A view of the lead mines of Missouri. New York: C. Wiley & Co., 299 pp. Sc}IooIx:R^•, H. R. 1821. Journal of a tour into the interior of Missouri and
Arkansaw . . . performed in the years 1818 and 1819. London: Sir R. Phillips & Co., 102 pp.
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1955. The Passenger Pigeon; its natural history and extinc-
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W•o•'•, A. H.
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McK•x•Y, Passenger inMissouri Pigeon
[ Vo,1. 77 Auk
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Biology Department, SalemCollege, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.