A. B. Covert of Ann Arbor, Mich., wrote under date of Oct. 27, 1894:
"Prior to the spring of 1881 the wild pigeon was everywhere a common
bird of passage throughout the southern part of Michigan and nested
commonly in the northern part. My home, in 1880, and for a few years
after, was at Cadillac, Mich., and there was at that time a nesting
place near Muskrat Lake in Missaukee County. Thousands of the birds
were killed there. In the spring of 1881 the birds failed to make
their appearance, and since then have been very rare. Nov. 23, 1892,
I secured one male and two young females; these were killed in Scio,
Washtenaw County, Oct. 9, 1893; one male near Ypsilanti, Mich., Sept.
27, 1894; one female killed at Honey Brook, Scio, Washtenaw County.
There is also a female bird in this city that was killed in Livingston
County in October, 1892."
In a bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club, Vol. II, No. 3-4,
July to December, 1898, Mr. A. B. Covert, the club's president, tells
of seeing a flock of about two hundred pigeons. On Oct. 1, 1898, in
Washtenaw County, Mich., he watched a large number of them all day.
Mr. Stewart E. White writes from Ann Arbor under date of Feb. 9, 1894:
"My notebooks are not here so I cannot give exact dates, but I can
remember distinctly every specimen I ever saw. I observed one flock of
about sixty in Kent County in the fall, the last of October or first
of November, 1890. At Mackinac Island at various times in September
of 1889 I saw parts of a large flock, of say two hundred. My field
experience in the western part of Michigan has been quite extensive and
thorough, but these two flocks are all I ever recorded."
F. M. Falconer of Hillsdale, Mich., on Dec. 3, 1904, writes to Mr.
Warren as follows: "During the last week of March, 1892, one of the
students here shot a nice male. There were two together, but only one
was secured. That summer I saw a small flock feeding in some thick
woods along the banks of a stream in which I was fishing, in Chautauqua
County, N. Y. There were eight or ten birds at least, and perhaps many
more, as they scattered along in spots."
Mr. T. E. Douglas of Grayling, Mich., reports that in the year 1900
he saw three Passenger Pigeons on the East Branch of Au Sable River,
Michigan, and about five years previous to that date a flock of ten
was seen around George's Lake, which is eight miles southwest of West
Branch, Michigan.
I also have a record of one pigeon taken by Mr. John H. Sage, in
Portland, Conn., in October, 1889.
In May, 1904, Hon. Chase S. Osborn wrote:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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