The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1911-03-24

Chicago to look for migrating. plrus "nion hau
dronned down into the pleasure grounu i,o
their night flight in order to rest ana leeu' Aa
inst entered the park when my a'tehtion ~
attracted to large bird perched on the hlhu W.
o mamie tree and facing the sum- Whlch was Iuss
rising out Of Lake Michigan. MY neal' 49,
q sort of leap for recognized 1t instant! do -.
n.ssenqer pigeon, a bird of which nau ho'
coon q living specimen for at least tWeiVe year
Then instantly l began to DOUBT anu 'nouen'
that nv ewes must be mistaken and that the az
mosphere was magnfyng the bird anu tnat "n"1
was before me was really mourning ooVe
drew closer and then / knew there was io po
sibility of deception. Before me was pe ., Az.
cnacimen OF the male passenger pigeon WIN 'ie
~ .tr,Ltno full on the FURNISHED feathers OF
b,s throat | stood within Is yards OF the piru
For sr,v half an hour and then 1t left the maple
ond went in arrowy fight down the lake snoio
drive toward the heart of the city. nave oA'eA
wondered since what was us late' =,
t, Theodore Roosevelt is deeply interested III
tho outcome of the search for surviving meh
hers, If such there may be- of the passenger pigeon
tribe Mr., Roosevelt knew the blrd "heh he was
how and in his trips afield he always mas KEEP
,Us+chfu, eve open for possible sight OF a
snoc,men Of the species now feared to be extinct
When Mr.. Roosevelt was president OF tne
I1nited States he occasionally went 10 WIN
snot in Virginia where he owned a CABIN. NJ
oal,ed the Mace Pine Knot. While there one DAY
10 cav what he believed to be nine wild pigeons
It would be perfectly proper today LOT MAJ
3 who saw as many pigeons as this toge1nef
Y, shoot one of them-one only-in order TO prov
n beyond peradventure that the trloe sun hae Ga
J. istence. When one simply reports the appear
r. ance Of A. pigeon or of flock OF pigeons ever
q one doubts very naturally the truth OF the 'al
% holding that the mourning dove has been agai
a mistaken for its cousin bird. .
IN President Roosevelt did not have gun WI
q. him on the occasion Of his meeting with "h'
SO he thought were wild pigeons. Ii ne nao
to nrobably would have shot one of them he 10
no one except few scientists and rev 1rleh
m of his discovery. He knew as well as ahyo
mt else did that in the absence OF the PROOF II
Va ,nisbed by a bird in the flesh it would De sald
Of once that he made the common error. NO o
ok knows positively today whether the nine DIT
to which the president saw were or were not p
Ilv senger pigeons Every time that MT RooseV
an. has been TO Pine Knot since he has hoped
oil another sight of the birds which made him g
hat some years ago. u,.
70 John Burroughs heard from his friend In
ger dore Roosevelt, that the nine pigeons had Of
.ro sssaen in Virginia Burroughs believed the st
oct hacause he knew how accurate an observer
nov nature his friend the president was and is.
nor. stories of the pigeons in Virginia led MT.
,oir rougbs TO make inquiries at once In the coun
IN New York state west Of the lower Huo
mi, Wing in the old line of fight of the migra
art n,eeon armies of years ago. There the farm