Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 212, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1911 — LONELY WILD PIGEON [ARTICLE]

LONELY WILD PIGEON

Only Survivor of Species Believed to Be in Chicago. Reward of SSOO Offered for Any Pair, and Public Is Warned: "Don’t Kill This One if You Find IV Chicago.—ls there a wild pigeon in Jackson Park? Is an individual bird of a species once numbered by the millions, but now supposed to be extinct, making Chicago Its summer home and thereby reviving hope that somewhere there are others and that the pigeons one day may come back to their own? v The story of the reappearance of the bird has much to give it the color of truth. Most scientists are con-

vlnced that the wild pigeon, ectopistes migratorius they call it, has gone never to return. The other day, however, Charles E. Hayden, an old-time sportsman and bird student, told Ruthven Deane, president of the Illinois Audubon society, that he had seen a wild pigeon in Jackson Park and that “there was no mistake about it.” About three weeks, ago a high school teacher, a man who has made ornithology a study, reported that he had seen a wild pigeon in Jackson Park. The discovery was recorded in the papers, but the scientists who had run down hundreds of reports of this kind, only to find a mistake had been made, were skeptical to- the point oi disbelief. Now comes Mr. Hayden, who knew the pigeon when Its tribe numbered millions, to make positive statement that a fine male bird of a supposedly extinct race was under Close observa tion by him in Jackson Park for as hour. It was 4:30 o’clock in the morning when Mr. Hayden went “bird studying" in Jackson Park. He was ae founded when he saw the pigeon. H< knew the tribe was supposed to b< extinct, and that a reward of 1500 had been offered for authentic knowledge of the existence of a single nestlnf pair. He made allowance for decep tive lights and shadows, condition! which might exaggerate the common mourning dove to the size and semblance of its bigger relative, and thei was convinced that the stranger wa! the wild pigeon which he had knowx in youth. There was another early morning stroller tn Jackson Park, Attorney F. A. Pennington, and Mr. Hayden called him over to see the bird. Mr. Pennington pronounced the bird a wild pigeon. He is familiar with the bird only from description and picture, but he knows the mourning dove, th! only species with which the pigeon ti likely to be confused, and he knows it welt Mr. Pennington said that barring what appeared to be a.motling of the feathers on the back of the neck of the bird was a wild pigeon to a dot