No Government Reward for Passenger Pigeon.
Recent widespread newspaper accounts to the effect that the United States Department of Agriculture is offering ten thousand dollars reward to the person finding a passenger or “wood”-pigeon nest containing two eggs, resulted in hundreds of letters being sent to the department.
The report is not based upon facts, as the department has offered no such reward, and there is every reason to believe the passenger pigeon which formerly roamed the country in flocks of millions is extinct. In 1910 about one thousand dollars in rewards was offered by Clark University for the first undisturbed nests of the passenger pigeon to be found in the United States. This was a great stimulus to action. The hunt for this pigeon was fruitless. The offer of rewards was renewed for several years, until it was fully established that the pigeon was extinct.
The passenger pigeon up to 1885 ranged the American continent east of the Rocky Mountains. The mourning dove has often been mistaken for the passenger pigeon,[Pg 66] which in a general way it resembles. However, this bird is quite distinct from the passenger pigeon; it is shorter and has different color markings.
The press reports stated that the now extinct passenger pigeon was valued because of its usefulness in destroying the gipsy moth and other moths and pests which are doing millions of dollars of damage. Although the preservation of this pigeon is much to be desired, it would be of absolutely no value in eliminating the gipsy moth, as the pigeons are almost entirely vegetarian in their diet.