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The Expressions of Emotion in the Pigeons. Iii. the Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes Migra Torius Linn.)

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The Expressions of Emotion in the Pigeons. Iii. the Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes Migra Torius Linn.) 408 CaAm,Emotion in thePassenger Pigeon. [oct.[Auk THE EXPRESSIONS OF EMOTION IN THE PIGEONS. III. THE PASSENGER PIGEON (ECTOPISTES MIGRA TORIUS LINN.). BY WALLACE CRAIG. INTRODUCTION. IF the PassengerPigeon is not yet extinct,it is highlyimportant that there be publishedan accountof its peculiarvoice, for this may be of great assistancein re-discoveringthe birds. Thus, if you tell a boy to look for a bird of the samegeneral appearance as the Mourning Dove but larger, he will be sure to mistake some large-appearingMourning Dove for the PassengerPigeon. But tell him to look for a pigeonthat shrieksand chattersand clucks insteadof cooing,and the boy will be lesslikely to make a mistake. The voice has this further advantageas a mark of identification, that it cannotbe producedin a deadbird, and thus formsan incen- tive to keep the bird alive. If the speciesis extinct,it ismequallyimportant to publishwhat- ever is known of its voice,as a matter of permanentrecord. The PassengerPigeon is well known to have been a unique species in one respect--its prodigiousgregariousness. But the fact is that it was a marked bird in every respect. Eetopistesrepre- sentsa line of evolutionwhich has divergedwidely, in habits at least, from the main paths of Columbinedescent. Its voicewas more distinctivethan that of any other speciesin ProfessorWhit- man'slarge collection of living pigeonsfrom all parts of the world. This markedpeculiarity of the speciesmakes it infinitelyregrettable if the wholerace, throughsheer wantonness, has been annihilated. The accountshitherto published of the voiceand mating behavior of the PassengerPigeon are meagre,largely incorrect,and totally inadequatefor that detailed comparativestudy which scientific considerationsdemand. The best life-history, so far as concerns the mating behavior,is probablythat of Bendire (quotedlargely fromWm. Brewster), but eventhis, •s is seenin thevery manner of its composition,is fragmentary. Mershon has done a great Vol.XXVIII'I1911 ] CR•a•G,Emotion in thePassenger Pigeon. 409 work in collectingscattered records of the species. But accounts of its voiceand gesturesare especiallyscarce. Wilson, for example, makes only this brief statement on the subject: "They have the same cooing notes common to domesticpigeons, but much less of their gesticulations." Even this last brief clause, however, is of value to countervailAudubon's florid description. Audubon has more to say than any other writer on the voiceand gestm'esof the species,but his accountis sofull of errorsthat at the end o]•this paper(p. 423) I shallcriticise it in detail. A criticismof the figures on Audubon'splate will follow the discussionof his text, and a criticismof other publishedfigures will be found on pp. 411,412. The presentstudy of the expressionso]• the PassengerPigeon is also inadequate and, I fear, also incorrect in some details; all that can be said is, that I have made it as truthful and as adequate asI can. I sawthis bird in a wild stateonly onceto my knowledge, in Chicago in 1891,• as recordedby my late lamented friend Dr. Dunn (Dunn, 1895). My studiesof the voiceof the specieswere all made in ProfessorWhitman's aviary, chiefly in the year 1903, a year which was too late to seemuch of the vanishingbirds, yet too early in my own study for me to have a good grasp of the problems. For ProfessorWhitman's aviary containedthat sum- mer no PassengerPigeons in full breedingoperation, but only a few unmated birds, one male mated with a female of his own species,"one mated with a femaleMourning Dove, and one mated with a femaleRing-Dove, none of thesemated birdscarrying their breedingoperations to completion. And as for a grasp of the problems,suffice it to say that sciencehas not yet reachedthe point where it can well understandand record the languageof any bird. My noteswere not publishedwhen first taken, because they werefelt to be so inadequate;now, after severalyears further study of doves,I can better understandthe facts concerningthe PassengerPigeon, but I have forgotten many details. Hence,' the followingnotes are put forth, not with the assurancethat they adequately represent the repertory of this remarkable species, but only with regret that the meagreinformation now to be given is all we are likely to have on the subject. • This occurrence of the species has been overlooked by Mershon in his list of occurrences. 4•0 CgxI%Emotion in thePassenger Pigeon. l.[-AukOct. A. THE FOI•MS or ExrREss•o•. GeneralBearing. As I have said, the PassengerPigeon had in every respectan individuality which marked it off from the other speciesof the family, an individuality which stoodforth in walking, flying, and every other activity, and even when the bird stood silent and still on the perch. ProfessorWhitman says,in a pub- lishedletter (Mershon,p. 199): "Of all the wild pigeonsin the world the PassengerPigeon is my favorite. No other pigeon combinesso many fine qualities in form, color, strength and per- fectionof wing power." And chiefPokagon says (Mershon, p. 49): "It was proverbialwith our fathers that if the Great Spirit in His wisdmncould have createda more elegantbird in plumage,form, and movement,He never did." The bird was a majestic,muscular, trim body; it consistedof a splendidchest and wings,contrasting with rather short legs and small head, and tapering gradually into the long, slendertail. It was eminently a bird of flight; on the ground,it was rather awkward for a pigeon,its legsseeming too short and its massiveshoulders too heavy. In regardto this, as in regardto all other pointswhere practicable, I shalltranscribe original notesverbatim. "All important soundsgiven on perch or nest, they do nothing on ground but feed, female sometimesmaking angry noisewhen quarrelling over food, but I have not known male do even that." In contrast to this lack of easeon the ground, is the ease and nobility of the PassengerPigeon when flying and alsowhen perched aloft. When sitting on a perch in the aviary the male often in- dulged in a grand wing exercise,an impressivedisplay totally differentfrom the flutteringexercise of the otherspecies of pigeonJ "August 1. Male often sits on perch or on ledge and flaps his wings for long time preparatoryto flight, looking about him attentively as he doesso. For a smallpart of the time, especiallyjust at the beginningof each series,wings may be held up without being spread,and very slightly flapped; again, they may be fully spreadand flappedwith the fullest amplitude,the carpi comingwithin about 1• inch over the back. The • I find that I made note of a similar wing exercise once in the Homing Pigeon, and once in the Rock Dove, Columba livia. ¾ol. 1911XXVIII] ] CRAIG,Emotion in thePassenger Pigeon. 411 only reasonthis flapping doesnot lift the bird is that it is not rapid enough, also the bird seemsto hold tightly to perch with its feet. As it is, the whole body, head and tail rise and fall with each stroke. He generally standsobliquely along the perch, so that one wing comesdown on each side of perch, but even then it often happensthat one wing hits the perch with very audible soundat every stroke." This wing flappingseems to have been not merely an exercise but also a display, more or lessconnected with mating, for it was seenchiefly in the breedingseason. The nod of the PassengerPigeon was utterly differentfrom that of the Mourning Dove. The specificmanner of nodding seemed an integral part of the bird's generalbearing. The nod consisted of a movementof the headin a circle,back, up, fprward,and down, as if the bird were trying to hook its bill over something. Often two or three such nods were given with no pausesbetween, fol- lowing one another much more rapidly than in the Mourning Dove, becausebody and tail remainedall the while stationary. Thus the nod, beingperformed by the head alone,fell in with the generalmannerism of the species- the body generallyexecuting strongand amplemovements, the shortand quick glancesand nods being executedby the head alone. To this generalaccount of the bird's bearing,I may appendthe followingscraps of notes,which, in casethe speciesis really extinct, may prove of interest when our bird biographiesbecome more completethan they are now. "Ordinary walking pace of male, 12-13 stepsin 5 seconds." "In eating, female pecks at rate of about 12 pecksin 5 secondson an average,and as head movesthrough considerablearc, its motion is very quick. The mumblingof eachseed, also, is very quick." "Especially active and noisy in early morning." The generalbearing of this speciesought to be shownin the extant drawingsof it, but this has beendone with varyingsuccess. I have seenonly five publishedplates representing the live Pas- sengerPigeon. Of these,the best to showthe form and carriage of the speciesis the photographof a young bird, by Professor Whitman (Mershon,facing p. 198). Fuertes'sfigure of the male (Mershon,frontispiece) is a life-likeportrait of this bird in an atti- tude of alarm or anxious attention; the figure of the featale in 412 Cg.m,Emotion in thePassenger Pigeon. kOcU[-Auk this same plate is less representative. Wilson's figure (the one reproducedin Coues's'Key'), thoughfaulty in many particulars, gives one a general impressionof strong, massivebody, strong wings and shoulders,short legsand small head, all which is truly characteristic. The figuresin Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway (Vol. III, p. 369) and in Audubon,as attemptsto showthe bearingand mannerismof the species,are quite worthless. (A detailed criti- cism of Audubon'splate is given on p. 425.) Enmity. The male Ectopisteswas a particularly quarrelsome bird, ever ready to threaten or strike with his wings (though perhapsnot quite so ready with his beak), and to shout defiance in his loud strident voice. With sucha quick temper, sucha grand air, and suchan unusualvoice and methodof attack, he generally put to flight a pigeon of any other speciesat the first onslaught. Neverthelesshe was a cowardat heart. In short, he was a splen- did bluffer.
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