DCHP-1 Online
wood pigeon Obs. 
a migratory wild pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius, which appeared in immense flocks during August up to the late 19th century, becoming extinct by 1914.
See also: passenger pigeon
- 1792 (1911) Talbot gave a shilling to liberate some wood pigeons I must have otherwise seen and heard fluttering most disagreeably.
- 1820 (1838) I soon perceived that a flock of wood pigeons had settled themselves all round about me. . . .
- 1897 The wild wood pigeons used to visit us from the south in tens of thousands in my early life; so thick did they fly that they could be killed with clubs and sticks . . . of late, that is, for twenty or thirty years, they seem to have left us.
- 1959 Passenger Pigeon [was also called] wood pigeon ("Hudson Bay," Ont.).
- 1792 (1911) Talbot gave a shilling to liberate some wood pigeons I must have otherwise seen and heard fluttering most disagreeably.