University of Chicago Professor of Zoology Charles Otis Whitman feeding his pigeons.
Image 27 of 29
Professor Whitman kneels amid his pigeon flock, holding one bird on his cupped right hand while an avid flicker dips into the feeding bowl. This intimate portrait demonstrates the scientist's deep affection for these subjects of his studies on heredity. None of the birds pictured is a passenger pigeon.
The photograph may have been taken at Whitman's Chicago aviary after he had given up his small flock of passenger pigeons in 1907.
Courtesy Special Collections Research Center, U. of Chicago Library.