pigeon among its closest relatives: DNA in old museum specimens is often degraded and fragmentary, and passenger pigeon specimens have been used in various studies to discover improved methods of analyzing and assembling genomes from such material. DNA samples are often taken from the toe pads of bird skins in museums, as this can be done without causing significant damage to valuable specimens. The passenger pigeon had no known subspecies. Hybridization occurred between the passenger pigeon and the Barbary dove (Streptopelia risoria) in the aviary of Charles Otis Whitman (who owned many of the last captive birds around the turn of the 20th century, and kept them with other pigeon species) but the offspring were infertile. Etymology The genus name, Ectopistes, translates as "moving about" or "wandering", while the specific name, migratorius, indicates its migratory habits. The full binomial can thus be translated as "migratory wanderer". The English common name "passenger pigeon" derives from the French word , which means "to pass by" in a fleeting manner. While the pigeon was extant, the name "passenger pigeon" was used interchangeably with "wild pigeon". The bird also gained some less-frequently used names, including blue pigeon, merne rouck pigeon, wandering long-tailed dove, and wood pigeon. In the 18th century, the passenger pigeon was known as tourte in New France (in modern Canada), but to the French in Europe it was known as tourtre. In modern French, the bird is known as tourte voyageuse or pigeon migrateur, among other names. In the Native American Algonquian languages, the pigeon was called amimi by the Lenape, by the Ojibwe, and by the Kaskaskia Illinois. Other names in indigenous American languages include in Mohawk, and , or "lost dove", in Choctaw. The Seneca people called the pigeon , meaning "big bread", as it was a source of food for their tribes. Chief Simon Pokagon of the Potawatomi stated that his people called the pigeon , and that the Europeans did not adopt native names for the bird, as it reminded them of their domesticated pigeons, instead calling them "wild" pigeons, as they called the native peoples "wild" men. Description The passenger pigeon was sexually dimorphic in size and coloration. It weighed between . The adult male was about in length. It had a bluish-gray head, nape, and hindneck. On the sides of the neck and the upper mantle were iridescent display feathers that have variously been described