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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Passenger Pigeon, by Various, Edited by
+W. B. Mershon
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Passenger Pigeon
+
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: W. B. Mershon
+
+Release Date: January 22, 2014  [eBook #44729]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PASSENGER PIGEON***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Tor Martin Kristiansen, Tom Cosmas, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
+generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
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+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      https://archive.org/details/passengerpigeon00mers
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Whole and fractional parts of numbers are displayed as 6-1/4.
+
+      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PASSENGER PIGEON
+
+
+[Illustration: PASSENGER PIGEON (_Columba Migratoria_)
+
+Upper bird, male; lower, female]
+
+
+THE PASSENGER PIGEON
+
+by
+
+W. B. MERSHON
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Publisher's Logo]
+
+New York The Outing Publishing Company 1907
+
+Copyright, 1907, by W B Mershon
+
+The Outing Press Deposit, N. Y.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+        CHAPTER                                                      PAGE
+
+        Introduction                                                   ix
+
+      I My Boyhood Among the Pigeons                                    1
+
+     II The Passenger Pigeon                                            9
+          _From "American Ornithology," by Alexander Wilson_
+
+    III The Passenger Pigeon                                           25
+          _From "Ornithological Biography," by John James Audubon_
+
+     IV As James Fenimore Cooper Saw It                                41
+
+      V The Wild Pigeon of North America                               48
+          _By Chief Pokagon, in "The Chautauquan"_
+
+     VI The Passenger Pigeon                                           60
+          _From "Life Histories of North American Birds,"
+            by Charles Bendire_
+
+    VII Netting the Pigeons                                            74
+          _By William Brewster, in "The Auk"_
+
+   VIII Efforts to Check the Slaughter                                 77
+          _By Prof. H. B. Roney_
+
+     IX The Pigeon Butcher's Defense                                   93
+          _By E. T. Martin, in "American Field"_
+
+      X Notes of a Vanished Industry                                  105
+
+     XI Recollections of "Old Timers"                                 119
+
+    XII The Last of the Pigeons                                       141
+
+   XIII What Became of the Wild Pigeon?                               163
+          _By Sullivan Cook, in "Forest and Stream"_
+
+    XIV A Novel Theory of Extinction                                  173
+          _By C. H. Ames and Robert Ridgway_
+
+     XV News from John Burroughs                                      179
+
+    XVI The Pigeon in Manitoba                                        186
+          _By George E. Atkinson_
+
+   XVII The Passenger Pigeon in Confinement                           200
+          _By Ruthven Deane, in "The Auk"_
+
+  XVIII Nesting Habits of the Passenger Pigeon                        209
+          _By Dr. Morris Gibbs, in "The Oölogist"_
+
+    XIX Miscellaneous Notes                                           217
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  The Passenger Pigeon                                     _Frontispiece_
+    _By Louis Agassiz Fuertes_
+
+                                                              FACING PAGE
+
+  Audubon Plate (_color_)                                              24
+
+  Passenger Pigeon and Mourning Dove                                   88
+
+  Fac-simile of "Among the Pigeons"                                    92
+
+  H. T. Phillip's Store                                               104
+
+  Band-tailed Pigeon (_color_)                                        130
+
+  Comparative Size of Pigeon and Dove                                 156
+
+  Young Passenger Pigeon                                              198
+
+  Pigeon Net                                                          218
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+For the last three years I have spent most of my leisure time in
+collecting as much material as possible which might help to throw light
+on the oft-repeated query, "What has become of the wild pigeons?" The
+result of this labor of love is scarcely more than a compilation, and
+I am under many obligations to those who have so cheerfully assisted
+me. I have given them credit by name in connection with their various
+contributions, but I wish that I might have been able to give them the
+more finished and literary setting that would have been within the
+reach of a trained writer or scientist. I am merely a business man who
+is interested in the Passenger Pigeon because he loves the outdoors and
+its wild things, and sincerely regrets the cruel extinction of one of
+the most interesting natural phenomena of his own country. If I have
+been able to make a compilation that otherwise would not have been
+available for the interested reader, I need make no further apologies
+for the imperfect manner of my treatment of this subject.
+
+It is hard for us of an older generation to realize that as recently as
+1880 the Passenger Pigeon was thronging in countless millions through
+large areas of the Middle West, and that in our boyhood we could find
+no exaggeration in the records of such earlier observers as Alexander
+Wilson, the ornithologist, who said that these birds associated in
+such prodigious numbers as almost to surpass belief, and that their
+numbers had no parallel among any other feathered tribes on the face
+of the earth; or that one of their "roosts" would kill the trees over
+thousands of acres as completely as if the whole forest had been
+girdled with an ax.
+
+Audubon estimated that an average flock of these pigeons contained a
+billion and a quarter of birds, which consumed more than eight and a
+half million bushels of mast in a day's feeding. They were slain by
+millions during the middle of the last century, and from one region in
+Michigan in one year three million Passenger Pigeons were killed for
+market, while in that roost alone as many more perished because of the
+barbarous methods of hunting them. They supplied a means of living for
+thousands of hunters, who devastated their flocks with nets and guns,
+and even with fire. Yet so vast were their numbers that after thirty
+years of observation Audubon was able to say that "even in the face
+of such dreadful havoc nothing but the diminution of our forests can
+accomplish their decrease."
+
+Many theories have been advanced to account for the disappearance
+of the wild pigeons, among them that their migration may have been
+overwhelmed by some cyclonic disturbance of the atmosphere which
+destroyed their myriads at one blow. The big "nesting" of 1878 in
+Michigan was undoubtedly the last large migration, but the pigeons
+continued to nest infrequently in Michigan and the North for several
+years after that, and until as late as 1886 they were trapped for
+market or for trap-shooting. Therefore the pigeons did not become
+extinct in a day; nor did one tremendous catastrophe wipe them from the
+face of the earth. They gradually became fewer and existed for twenty
+years or more after the date set as that of the final extermination.
+
+At one time the wild pigeons covered the entire north from the Gaspé
+Peninsula to the Red River of the North. Separate nestings and flights
+were of regular yearly occurrence over this vast eastern and northern
+expanse. Gradually civilization, molestation and warfare drove them
+from the Atlantic seaboard west, until Michigan was their last grand
+rendezvous, in which region their mighty hosts congregated for the
+final grand nesting in 1878. As late as 1845 they were quite numerous
+on the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec, but disappeared from there about that
+time.
+
+The habits of the birds were such that they could not thrive singly
+nor in small bodies, but were dependent upon one another, and vast
+communities were necessary to their very existence, while an enormous
+quantity of food was necessary for their sustenance. The cutting off
+of the forests and food supply interfered with their plan of existence
+and drove them into new localities, and the ever increasing slaughter
+could not help but lessen their once vast numbers.
+
+The Passenger Pigeon laid only one egg in its nest, rarely two, and
+although it bred three or four times a year it could not replenish the
+numbers slaughtered by the professional netters. Undoubtedly millions
+of the birds perished at various periods along the Great Lakes country,
+becoming confused in foggy weather and dropping from exhaustion into
+the water, while snow and sleet storms at times caused great mortality
+among the young birds, and even among the old ones, which often arrived
+in the North before winter had passed.
+
+The history of the buffalo is repeated in that of the wild pigeon, the
+extermination of which was inspired by the same motive: the greed of
+man and the pursuit of the almighty dollar. We lock the barn door after
+the horse is stolen. Our white pine forests and timber lands in general
+have been wantonly destroyed with no thought for the future. The
+American people are wasteful. They are just beginning to learn the need
+of economy in the use of that which Nature has flung at their feet.
+When one recalls the destruction of that noble animal, the buffalo,
+frequently for nothing else than so-called sport, or the removal of
+a robe; when one thinks of the burning of forest trees which took
+centuries to grow, merely to clear a piece of land to raise crops, it
+is not to be wondered at that the wild pigeon, insignificant, and not
+even classed as a game bird, so soon became extinct.
+
+
+
+
+The Passenger Pigeon
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+My Boyhood Among the Pigeons
+
+
+My boyhood was made active and wholesome by a love for outdoor pastimes
+that had been bred in me by generations of sport-loving ancestors. From
+which side of the genealogical tree this ardor for field and forest and
+open sky had come with stronger influence I cannot say. While my father
+was the one to use the fowling-piece and cast the fly for the glorious
+speckled trout, my mother was a willing conspirator, for it was she
+who packed the lunch basket, often called us for the start in the gray
+morning, and went along to "hold the horse" while we shot pigeons. And
+when we were bent on a day in the woods in bracing October weather she
+drove old Dolly sedately along the winding trail, while I hunted one
+side of the woods and father hunted the other. On such days we were
+after partridges, of course, ruffed grouse, the king of all game birds.
+Often mother marked them down and told us just where they had crossed
+the road, or whether the bird was hit, for the cloud of smoke from the
+old black powder made seeing guesswork on our part. She loved the dogs,
+too, those good old friends and workers, Sport, Bob, and Ranger.
+
+I remember calling my mother to a window early one morning and
+shouting: "See there! a flock of pigeons! Ah, ha! April fool!" This
+time I did not deceive her with the threadbare trick. The joke was "on
+me" for once. There was a flight of pigeons that morning, the first
+one of the season, and behind the foremost flock another and another
+came streaming. Away from the east side of the river at the north of
+the town, from near Crow Island, they swept like a cloud. Crossing
+the river to the west they reached the woods near Jerome's mill and
+skirted the clearings or passed in waves over the tree tops, back of
+John Winter's farm, and then wheeled to the south. Out of the tongue of
+woodland, just back of the Hermansau Church, they poured, thence over
+the fields, too high to be shot, and then away to the evergreens and
+stately pines of Pine Hill; on, on, on across the Tittabawassee, to
+some feeding ground we knew not how far away.
+
+Now that the pigeons had come they would "fly" every morning. This we
+knew from years of observation in the great migration belt of Michigan.
+They would fly lower to-morrow morning, and in a day or two more sweep
+low enough for the sixteen-gauge and the number eight shot to reach
+them. Sometimes, even now, forty years after the last of the great
+passenger pigeon flights, I fall to day-dreaming and seem to hear
+myself saying in the eager, piping tones of those golden boyhood days:
+
+"Mother, I am going for pigeons to-morrow morning! Do call me if I
+oversleep. I must be awake by four o'clock. We'll have pigeon pot-pie
+to-morrow. I'm going to bed early so as to be sure to be up by
+daybreak. Old Sport is going along to 'fetch' dead birds."
+
+"Hello, dad," cries a voice in my ear, "what are you up to? What are
+you hustling around so for with your old shot pouch and powder-flask?
+There's nothing to shoot this time of the year."
+
+The spell is broken; my own boy fetches his daddy out of his dream,
+and I am fairly caught in the act of making an old fool of myself. My
+youngsters are counting the days before May first when I have promised
+to take them trout-fishing, and the smallest boy found his first gun in
+his stocking last Christmas. But they can know nothing at all about the
+joys and excitement of pigeon shooting in the vanished days when these
+birds fairly darkened the sky above our old homestead. But I try to
+tell them what we used to do and my story sounds something like this:
+
+"It is early in the spring, so early that a bunch of snow may yet
+be found on the north side of the largest of the fallen trees in
+the woods. Puddles that the melting snow left in the hollows of the
+clearing are fringed with ice this morning, and we look around and tell
+each other, 'There was a frost last night.' The mud in the road has
+stiffened, and the rutted cattle tracks are also streaked and barred
+with ice. Yet winter has gone and spring is here, for the buds are
+swelling on the twigs of the elms and the pussy willows show their
+dainty, silvery signals to tell us that the vernal equinox has come and
+gone.
+
+"If the springtime is still young, so is the day. Light is breaking
+in the gray sky of dawn as we hurry along the slippery, sticky road.
+We must make haste to the point of woods, by John Winter's clearing,
+before full daybreak or the pigeons will be flying and we will miss the
+early flocks which always keep nearest the ground.
+
+"You may be curious to know what we look like as we trudge along in
+Indian file, eagerly chatting about a kind of sport which this later
+generation knows nothing about. I am a chunk of a country lad, topped
+by a woolen cap with ear-tabs pulled down over my ears, a tippet around
+my neck, yarn mittens on my hands, which are sure to be badly skinned
+and chapped this time of year from playing 'knuckle-down-tight.'
+
+"My 'every-day pants' are tucked into a pair of calf-skin boots with
+square pieces of red leather for the tops, an old-fashioned adornment
+dear to Young America of my day. My old Irish water spaniel 'Sport' is
+tagging behind or charging frantically ahead; my gun is a sixteen-gauge
+muzzle loader, stub and twist barrels, with dogs' heads for the hammers.
+
+"Dangling from one shoulder is a leather shot pouch that cuts off
+one ounce of number eights for a load. The sides of this pouch are
+embossed, on the one a group of English woodcock, on the other a
+setter rampant. Hanging at my left side by a green cord with a tassel
+or two is my fluted copper powder flask, ready to measure out two and
+three-fourths drams of coarse Dupont or Curtis & Harvey powder.
+
+"My pockets are full of Ely's black-edged wads, for I am a young
+nabob of sportsmen, let me tell you, and I scorn to use tow or bits
+of newspaper for wadding. My vest pocket holds the caps, G. D.'s or
+Ely's again, for didn't I tell you that I was a nabob. The _pièce de
+résistance_ of this outfit is the game bag, the pride of my eye, for
+it was a Christmas present, and this is its maiden shooting trip.
+Suspended over the left shoulder so that it will hang well back of
+the right hip, the strap that carries it is broad and with many holes
+for the wondrous buckle which can be shifted to hang it in the most
+comfortable place, wherever that is, for when it is loaded with game it
+will choke me almost to death, no matter how I adjust it. This noble
+bag has two pockets, one of them for luncheon, and on the outside is a
+netted pocket, easy to get into and keeping the birds cool. I nearly
+forgot to mention its magnificent fringe, which hangs down from both
+sides and the bottom like the war-bags of an Indian chief.
+
+"My companions are rigged out in much the same fashion. They are grown
+men, however, for I don't remember any other boys who shot pigeons
+with me. Holabird or khaki hunting suits are as yet unknown, and even
+corduroy coats are rare. The powder horn is seen as often as the copper
+flask, and one hunter has a shot belt with two compartments instead of
+the English pouch. Of guns the assortment is as varied as the number of
+hunters, but the old, hard-kicking army musket with its iron ramrod is
+more popular than any other arm.
+
+"We reach the edge of the clearing not a minute too soon. Now and then
+a distant shot tells us that we are not the first hunters out afield
+this morning. The guns are cracking everywhere along the road that
+skirts the woodland, and back in, close to the 'chopping,' some better
+wing-shots are posted by the openings into the woods where the birds
+fly lower, but where the shooting is more difficult. It is largely
+of the 'pick your bird' style, for the flight of a pigeon is very
+swift, and when they are darting among the tree-tops of a small forest
+opening, rare skill is required to bag one's birds.
+
+"I prefer to take the flocks, even though they offer me more distant
+targets, and soon my gun-barrels are as hot as those of the rest of the
+skirmishers. Sometimes two or three birds drop from a flock at a single
+discharge, and then several shots may not fetch from on high more than
+one or two of the long tail-feathers spinning and twisting to the
+ground. It is fascinating to watch the whirling, shining descent of one
+of these feathers, and I pick up one and stick it in my cap as a matter
+of habit.
+
+"This kind of pigeon shooting takes a good gun and ammunition to kill
+a big bag as we bang away at long range at the birds on their way to
+the morning feeding-ground. The flight is over by half-past six o'clock
+and I am home by seven o'clock ready for breakfast and then to scamper
+off to school.
+
+"The pigeons in this particular locality have followed the same routine
+as long as I have known them. They only fly in the morning, always
+going in the same direction, and I can't recall seeing them coming back
+again, or flying later in the day. This habit holds until the young
+squabs are in the nests in June, after which we are likely to find
+pigeons almost anywhere, for their feeding grounds become scattered and
+local.
+
+"One thing that annoys me in these brave days of youth and sport is
+the poacher, the low-down fellow who steals my birds. I am reckoned a
+pretty good shot, and I have a first-rate gun, but I am only a boy, so
+the pigeon thief thinks I am fair picking, and he saves his ammunition
+by claiming every bird that drops anywhere near him.
+
+"Another smart dodge of his is to fire into a flock ahead or behind
+the one I am shooting at and then claim whatever birds fall as the
+quarry of both our guns. If he is not too big I try to lick him, but
+generally I have to submit to the rascality unless I can persuade a
+grown-up friend to take my part. Sometimes these villains hang around
+my shooting ground without any guns at all, and pick up as many birds
+as I do. Then I hunt around for a father or an uncle to reinforce my
+protests and there is a pretty row which ends in the interloper taking
+to his heels to wait for a more propitious occasion.
+
+"When we are ready to carry our birds home we pull out the four long
+tail-feathers and knot them together at the tips. Then the quill ends
+are stuck through the soft part of the lower mandible, and the birds
+are strung together, eight or ten in a string. These strings are
+bunched together by tying the quill ends of the feathers, and we have
+our game festooned in compact shape for the triumphal march homeward
+bound."
+
+Alas, the pigeons and the frosty morning hunts and the delectable
+pigeon-pie are gone, no more to return. They are numbered with those
+recollections which help to convince me that the boys of to-day don't
+have as good times as we youngsters did in the prime of our busy
+outdoor world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+The Passenger Pigeon
+
+(_Columba Migratoria_)
+
+From "American Ornithology," by Alexander Wilson
+
+
+This remarkable bird merits a distinguished place in the annals of our
+feathered tribes--a claim to which I shall endeavor to do justice;
+and, though it would be impossible, in the bounds allotted to this
+account, to relate all I have seen and heard of this species, yet no
+circumstance shall be omitted with which I am acquainted (however
+extraordinary some of these may appear) that may tend to illustrate its
+history.
+
+The wild pigeon of the United States inhabits a wide and extensive
+region of North America, on this side of the Great Stony Mountains,
+beyond which, to the westward, I have not heard of their being seen.
+According to Mr. Hutchins, they abound in the country around Hudson's
+Bay, where they usually remain as late as December, feeding, when the
+ground is covered with snow, on the buds of the juniper. They spread
+over the whole of Canada; were seen by Captain Lewis and his party near
+the Great Falls of the Missouri, upwards of two thousand five hundred
+miles from its mouth, reckoning the meanderings of the river; were also
+met with in the interior of Louisiana by Colonel Pike; and extend their
+range as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, occasionally visiting or
+breeding in almost every quarter of the United States.
+
+But the most remarkable characteristic of these birds is their
+associating together, both in their migrations, and also during the
+period of incubation, in such prodigious numbers, as almost to surpass
+belief; and which has no parallel among any other of the feathered
+tribes on the face of the earth, with which all naturalists are
+acquainted. These migrations appear to be undertaken rather in quest
+of food, than merely to avoid the cold of the climate, since we find
+them lingering in the northern regions, around Hudson's Bay, so late
+as December; and since their appearance is so casual and irregular,
+sometimes not visiting certain districts for several years in any
+considerable numbers, while at other times they are innumerable. I
+have witnessed these migrations in the Genesee country, often in
+Pennsylvania, and also in various parts of Virginia, with amazement;
+but all that I had then seen of them were mere straggling parties,
+when compared with the congregated millions which I have since beheld
+in our Western forests, in the States of Ohio, Kentucky, and the
+Indiana territory. These fertile and extensive regions abound with
+the nutritious beechnut, which constitutes the chief food of the
+wild pigeon. In seasons when these nuts are abundant, corresponding
+multitudes of pigeons may be confidently expected. It sometimes happens
+that, having consumed the whole produce of the beech trees, in an
+extensive district, they discover another, at the distance perhaps of
+sixty or eighty miles, to which they regularly repair every morning,
+and return as regularly in the course of the day, or in the evening,
+to their place of general rendezvous, or as it is usually called, the
+roosting place. These roosting places are always in the woods, and
+sometimes occupy a large extent of forest. When they have frequented
+one of these places for some time the appearance it exhibits is
+surprising. The ground is covered to the depth of several inches with
+their dung; all the tender grass and underwood destroyed; the surface
+strewed with large limbs of trees, broken down by the weight of the
+birds clustering one above another; and the trees themselves, for
+thousands of acres, killed as completely as if girdled with an ax.
+The marks of this desolation remain for many years on the spot; and
+numerous places could be pointed out, where, for several years after,
+scarcely a single vegetable made its appearance.
+
+When these roosts are first discovered, the inhabitants, from
+considerable distances, visit them in the night with guns, clubs, long
+poles, pots of sulphur, and various other engines of destruction. In
+a few hours they fill many sacks, and load their horses with them.
+By the Indians, a pigeon roost, or breeding place, is considered an
+important source of national profit and dependence for the season; and
+all their active ingenuity is exercised on the occasion. The breeding
+place differs from the former in its greater extent. In the western
+countries above mentioned, these are generally in beech woods, and
+often extend, in nearly a straight line across the country for a great
+way. Not far from Shelbyville, in the State of Kentucky, about five
+years ago, there was one of these breeding places, which stretched
+through the woods in nearly a north and south direction; was several
+miles in breadth, and was said to be upwards of forty miles in extent!
+In this tract almost every tree was furnished with nests, wherever
+the branches could accommodate them. The pigeons made their first
+appearance there about the 10th of April, and left it altogether, with
+their young, before the 29th of May.
+
+As soon as the young were fully grown, and before they left the nests,
+numerous parties of the inhabitants from all parts of the adjacent
+country came with wagons, axes, beds, cooking utensils, many of them
+accompanied by the greater part of their families, and encamped for
+several days at this immense nursery. Several of them informed me that
+the noise in the woods was so great as to terrify their horses, and
+that it was difficult for one person to hear another speak without
+bawling in his ear. The ground was strewed with broken limbs of trees,
+eggs, and young squab pigeons, which had been precipitated from above,
+and on which herds of hogs were fattening. Hawks, buzzards, and eagles
+were sailing about in great numbers, and seizing the squabs from
+their nests at pleasure; while from twenty feet upwards to the tops
+of the trees the view through the woods presented a perpetual tumult
+of crowding and fluttering multitudes of pigeons, their wings roaring
+like thunder, mingled with the frequent crash of falling timber; for
+now the ax-men were at work cutting down those trees that seemed to be
+most crowded with nests, and contrived to fell them in such a manner
+that, in their descent, they might bring down several others; by which
+means the falling of one large tree sometimes produced two hundred
+squabs, little inferior in size to the old ones, and almost one mass
+of fat. On some single trees upwards of one hundred nests were found,
+each containing _one_ young only; a circumstance in the history of
+this bird not generally known to naturalists. It was dangerous to walk
+under these flying and fluttering millions, from the frequent fall of
+large branches, broken down by the weight of the multitudes above,
+and which, in their descent, often destroyed numbers of the birds
+themselves; while the clothes of those engaged in traversing the woods
+were completely covered with the excrements of the pigeons.
+
+These circumstances were related to me by many of the most respectable
+part of the community in that quarter, and were confirmed, in part, by
+what I myself witnessed. I passed for several miles through this same
+breeding place, where every tree was spotted with nests, the remains of
+those above described. In many instances I counted upwards of ninety
+nests on a single tree, but the pigeons had abandoned this place for
+another, sixty or eighty miles off towards Green River, where they
+were said at that time to be equally numerous. From the great numbers
+that were constantly passing overhead to or from that quarter, I had
+no doubt of the truth of this statement. The mast had been chiefly
+consumed in Kentucky, and the pigeons, every morning a little before
+sunrise, set out for the Indiana territory, the nearest part of which
+was about sixty miles distant. Many of these returned before ten
+o'clock, and the great body generally appeared on their return a little
+after noon.
+
+I had left the public road to visit the remains of the breeding place
+near Shelbyville, and was traversing the woods with my gun, on my
+way to Frankfort, when, about one o'clock, the pigeons, which I had
+observed flying the greater part of the morning northerly, began to
+return in such immense numbers as I never before had witnessed. Coming
+to an opening by the side of a creek called the Benson, where I had a
+more uninterrupted view, I was astonished at their appearance. They
+were flying with great steadiness and rapidity at a height beyond
+gunshot in several strata deep, and so close together that could shot
+have reached them one discharge could not have failed of bringing down
+several individuals. From right to left, far as the eye could reach,
+the breadth of this vast procession extended, seeming everywhere
+equally crowded. Curious to determine how long this appearance would
+continue, I took out my watch to note the time, and sat down to,
+observe them. It was then half-past one. I sat for more than an hour,
+but, instead of a diminution of this prodigious procession, it seemed
+rather to increase both in numbers and rapidity, and, anxious to reach
+Frankfort before night, I rose and went on. About four o'clock in
+the afternoon I crossed the Kentucky River at the town of Frankfort,
+at which time the living torrent above my head seemed as numerous
+and as extensive as ever. Long after this I observed them in large
+bodies that continued to pass for six or eight minutes, and these
+again were followed by other detached bodies, all moving in the same
+southeast direction, till after six in the evening. The great breadth
+of front which this mighty multitude preserved would seem to intimate
+a corresponding breadth of their breeding place, which, by several
+gentlemen who had lately passed through part of it, was stated to me
+at several miles. It was said to be in Green County, and that the
+young began to fly about the middle of March. On the seventeenth of
+April, forty-nine miles beyond Danville, and not far from Green River,
+I crossed this same breeding place, where the nests, for more than
+three miles, spotted every tree; the leaves not being yet out I had a
+fair prospect of them, and was really astonished at their numbers. A
+few bodies of pigeons lingered yet in different parts of the woods, the
+roaring of whose wings were heard in various quarters around me.
+
+All accounts agree in stating that each nest contains only one young
+squab. These are so extremely fat that the Indians, and many of the
+whites, are accustomed to melt down the fat for domestic purposes as a
+substitute for butter and lard. At the time they leave the nest they
+are nearly as heavy as the old ones, but become much leaner after they
+are turned out to shift for themselves.
+
+It is universally asserted in the western countries that the pigeons,
+though they have only one young at a time, breed thrice, and sometimes
+four times in the same season; the circumstances already mentioned
+render this highly probable. It is also worthy of observation that
+this takes place during the period when acorns, beechnuts, etc., are
+scattered about in the greatest abundance and mellowed by the frost.
+But they are not confined to these alone; buckwheat, hempseed, Indian
+corn, hollyberries, hackberries, huckleberries, and many others furnish
+them with abundance at almost all seasons. The acorns of the live
+oak are also eagerly sought after by these birds, and rice has been
+frequently found in individuals killed many hundred miles to the
+northward of the nearest rice plantation. The vast quantity of mast
+which these multitudes consume is a serious loss to the bears, pigs,
+squirrels, and other dependents on the fruits of the forest. I have
+taken from the crop of a single wild pigeon a good handful of the
+kernels of beechnuts, intermixed with acorns and chestnuts. To form a
+rough estimate of the daily consumption of one of these immense flocks
+let us first attempt to calculate the numbers of that above mentioned,
+as seen in passing between Frankfort and the Indiana territory. If we
+suppose this column to have been one mile in breadth (and I believe it
+to have been much more), and that it moved at the rate of one mile in
+a minute, four hours, the time it continued passing, would make its
+whole length two hundred and forty miles. Again, supposing that each
+square yard of this moving body comprehended three pigeons, the square
+yards in the whole space, multiplied by three, would give two thousand
+two hundred and thirty millions, two hundred and seventy-two thousand
+pigeons!--an almost inconceivable multitude, and yet probably far below
+the actual amount. Computing each of these to consume half a pint of
+mast daily, the whole quantity at this rate would equal seventeen
+millions, four hundred and twenty-four thousand bushels per day! Heaven
+has wisely and graciously given to these birds rapidity of flight and
+a disposition to range over vast uncultivated tracts of the earth,
+otherwise they must have perished in the districts where they resided,
+or devoured up the whole productions of agriculture, as well as those
+of the forests.
+
+A few observations on the mode of flight of these birds must not be
+omitted. The appearance of large detached bodies of them in the air
+and the various evolutions they display are strikingly picturesque and
+interesting. In descending the Ohio by myself in the month of February
+I often rested on my oars to contemplate their aërial manoeuvres. A
+column, eight or ten miles in length, would appear from Kentucky,
+high in air, steering across to Indiana. The leaders of this great
+body would sometimes gradually vary their course until it formed a
+large bend of more than a mile in diameter, those behind tracing the
+exact route of their predecessors. This would continue sometimes long
+after both extremities were beyond the reach of sight, so that the
+whole, with its glittery undulations, marked a space on the face of
+the heavens resembling the windings of a vast and majestic river.
+When this bend became very great the birds, as if sensible of the
+unnecessary circuitous course they were taking, suddenly changed their
+direction, so that what was in column before, became an immense front,
+straightening all its indentures, until it swept the heavens in one
+vast and infinitely extended line. Other lesser bodies also united with
+each other as they happened to approach with such ease and elegance
+of evolution, forming new figures, and varying these as they united
+or separated, that I never was tired of contemplating them. Sometimes
+a hawk would make a sweep on a particular part of the column from
+a great height, when, almost as quick as lightning, that part shot
+downwards out of the common track, but soon rising again, continued
+advancing at the same height as before. This inflection was continued
+by those behind, who, on arriving at this point, dived down, almost
+perpendicularly, to a great depth, and rising, followed the exact path
+of those that went before. As these vast bodies passed over the river
+near me, the surface of the water, which was before smooth as glass,
+appeared marked with innumerable dimples, occasioned by the dropping of
+their dung, resembling the commencement of a shower of large drops of
+rain or hail.
+
+Happening to go ashore one charming afternoon, to purchase some milk at
+a house that stood near the river, and while talking with the people
+within doors, I was suddenly struck with astonishment at a loud rushing
+roar, succeeded by instant darkness, which, on the first moment, I
+took for a tornado about to overwhelm the house and everything around
+in destruction. The people, observing my surprise, coolly said: "It
+is only the pigeons"; and on running out I beheld a flock, thirty or
+forty yards in width, sweeping along very low between the house and the
+mountain, or height, that formed the second bank of the river. These
+continued passing for more than a quarter of an hour, and at length
+varied their bearing so as to pass over the mountain, behind which they
+disappeared before the rear came up.
+
+In the Atlantic States, though they never appear in such unparalleled
+multitudes, they are sometimes very numerous, and great havoc is
+then made amongst them with the gun, the clap net, and various other
+implements of destruction. As soon as it is ascertained in a town that
+the pigeons are flying numerously in the neighborhood, the gunners
+rise _en masse_, the clap nets are spread out on suitable situations,
+commonly on an open height in an old buckwheat field; four or five
+live pigeons, with their eyelids sewed up, are fastened on a movable
+stick--a small hut of branches is fitted up for the fowler at the
+distance of forty or fifty yards--by the pulling of a string the stick
+on which the pigeons rest is alternately elevated and depressed, which
+produces a fluttering of their wings similar to that of birds just
+alighting; this being perceived by the passing flocks they descend with
+great rapidity, and, finding corn, buckwheat, etc., strewed about,
+begin to feed, and are instantly, by the pulling of a cord, covered by
+the net. In this manner ten, twenty, and even thirty dozen have been
+caught at one sweep. Meantime the air is darkened with large bodies
+of them moving in various directions; the woods also swarm with them
+in search of acorns; and the thundering of musketry is perpetual on
+all sides from morning to night. Wagon loads of them are poured into
+market, where they sell from fifty to twenty-five and even twelve cents
+per dozen; and pigeons become the order of the day at dinner, breakfast
+and supper, until the very name becomes sickening. When they have been
+kept alive and fed for some time on corn and buckwheat their flesh
+acquires great superiority; but, in their common state, they are dry
+and blackish and far inferior to the full grown young ones or squabs.
+
+The nest of the wild pigeon is formed of a few dry slender twigs,
+carelessly put together, and with so little concavity that the young
+one, when half grown, can easily be seen from below. The eggs are pure
+white. Great numbers of hawks, and sometimes the bald eagle himself,
+hover above those breeding places, and seize the old or the young
+from the nest amidst the rising multitudes, and with the most daring
+effrontery. The young, when beginning to fly, confine themselves to
+the under part of the tall woods where there is no brush, and where
+nuts and acorns are abundant, searching among the leaves for mast,
+and appear like a prodigious torrent rolling through the woods, every
+one striving to be in the front. Vast numbers of them are shot while
+in this situation. A person told me that he once rode furiously into
+one of these rolling multitudes and picked up thirteen pigeons which
+had been trampled to death by his horse's feet. In a few minutes
+they will beat the whole nuts from a tree with their wings, while
+all is a scramble, both above and below, for the same. They have the
+same cooing notes common to domestic pigeons, but much less of their
+gesticulations. In some flocks you will find nothing but young ones,
+which are easily distinguishable by their motley dress. In others they
+will be mostly females, and again great multitudes of males with few
+or no females. I cannot account for this in any other way than that,
+during the time of incubation, the males are exclusively engaged in
+procuring food, both for themselves and their mates, and the young,
+being yet unable to undertake these extensive excursions, associate
+together accordingly. But even in winter I know of several species
+of birds who separate in this manner, particularly the red-winged
+starling, among whom thousands of old males may be found with few or no
+young or females along with them.
+
+Stragglers from these immense armies settle in almost every part of
+the country, particularly among the beech woods and in the pine and
+hemlock woods of the eastern and northern parts of the continent. Mr.
+Pennant informs us that they breed near Moose Fort, at Hudson's Bay, in
+N. latitude 51 degrees, and I myself have seen the remains of a large
+breeding place as far south as the country of the Choctaws, in latitude
+32 degrees. In the former of these places they are said to remain until
+December; from which circumstance it is evident that they are not
+regular in their migrations like many other species, but rove about as
+scarcity of food urges them. Every spring, however, as well as fall,
+more or less of them are seen in the neighborhood of Philadelphia; but
+it is only once in several years that they appear in such formidable
+bodies; and this commonly when the snows are heavy to the north, the
+winter here more than usually mild, and acorns, etc., abundant.
+
+The passenger pigeon is sixteen inches long, and twenty-four inches in
+extent; bill, black; nostril, covered by a high rounding protuberance;
+eye, brilliant fiery orange; orbit, or space surrounding it, purplish
+flesh-colored skin; head, upper part of the neck and chin, a fine
+slate blue, lightest on the chin; throat, breast, and sides, as far as
+the thighs, a reddish hazel; lower part of the neck and sides of the
+same, resplendent changeable gold, green, and purplish crimson, the
+last named most predominant; the ground color, slate; the plumage of
+this part is of a peculiar structure, ragged at the ends; belly and
+vent, white; lower part of the breast, fading into a pale vinaceous
+red; thighs, the same; legs and feet, lake, seamed with white; back,
+rump, and tail-coverts, dark slate, spotted on the shoulders with
+a few scattered marks of black; the scapulars, tinged with brown;
+greater coverts, light slate; primaries and secondaries, dull black,
+the former tipped and edged with brownish white; tail, long, and
+greatly cuneiform, all the feathers tapering towards the point, the
+two middle ones plain deep black, the other five, on each side, hoary
+white, lightest near the tips, deepening into bluish near the bases,
+where each is crossed on the inner vane with a broad spot of black,
+and nearer the root with another of ferruginous; primaries edged with
+white; bastard wing, black.
+
+The female is about half an inch shorter, and an inch less in extent;
+breast, cinerous brown; upper part of the neck, inclining to ash; the
+spot of changeable gold, green, and carmine, much less, and not so
+brilliant; tail coverts, brownish slate; naked orbits, slate colored;
+in all other respects like the male in color, but less vivid and more
+tinged with brown; the eye not so brilliant an orange. In both the tail
+has only twelve feathers.
+
+[Illustration: PASSENGER PIGEON (_Columba Migratoria_)
+
+Upper bird, female; lower, male
+
+_Reproduced from the John J. Audubon Plate_]
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+The Passenger Pigeon
+
+From "Ornithological Biography," by John James Audubon
+
+
+The Passenger Pigeon, or, as it is usually named in America, the Wild
+Pigeon, moves with extreme rapidity, propelling itself by quickly
+repeated flaps of the wings, which it brings more or less near to the
+body, according to the degree of velocity which is required. Like
+the domestic pigeon, it often flies, during the love season, in a
+circling manner, supporting itself with both wings angularly elevated,
+in which position it keeps them until it is about to alight. Now and
+then, during these circular flights, the tips of the primary quills
+of each wing are made to strike against each other, producing a smart
+rap, which may be heard at a distance of thirty or forty yards. Before
+alighting, the wild pigeon, like the Carolina parrot and a few other
+species of birds, breaks the force of its flight by repeated flappings,
+as if apprehensive of receiving injury from coming too suddenly into
+contact with the branch or the spot of ground on which it intends to
+settle.
+
+I have commenced my description of this species with the above account
+of its flight, because the most important facts connected with its
+habits relate to its migrations. These are entirely owing to the
+necessity of procuring food, and are not performed with the view of
+escaping the severity of a northern latitude, or of seeking a southern
+one for the purpose of breeding. They consequently do not take place at
+any fixed period or season of the year. Indeed, it sometimes happens
+that a continuance of a sufficient supply of food in one district will
+keep these birds absent from another for years. I know, at least, to a
+certainty, that in Kentucky they remained for several years constantly,
+and were nowhere else to be found. They all suddenly disappeared one
+season when the mast was exhausted and did not return for a long
+period. Similar facts have been observed in other States.
+
+Their great power of flight enables them to survey and pass over an
+astonishing extent of country in a very short time. This is proved
+by facts well-known in America. Thus, pigeons have been killed in
+the neighborhood of New York, with their crops full of rice, which
+they must have collected in the fields of Georgia and Carolina, these
+districts being the nearest in which they could possibly have procured
+a supply of that kind of food. As their power of digestion is so great
+that they will decompose food entirely in twelve hours, they must in
+this case have traveled between three hundred and four hundred miles in
+six hours, which shows their power of speed to be at an average about
+one mile in a minute. A velocity such as this would enable one of these
+birds, were it so inclined, to visit the European continent in less
+than three days.
+
+This great power of flight is seconded by as great a power of vision,
+which enables them, as they travel at that swift rate, to inspect the
+country below, discover their food with facility, and thus attain the
+object for which their journey has been undertaken. This I have also
+proved to be the case, by having observed them, when passing over a
+sterile part of the country, or one scantily furnished with food suited
+to them, keep high in the air, flying with an extended front, so as
+to enable them to survey hundreds of acres at once. On the contrary,
+when the land is richly covered with food, or the trees abundantly hung
+with mast, they fly low, in order to discover the part most plentifully
+supplied.
+
+Their body is of an elongated oval form, steered by a long, well-plumed
+tail, and propelled by well-set wings, the muscles of which are very
+large and powerful for the size of the bird. When an individual is seen
+gliding through the woods and close to the observer, it passes like a
+thought, and on trying to see it again, the eye searches in vain; the
+bird is gone.
+
+The multitudes of wild pigeons in our woods are astonishing. Indeed,
+after having viewed them so often, and under so many circumstances,
+I even now feel inclined to pause, and assure myself that what I am
+going to relate is fact. Yet I have seen it all, and that, too, in the
+company of persons who, like myself, were struck with amazement.
+
+In the autumn of 1813, I left my house at Henderson, on the banks of
+the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. In passing over the Barrens a few
+miles beyond Hardensburgh, I observed the pigeons flying from northeast
+to southwest, in greater numbers than I thought I had ever seen them
+before, and feeling an inclination to count the flocks that might
+pass within the reach of my eye in one hour, I dismounted, seated
+myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my pencil, making a dot
+for every flock that passed. In a short time, finding the task which
+I had undertaken impracticable, as the birds poured in in countless
+multitudes, I rose, and counting the dots then put down, found that one
+hundred and sixty-three had been made in twenty-one minutes. I traveled
+on, and still met more the farther I proceeded. The air was literally
+filled with pigeons; the light of noonday was obscured as by an
+eclipse; the dung fell in spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow; and
+the continued buzz of wings had a tendency to lull my senses to repose.
+
+Whilst waiting for dinner at Young's Inn, at the confluence of Salt
+River with the Ohio, I saw, at my leisure, immense legions still
+going by, with a front reaching far beyond the Ohio on the west, and
+the beechwood forests directly on the east of me. Not a single bird
+alighted; for not a nut or acorn was that year to be seen in the
+neighborhood. They consequently flew so high, that different trials to
+reach them with a capital rifle proved ineffectual; nor did the reports
+disturb them in the least. I cannot describe to you the extreme beauty
+of their aërial evolutions, when a hawk chanced to press upon the rear
+of the flock. At once, like a torrent, and with a noise like thunder,
+they rushed into a compact mass, pressing upon each other towards the
+center. In these almost solid masses, they darted forward in undulating
+and angular lines, descended and swept close over the earth with
+inconceivable velocity, mounted perpendicularly so as to resemble a
+vast column, and, when high, were seen wheeling and twisting within
+their continued lines, which then resembled the coils of a gigantic
+serpent.
+
+Before sunset I reached Louisville, distant from Hardensburgh
+fifty-five miles. The pigeons were still passing in undiminished
+numbers, and continued to do so for three days in succession. The
+people were all in arms. The banks of the Ohio were crowded with men
+and boys, incessantly shooting at the pilgrims, which there flew lower
+as they passed the river. Multitudes were thus destroyed. For a week or
+more, the population fed on no other flesh than that of pigeons, and
+talked of nothing but pigeons. The atmosphere, during this time, was
+strongly impregnated with the peculiar odor which emanates from the
+species.
+
+It is extremely interesting to see flock after flock performing
+exactly the same evolutions which had been traced as it were in the
+air by a preceding flock. Thus, should a hawk have charged on a group
+at a certain spot, the angles, curves and undulations that have been
+described by the birds, in their efforts to escape from the dreaded
+talons of the plunderer, are undeviatingly followed by the next group
+that comes up. Should the bystander happen to witness one of these
+affrays, and, struck with the rapidity and elegance of the motions
+exhibited, feel desirous of seeing them repeated, his wishes will be
+gratified if he only remain in the place until the next group comes up.
+
+It may not, perhaps, be out of place to attempt an estimate of the
+number of pigeons contained in one of those mighty flocks, and of
+the quantity of food daily consumed by its members. The inquiry will
+tend to show the astonishing beauty of the great Author of Nature in
+providing for the wants of His creatures. Let us take a column of one
+mile in breadth, which is far below the average size, and suppose it
+passing over us without interruption for three hours, at the rate
+mentioned above of one mile in a minute. This will give a parallelogram
+of one hundred and eighty by one, covering one hundred and eighty
+square miles. Allowing two pigeons to the square yard, we have one
+billion, one hundred and fifty millions, one hundred and thirty-six
+thousand pigeons in one flock. As every pigeon daily consumes fully
+half a pint of food, the quantity necessary for supplying this vast
+multitude must be eight millions, seven hundred and twelve thousand
+bushels per day.
+
+As soon as the pigeons discover a sufficiency of food to entice them
+to alight, they fly around in circles, reviewing the country below.
+During their evolutions, on such occasions, the dense mass which they
+form exhibits a beautiful appearance, as it changes its direction, now
+displaying a glistening sheet of azure, when the backs of the birds
+come simultaneously into view, and anon, suddenly presenting a mass
+of rich deep purple. They then pass lower, over the woods, and for
+a moment are lost among the foliage, but again emerge, and are seen
+gliding aloft. They now alight, but the next moment, as if suddenly
+alarmed, they take to wing, producing by the flapping of their wings
+a noise like the roar of distant thunder, and sweep through the
+forests to see if danger is near. Hunger, however, soon brings them
+to the ground. When alighted, they are seen industriously throwing up
+the withered leaves in quest of the fallen mast. The rear ranks are
+continually rising, passing over the main body, and alighting in front,
+in such rapid succession, that the whole flock seems still on the wing.
+The quantity of ground thus swept is astonishing, and so completely has
+it been cleared, that the gleaner who might follow in their rear would
+find his labor completely lost. Whilst feeding, their avidity is at
+times so great that in attempting to swallow a large acorn or nut, they
+are seen gasping for a long while, as if in agonies of suffocation.
+
+On such occasions, when the woods are filled with these pigeons,
+they are killed in immense numbers, although no apparent diminution
+ensues. About the middle of the day, after their repast is finished,
+they settle on the trees, to enjoy rest, and digest their food. On the
+ground they walk with ease, as well as on the branches, frequently
+jerking their beautiful tail, and moving the neck backwards and
+forwards in the most graceful manner. As the sun begins to sink beneath
+the horizon, they depart _en masse_ for the roosting place, which not
+infrequently is hundreds of miles distant, as has been ascertained by
+persons who have kept an account of their arrivals and departures.
+
+Let us now, kind reader, inspect their place of nightly rendezvous.
+One of these curious roosting places, on the banks of the Green River
+in Kentucky, I repeatedly visited. It was, as is always the case, in
+a portion of the forest where the trees were of great magnitude, and
+where there was little underwood. I rode through it upwards of forty
+miles, and, crossing it in different parts, found its average breadth
+to be rather more than three miles. My first view of it was about a
+fortnight subsequent to the period when they had made choice of it, and
+I arrived there nearly two hours before sunset. Few pigeons were then
+to be seen, but a great number of persons, with horses and wagons,
+guns and ammunition, had already established encampments on the borders.
+
+Two farmers from the vicinity of Russelsville, distant more than a
+hundred miles, had driven upwards of three hundred hogs to be fattened
+on the pigeons which were to be slaughtered. Here and there, the people
+employed in plucking and salting what had already been procured, were
+seen sitting in the midst of large piles of these birds. The dung lay
+several inches deep, covering the whole extent of the roosting place,
+like a bed of snow. Many trees two feet in diameter, I observed, were
+broken off at no great distance from the ground; and the branches of
+many of the largest and tallest had given way, as if the forest had
+been swept by a tornado. Everything proved to me that the number of
+birds resorting to this part of the forest must be immense beyond
+conception. As the period of their arrival approached, their foes
+anxiously prepared to receive them. Some were furnished with iron
+pots containing sulphur, others with torches of pine knots, many with
+poles, and the rest with guns. The sun was lost to our view, yet not
+a pigeon had arrived. Everything was ready, and all eyes were gazing
+on the clear sky, which appeared in glimpses amidst the tall trees.
+Suddenly there burst forth a general cry of "Here they come!" The
+noise which they made, though yet distant, reminded me of a hard gale
+at sea passing through the rigging of a close-reefed vessel. As
+the birds arrived and passed over me, I felt a current of air that
+surprised me. Thousands were seen knocked down by the pole-men. The
+birds continued to pour in. The fires were lighted, and a magnificent,
+as well as wonderful and almost terrifying sight presented itself.
+The pigeons, arriving by thousands, alighted everywhere, one above
+another, until solid masses as large as hogsheads were formed on the
+branches all round. Here and there the perches gave way under the
+weight with a crash, and, falling to the ground destroyed hundreds of
+the birds beneath, forcing down the dense groups with which every stick
+was loaded. It was a scene of uproar and confusion. I found it quite
+useless to speak, or even to shout to those persons who were nearest
+to me. Even the reports of the guns were seldom heard, and I was made
+aware of the firing only by seeing the shooters reloading.
+
+No one dared venture within the line of devastation. The hogs had been
+penned up in due time, the picking up of the dead and wounded being
+left for the next morning's employment. The pigeons were constantly
+coming, and it was past midnight before I perceived a decrease in the
+number of those that arrived. The uproar continued the whole night; and
+as I was anxious to know to what distance the sound reached, I sent
+off a man, accustomed to perambulate the forest, who, returning two
+hours afterwards, informed me he had heard it distinctly when three
+miles distant from the spot. Toward the approach of day, the noise in
+some measure subsided, long before objects were distinguishable, the
+pigeons began to move off in a direction quite different from that in
+which they had arrived the evening before, and at sunrise all that were
+able to fly had disappeared. The howlings of the wolves now reached our
+ears, and the foxes, lynxes, cougars, bears, raccoons, opossums, and
+pole-cats were seen sneaking off, whilst eagles and hawks of different
+species, accompanied by a crowd of vultures, came to supplant them and
+enjoy their share of the spoil.
+
+It was then that the authors of all this devastation began their entry
+amongst the dead, the dying and the mangled. The pigeons were picked up
+and piled in heaps, until each had as many as he could possibly dispose
+of, when the hogs were let loose to feed on the remainder.
+
+Persons unacquainted with these birds might naturally conclude that
+such dreadful havoc would soon put an end to the species. But I have
+satisfied myself, by long observation, that nothing but the gradual
+diminution of our forests can accomplish their decrease, as they not
+infrequently quadruple their numbers yearly, and always at least double
+it. In 1805 I saw schooners loaded in bulk with pigeons caught up
+the Hudson River, coming into the wharf at New York, when the birds
+sold for a cent apiece. I knew a man in Pennsylvania, who caught and
+killed upward of five hundred dozens in a clap net in one day, sweeping
+sometimes twenty dozens or more at a single haul. In the month of
+March, 1830, they were so abundant in the markets of New York, that
+piles of them met the eye in every direction. I have seen the negroes
+at the United States' Salines or Saltworks of Shawnee Town, wearied
+with killing pigeons, as they alighted to drink the water issuing from
+the leading pipes, for weeks at a time; and yet in 1826, in Louisiana,
+I saw congregated flocks of these birds as numerous as ever I had seen
+them before, during a residence of nearly thirty years in the United
+States.
+
+The breeding of the wild pigeons, and the places chosen for that
+purpose, are points of great interest. The time is not much influenced
+by season, and the place selected is where food is most plentiful and
+most attainable, and always at a convenient distance from water. Forest
+trees of great height are those in which the pigeons form their nests.
+Thither the countless myriads resort, and prepare to fulfill one of
+the great laws of nature. At this period the note of the pigeon is a
+soft coo-coo-coo-coo much shorter than that of the domestic species.
+The common notes resemble the monosyllables kee-kee-kee-kee, the first
+being the loudest, the others gradually diminishing in power. The
+male assumes a pompous demeanor, and follows the female whether on
+the ground or on the branches, with spread tail and drooping wings,
+which it rubs against the part over which it is moving. The body is
+elevated, the throat swells, the eyes sparkle. He continues his notes,
+and now and then rises on the wing, and flies a few yards to approach
+the fugitive and timorous female. Like the domestic pigeon and other
+species, they caress each other by billing, in which action, the bill
+of the one is introduced transversely into that of the other, and both
+parties alternately disgorge the contents of their crops by repeated
+efforts. These preliminary affairs are soon settled, and the pigeons
+commence their nests in general peace and harmony. They are composed
+of a few dry twigs, crossing each other, and are supported by forks
+of the branches. On the same tree from fifty to a hundred nests may
+frequently be seen: I might say a much greater number, were I not
+anxious, kind reader, that however wonderful my account of the wild
+pigeons is, you may not feel disposed to refer it to the marvelous. The
+eggs are two in number, of a broadly elliptical form, and pure white.
+During incubation, the male supplies the female with food. Indeed, the
+tenderness and affection displayed by these birds toward their mates,
+are in the highest degree striking. It is a remarkable fact that each
+brood generally consists of a male and a female.
+
+Here again, the tyrant of the creation, man, interferes, disturbing
+the harmony of this peaceful scene. As the young birds grow up, their
+enemies armed with axes, reach the spot, to seize and destroy all
+they can. The trees are felled, and made to fall in such a way that
+the cutting of one causes the overthrow of another, or shakes the
+neighboring trees so much, that the young pigeons, or squabs, as they
+are named, are violently hurled to the ground. In this manner, also,
+immense quantities are destroyed.
+
+The young are fed by the parents in the manner described above; in
+other words, the old bird introduces its bill into the mouth of the
+young one in a transverse manner, or with the back of each mandible
+opposite the separations of the mandibles of the young bird, and
+disgorges the contents of its crop. As soon as the young birds are
+able to shift for themselves, they leave their parents, and continue
+separate until they attain maturity. By the end of six months they are
+capable of reproducing their species.
+
+The flesh of the wild pigeon is of a dark color, but affords tolerable
+eating. That of young birds from the nest is much esteemed. The skin
+is covered with small white filmy scales. The feathers fall off at
+the least touch, as has been remarked to be the case in the Carolina
+Turtle. I have only to add that this species, like others of the same
+genus, immerses its head up to the eyes while drinking.
+
+In March, 1830, I bought about three hundred and fifty of these birds
+in the market of New York, at four cents apiece. Most of these I
+carried alive to England, and distributed among several noblemen,
+presenting some at the same time to the Zoölogical Society.
+
+
+ADULT MALE
+
+Bill--straight, of ordinary length, rather slender, broader than deep
+at the base, with a tumid, fleshy covering above, compressed toward the
+end, rather obtuse; upper mandible slightly declinate at the tip, edges
+inflected. Head--small; neck, slender; body, rather full. Legs--short
+and strong; tarsus, rather rounded; anteriorly scutellate; toes,
+slightly webbed at the base; claws, short, depressed, obtuse.
+
+Plumage--blended on the neck and under parts, compact on the back.
+Wings--long, the second quill longest. Tail--graduated, of twelve
+tapering feathers.
+
+Bill--black. Iris--bright red. Feet--carmine purple, claws blackish.
+Head--above and on the sides light blue. Throat, fore-neck, breast,
+and sides--light brownish-red, the rest of the under parts white.
+Lower part of the neck behind, and along the sides, changing to gold,
+emerald green, and rich crimson. The general color of the upper parts
+is grayish-blue, some of the wing-coverts marked with a black spot.
+Quills and larger wing-coverts blackish, the primary quills bluish in
+the outer web, the larger coverts whitish at the tip. The two middle
+feathers of the tail black, the rest pale blue at the base, becoming
+white toward the end.
+
+Length, 16-1/4 inches; extent of wings, 25; bill, along the ridge,
+5/6, along the gap, 1-1/12; tarsus, 1-1/4 middle toe, 1-1/3.
+
+
+ADULT FEMALE
+
+The colors of the female are much duller than those of the male,
+although their distribution is the same. The breast is light
+grayish-brown, the upper parts pale reddish-brown, tinged with blue.
+The changeable spot on the neck is of less extent, and the eye of a
+somewhat duller red, as are the feet.
+
+Length, 15 inches; extent of wings, 23; bill, along the ridge, 3/4;
+along the gap, 5/6.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+As James Fenimore Cooper Saw It
+
+
+One of the most graphic descriptions ever written of a pigeon flight
+and slaughter is to be found in Cooper's novel, "The Pioneers," from
+which I make the following extracts:
+
+"See, cousin Bess! see, Duke, the pigeon-roosts of the south have
+broken up! They are growing more thick every instant. Here is a flock
+that the eye cannot see the end of. There is food enough in it to
+keep the army of Xerxes for a month and feathers enough to make beds
+for the whole country.... The reports of the firearms became rapid,
+whole volleys rising from the plain, as flocks of more than ordinary
+numbers darted over the opening, shadowing the field like a cloud;
+and then the light smoke of a single piece would issue from among the
+leafless bushes on the mountain, as death was hurled on the retreat of
+the affrighted birds, who were rising from a volley, in a vain effort
+to escape. Arrows and missiles of every kind were in the midst of the
+flocks; and so numerous were the birds, and so low did they take their
+flight, that even long poles, in the hands of those on the sides of the
+mountain, were used to strike them to the earth.... So prodigious was
+the number of the birds, that the scattering fire of the guns, with
+the hurtling missiles, and the cries of the boys, had no other effect
+than to break off small flocks from the immense masses that continued
+to dart along the valley, as if the whole of the feathered tribe were
+pouring through that one pass. None pretended to collect the game,
+which lay scattered over the fields in such profusion as to cover the
+very ground with the fluttering victims."
+
+The slaughter described finally ended with a grand finale when an old
+swivel gun was "loaded with handsful of bird-shot," and fired into the
+mass of pigeons with such fatal effect that there were birds enough
+killed and wounded on the ground to feed the whole settlement.
+
+The following description is from "The Chainbearer," also by J.
+Fenimore Cooper. The region of which he writes is in Central New York.
+
+"I scarce know how to describe the remarkable scene. As we drew near to
+the summit of the hill, pigeons began to be seen fluttering among the
+branches over our heads, as individuals are met along the roads that
+lead into the suburbs of a large town. We had probably seen a thousand
+birds glancing around among the trees, before we came in view of the
+roost itself. The numbers increased as we drew nearer, and presently
+the forest was alive with them.
+
+"The fluttering was incessant, and often startling as we passed ahead,
+our march producing a movement in the living crowd, that really became
+confounding. Every tree was literally covered with nests, many having
+at least a thousand of these frail tenements on their branches, and
+shaded by the leaves. They often touched each other, a wonderful degree
+of order prevailing among the hundreds of thousands of families that
+were here assembled.
+
+"The place had the odor of a fowl-house, and squabs just fledged
+sufficiently to trust themselves in short flights, were fluttering
+around us in all directions, in tens of thousands. To these were to
+be added the parents of the young race endeavoring to protect them
+and guide them in a way to escape harm. Although the birds rose as
+we approached, and the woods just around us seemed fairly alive with
+pigeons, our presence produced no general commotion; every one of
+the feathered throng appearing to be so much occupied with its own
+concerns, as to take little heed of the visit of a party of strangers,
+though of a race usually so formidable to their own.
+
+"The masses moved before us precisely as a crowd of human beings yields
+to a pressure or a danger on any given point; the vacuum created by its
+passage filling in its rear as the water of the ocean flows into the
+track of the keel.
+
+"The effect on most of us was confounding, and I can only compare the
+sensation produced on myself by the extraordinary tumult to that a
+man experiences at finding himself suddenly placed in the midst of an
+excited throng of human beings. The unnatural disregard of our persons
+manifested by the birds greatly heightened the effect, and caused me
+to feel as if some unearthly influence reigned in the place. It was
+strange, indeed, to be in a mob of the feathered race, that scarce
+exhibited a consciousness of one's presence. The pigeons seemed a world
+of themselves, and too much occupied with their own concerns to take
+heed of matters that lay beyond them.
+
+"Not one of our party spoke for several minutes. Astonishment seemed
+to hold us all tongue-tied, and we moved slowly forward into the
+fluttering throng, silent, absorbed, and full of admiration of the
+works of the Creator. It was not easy to hear each others' voices when
+we did speak, the incessant fluttering of wings filling the air. Nor
+were the birds silent in other respects.
+
+"The pigeon is not a noisy creature, but a million crowded together on
+the summit of one hill, occupying a space of less than a mile square,
+did not leave the forest in its ordinary impressive stillness. As we
+advanced, I offered my arm, almost unconsciously again to Dus, and
+she took it with the same abstracted manner as that in which it had
+been held forth for her acceptance. In this relation to each other, we
+continued to follow the grave-looking Onondago, as he moved, still
+deeper and deeper, into the midst of the fluttering tumult.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"While standing wondering at the extraordinary scene around us, a noise
+was heard rising above that of the incessant fluttering which I can
+only liken to that of the trampling of thousands of horses on a beaten
+road. This noise at first sounded distant, but it increased rapidly
+in proximity and power, until it came rolling in upon us, among the
+tree-tops, like a crash of thunder. The air was suddenly darkened,
+and the place where we stood as somber as a dusky twilight. At the
+same instant, all the pigeons near us, that had been on their nests,
+appeared to fall out of them, and the space immediately above our heads
+was at once filled with birds.
+
+"Chaos itself could hardly have represented greater confusion, or a
+greater uproar. As for the birds, they now seemed to disregard our
+presence entirely; possibly they could not see us on account of their
+own numbers, for they fluttered in between Dus and myself, hitting us
+with their wings, and at times appearing as if about to bury us in
+avalanches of pigeons. Each of us caught one at least in our hands,
+while Chainbearer and the Indian took them in some numbers, letting one
+prisoner go as another was taken. In a word, we seemed to be in a world
+of pigeons. This part of the scene may have lasted a minute, when the
+space around us was suddenly cleared, the birds glancing upward among
+the branches of the trees, disappearing among the foliage. All this was
+the effect produced by the return of the female birds, which had been
+off at a distance, some twenty miles at least, to feed on beechnuts,
+and which now assumed the places of the males on the nests; the latter
+taking a flight to get their meal in their turn.
+
+"I have since had the curiosity to make a sort of an estimate of the
+number of the birds that must have come in upon the roost, in that, to
+us, memorable moment. Such a calculation, as a matter of course, must
+be very vague, though one may get certain principles by estimating
+the size of a flock by the known rapidity of the flight, and other
+similar means; and I remember that Frank Malbone and myself supposed
+that a million of birds must have come in on that return, and as many
+departed! As the pigeon is a very voracious bird, the question is apt
+to present itself, where food is obtained for so many mouths; but, when
+we remember the vast extent of the American forests, this difficulty
+is at once met. Admitting that the colony we visited contained many
+millions of birds, and, counting old and young, I have no doubt it did,
+there was probably a fruit-bearing tree for each, within an hour's
+flight from that very spot!
+
+"Such is the scale on which Nature labors in the wilderness! I have
+seen insects fluttering in the air at particular seasons, and at
+particular places, until they formed little clouds; a sight every one
+must have witnessed on many occasions; and as those insects appeared,
+on their diminished scale, so did the pigeons appear to us at the roost
+of Mooseridge."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+The Wild Pigeon of North America
+
+By Chief Pokagon,[A] from "The Chautauquan," November, 1895. Vol. 22.
+No. 20.
+
+[Footnote A: Simon Pokagon, of Michigan, is a full-blooded Indian, the
+last Pottawattomie chief of the Pokagon band. He is author of the "Red
+Man's Greeting," and has been called by the press the "Redskin poet,
+bard, and Longfellow of his race." His father, chief before him, sold
+the site of Chicago and the surrounding country to the United States
+in 1833 for three cents an acre. He was the first red man to visit
+President Lincoln after his inauguration. In a letter written home at
+the time he said: "I have met Lincoln, the great chief; he is very
+tall, has a sad face, but he is a good man, I saw it in his eyes and
+felt it in his hand-shaking. He will help us get payment for Chicago
+land." Soon after $39,000 was paid. In 1874 he visited President Grant.
+He said of him: "I expected he would put on military importance, but
+he treated me kindly, give me a cigar, and we smoked the pipe of peace
+together." In 1893 he procured judgment against the United States for
+over $100,000 still due on the sale of the Chicago land by his father.
+He was honored on Chicago Day at the World's Fair by first ringing the
+new Bell of Liberty and speaking in behalf of his race to the greatest
+crowd ever assembled on earth. After his speech "Glory Hallelujah" was
+sung before the bell for the first time on the Fair grounds.]
+
+
+The migratory or wild pigeon of North America was known by our race as
+_O-me-me-wog_. Why the European race did not accept that name was, no
+doubt, because the bird so much resembled the domesticated pigeon; they
+naturally called it a wild pigeon, as they called us wild men.
+
+This remarkable bird differs from the dove or domesticated pigeon,
+which was imported into this country, in the grace of its long neck,
+its slender bill and legs, and its narrow wings. Its tail is eight
+inches long, having twelve feathers, white on the under side. The
+two center feathers are longest, while five arranged on either side
+diminished gradually each one-half inch in length, giving to the
+tail when spread an almost conical appearance. Its back and upper
+part of the wings and head are a darkish blue, with a silken velvety
+appearance. Its neck is resplendent in gold and green with royal purple
+intermixed. Its breast is reddish-brown, fading toward the belly into
+white. Its tail is tipped with white, intermixed with bluish-black. The
+female is one inch shorter than the male, and her color less vivid.
+
+It was proverbial with our fathers that if the Great Spirit in His
+wisdom could have created a more elegant bird in plumage, form, and
+movement, He never did. When a young man I have stood for hours
+admiring the movements of these birds. I have seen them fly in unbroken
+lines from the horizon, one line succeeding another from morning until
+night, moving their unbroken columns like an army of trained soldiers
+pushing to the front, while detached bodies of these birds appeared
+in different parts of the heavens, pressing forward in haste like raw
+recruits preparing for battle. At other times I have seen them move in
+one unbroken column for hours across the sky, like some great river,
+ever varying in hue; and as the mighty stream, sweeping on at sixty
+miles an hour, reached some deep valley, it would pour its living mass
+headlong down hundreds of feet, sounding as though a whirlwind was
+abroad in the land. I have stood by the grandest waterfall of America
+and regarded the descending torrents in wonder and astonishment, yet
+never have my astonishment, wonder, and admiration been so stirred as
+when I have witnessed these birds drop from their course like meteors
+from heaven.
+
+While feeding, they always have guards on duty, to give alarm of
+danger. It is made by the watch-bird as it takes its flight, beating
+its wings together in quick succession, sounding like the rolling beat
+of a snare drum. Quick as thought each bird repeats the alarm with a
+thundering sound, as the flock struggles to rise, leading a stranger to
+think a young cyclone is then being born.
+
+... About the middle of May, 1850, while in the fur trade, I was
+camping on the head waters of the Manistee River in Michigan. One
+morning on leaving my wigwam I was startled by hearing a gurgling,
+rumbling sound, as though an army of horses laden with sleigh bells
+was advancing through the deep forests towards me. As I listened more
+intently I concluded that instead of the tramping of horses it was
+distant thunder; and yet the morning was clear, calm and beautiful.
+Nearer and nearer came the strange commingling sounds of sleigh bells,
+mixed with the rumbling of an approaching storm. While I gazed in
+wonder and astonishment, I beheld moving toward me in an unbroken front
+millions of pigeons, the first I had seen that season. They passed like
+a cloud through the branches of the high trees, through the underbrush
+and over the ground, apparently overturning every leaf. Statue-like I
+stood, half-concealed by cedar boughs. They fluttered all about me,
+lighting on my head and shoulders; gently I caught two in my hands and
+carefully concealed them under my blanket.
+
+I now began to realize they were mating, preparatory to nesting. It
+was an event which I had long hoped to witness; so I sat down and
+carefully watched their movements, amid the greatest tumult. I tried to
+understand their strange language, and why they all chatted in concert.
+In the course of the day the great on-moving mass passed by me, but
+the trees were still filled with them sitting in pairs in convenient
+crotches of the limbs, now and then gently fluttering their half-spread
+wings and uttering to their mates those strange, bell-like wooing notes
+which I had mistaken for the ringing of bells in the distance.
+
+On the third day after, this chattering ceased and all were busy
+carrying sticks with which they were building nests in the same
+crotches of the limbs they had occupied in pairs the day before. On the
+morning of the fourth day their nests were finished and eggs laid. The
+hen birds occupied the nests in the morning, while the male birds went
+out into the surrounding country to feed, returning about ten o'clock,
+taking the nests, while the hens went out to feed, returning about
+three o'clock. Again changing nests, the male birds went out the second
+time to feed, returning at sundown. The same routine was pursued each
+day until the young ones were hatched and nearly half grown, at which
+time all the parent birds left the brooding grounds about daylight. On
+the morning of the eleventh day, after the eggs were laid, I found the
+nesting grounds strewn with egg shells, convincing me that the young
+were hatched. In thirteen days more the parent birds left their young
+to shift for themselves, flying to the east about sixty miles, when
+they again nested. The female lays but one egg during the same nesting.
+
+Both sexes secrete in their crops milk or curd with which they feed
+their young, until they are nearly ready to fly, when they stuff them
+with mast and such other raw material as they themselves eat, until
+their crops exceed their bodies in size, giving to them an appearance
+of two birds with one head. Within two days after the stuffing they
+become a mass of fat--"a squab." At this period the parent bird drives
+them from the nests to take care of themselves, while they fly off
+within a day or two, sometimes hundreds of miles, and again nest.
+
+It has been well established that these birds look after and take care
+of all orphan squabs whose parents have been killed or are missing.
+These birds are long-lived, having been known to live twenty-five years
+caged. When food is abundant they nest each month in the year.
+
+Their principal food is the mast of the forest, except when curd is
+being secreted in their crops, at which time they denude the country
+of snails and worms for miles around the nesting grounds. Because they
+nest in such immense bodies, they are frequently compelled to fly from
+fifty to one hundred miles for food.
+
+During my early life I learned that these birds in spring and fall
+were seen in their migrations from the Atlantic to the Mississippi
+River. This knowledge, together with my personal observation of their
+countless numbers, led me to believe they were almost as inexhaustible
+as the great ocean itself. Of course I had witnessed the passing away
+of the deer, buffalo, and elk, but I looked upon them as local in their
+habits, while these birds spanned the continent, frequently nesting
+beyond the reach of cruel man.
+
+Between 1840 and 1880 I visited in the States of Ohio, Indiana, and
+Michigan many brooding places that were from twenty to thirty miles
+long and from three to four miles wide, every tree in its limits being
+spotted with nests. Yet, notwithstanding their countless numbers, great
+endurance, and long life, they have almost entirely disappeared from
+our forests. We strain our eyes in spring and autumn in vain to catch
+a glimpse of these pilgrims. White men tell us they have moved in a
+body to the Rocky Mountain region, where they are as plenty as they
+were here, but when we ask red men, who are familiar with the mountain
+country, about them, they shake their heads in disbelief.
+
+A pigeon nesting was always a great source of revenue to our people.
+Whole tribes would wigwam in the brooding places. They seldom killed
+the old birds, but made great preparation to secure their young, out
+of which the squaws made squab butter and smoked and dried them by
+thousands for future use. Yet, under our manner of securing them, they
+continued to increase.
+
+White men commenced netting them for market about the year 1840. These
+men were known as professional pigeoners, from the fact that they
+banded themselves together, so as to keep in telegraphic communication
+with these great moving bodies. In this they became so expert as to be
+almost continually on the borders of their brooding places. As they
+were always prepared with trained stool-pigeons and flyers, which
+they carried with them, they were enabled to call down the passing
+flocks and secure as many by net as they were able to pack in ice and
+ship to market. In the year 1848 there were shipped from Catteraugus
+County, N. Y., eighty tons of these birds; and from that time to 1878
+the wholesale slaughter continued to increase, and in that year there
+were shipped from Michigan not less than three hundred tons of birds.
+During the thirty years of their greatest slaughter there must have
+been shipped to our great cities 5,700 tons of these birds; allowing
+each pigeon to weigh one-half pound would show twenty-three millions
+of birds. Think of it! And all these were caught during their brooding
+season, which must have decreased their numbers as many more. Nor is
+this all. During the same time hunters from all parts of the country
+gathered at these brooding places and slaughtered them without mercy.
+
+In the above estimate are not reckoned the thousands of dozens that
+were shipped alive to sporting clubs for trap-shooting, as well as
+those consumed by the local trade throughout the pigeon districts of
+the United States.
+
+These experts finally learned that the birds while nesting were frantic
+after salty mud and water, so they frequently made, near the nesting
+places, what were known by the craft as mud beds, which were salted,
+to which the birds would flock by the million. In April, 1876, I
+was invited to see a net over one of these death pits. It was near
+Petoskey, Mich. I think I am correct in saying the birds piled one upon
+another at least two feet deep when the net was sprung, and it seemed
+to me that most of them escaped the trap, but on killing and counting,
+there were found to be over one hundred dozen, all nesting birds.
+
+When squabs of a nesting became fit for market, these experts, prepared
+with climbers, would get into some convenient place in a tree-top
+loaded with nests, and with a long pole punch out the young, which
+would fall with a thud like lead on the ground.
+
+In May, 1880, I visited the last known nesting place east of the Great
+Lakes. It was on Platt River in Benzie County, Mich. There were on
+these grounds many large white birch trees filled with nests. These
+trees have manifold bark, which, when old, hangs in shreds like rags or
+flowing moss, along their trunks and limbs. This bark will burn like
+paper soaked in oil. Here, for the first time, I saw with shame and
+pity a new mode for robbing these birds' nests, which I look upon as
+being devilish. These outlaws to all moral sense would touch a lighted
+match to the bark of the trees at the base, when with a flash--more
+like an explosion--the blast would reach every limb of the tree, and
+while the affrighted young birds would leap simultaneously to the
+ground, the parent birds, with plumage scorched, would rise high in
+air amid flame and smoke. I noticed that many of these squabs were so
+fat and clumsy they would burst open on striking the ground. Several
+thousand were obtained during the day by this cruel process.
+
+That night I stayed with an old man on the highlands just north of the
+nesting. In the course of the evening I explained to him the cruelty
+that was being shown to the young birds in the nesting. He listened
+to me in utter astonishment, and said, "My God, is that possible!"
+Remaining silent a few moments with bowed head, he looked up and said,
+"See here, old Indian, you go out with me in the morning and I will
+show you a way to catch pigeons that will please any red man and the
+birds, too."
+
+Early the next morning I followed him a few rods from his hut, where
+he showed me an open pole pen, about two feet high, which he called
+his bait bed. Into this he scattered a bucket of wheat. We then sat in
+ambush, so as to see through between the poles into the pen. Soon they
+began to pour into the pen and gorge themselves. While I was watching
+and admiring them, all at once to my surprise they began fluttering
+and falling on their sides and backs and kicking and quivering like a
+lot of cats with paper tied over their feet. He jumped into the pen,
+saying, "Come on, you red-skin."
+
+I was right on hand by his side. A few birds flew out of the pen
+apparently crippled, but we caught and caged about one hundred fine
+birds. After my excitement was over I sat down on one of the cages,
+and thought in my heart, "Certainly Pokagon is dreaming, or this
+long-haired white man is a witch." I finally said, "Look here, old
+fellow, tell me how you did that." He gazed at me, holding his long
+white beard in one hand, and said with one eye half shut and a sly
+wink with the other, "That wheat was soaked in whisky." His answer
+fell like lead upon my heart. We had talked temperance together the
+night before, and the old man wept when I told him how my people had
+fallen before the intoxicating cup of the white man like leaves before
+the blast of autumn. In silence I left the place, saying in my heart,
+"Surely the time is now fulfilled, when false prophets shall show signs
+and wonders to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect."
+
+I have read recently in some of our game-sporting journals, "A warwhoop
+has been sounded against some of our western Indians for killing game
+in the mountain region." Now, if these red men are guilty of a moral
+wrong which subjects them to punishment, I would most prayerfully ask
+in the name of Him who suffers not a sparrow to fall unnoticed, what
+must be the nature of the crime and degree of punishment awaiting our
+white neighbors who have so wantonly butchered and driven from our
+forests these wild pigeons, the most beautiful flowers of the animal
+creation of North America.
+
+In closing this article I wish to say a few words relative to the
+knowledge of things about them that these birds seem to possess.
+
+In the spring of 1866 there were scattered throughout northern Indiana
+and southern Michigan vast numbers of these birds. On April 10, in the
+morning, they commenced moving in small flocks in diverging lines
+toward the northwest part of Van Buren County, Mich. For two days they
+continued to pour into that vicinity from all directions, commencing at
+once to build their nests. I talked with an old trapper who lived on
+the brooding grounds, and he assured me that the first pigeons he had
+seen that season were on the day they commenced nesting and that he had
+lived there fifteen years and never known them to nest there before.
+
+From the above instance and hundreds of others I might mention, it
+is well established in my mind beyond a reasonable doubt, that these
+birds, as well as many other animals, have communicated to them by
+some means unknown to us, a knowledge of distant places, and of one
+another when separated, and that they act on such knowledge with just
+as much certainty as if it were conveyed to them by ear or eye. Hence
+we conclude it is possible that the Great Spirit in His wisdom has
+provided them a means to receive electric communications from distant
+places and with one another.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+The Passenger Pigeon
+
+From "Life Histories of North American Birds,"[B]
+
+by Charles Bendire
+
+[Footnote B: The first volume of Captain Bendire's monumental work was
+published in 1892, by which time the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon
+was foretold as a matter of a few more years. His contribution to the
+subject therefore deals with a much later period in the history of the
+bird and links the studies of Wilson and Audubon with the present day.]
+
+
+Geographical Range: Deciduous forest regions of eastern North America;
+west, casually, to Washington and Nevada; Cuba.
+
+The breeding range of the Passenger Pigeon to-day is to be looked for
+principally in the thinly settled and wooded region along our northern
+border, from northern Maine westward to northern Minnesota; in the
+Dakotas, as well as in similar localities in the eastern and middle
+portions of the Dominion of Canada, and north at least to Hudson's
+Bay. Isolated and scattering pairs probably still breed in the New
+England States, northern New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin,
+Minnesota, and a few other localities further south, but the enormous
+breeding colonies, or pigeon roosts, as they were formerly called,
+frequently covering the forest for miles, and so often mentioned by
+naturalists and hunters in former years, are, like the immense herds
+of the American bison which roamed over the great plains of the West in
+countless thousands but a couple of decades ago, things of the past,
+probably never to be seen again.
+
+In fact, the extermination of the Passenger Pigeon has progressed so
+rapidly during the past twenty years that it looks now as if their
+total extermination might be accomplished within the present century.
+The only thing which retards their complete extinction is that it no
+longer pays to net these birds, they being too scarce for this now, at
+least in the more settled portions of the country, and also, perhaps,
+that from constant and unremitting persecution on their breeding
+grounds they have changed their habits somewhat, the majority no longer
+breeding in colonies, but scattering over the country and breeding in
+isolated pairs.
+
+Mr. William Brewster, in his article "On the Present Status of the
+Wild Pigeon," etc., writes as follows: "In the spring of 1888 my
+friend, Captain Bendire, wrote me that he had received news from a
+correspondent in central Michigan to the effect that wild pigeons had
+arrived there in great numbers and were preparing to nest. Acting on
+this information, I started at once, in company with Mr. Jonathan
+Dwight, Jr., to visit the expected 'nesting' and learn as much as
+possible about the habits of the breeding birds, as well as to secure
+specimens of their skins and eggs.
+
+"On reaching Cadillac, Michigan, May 8, we found that large flocks of
+pigeons had passed there late in April, while there were reports of
+similar flights from almost every county in the southern part of the
+State. Although most of the birds had passed on before our arrival, the
+professional pigeon netters, confident that they would finally breed
+somewhere in the southern peninsula, were busily engaged getting their
+nets and other apparatus in order for an extensive campaign against the
+poor birds.
+
+"We were assured that as soon as the breeding colony became established
+the fact would be known all over the State, and there would be no
+difficulty in ascertaining its precise location. Accordingly, we
+waited at Cadillac about two weeks, during which time we were in
+correspondence with netters in different parts of the region. No news
+came, however, and one by one the netters lost heart, until finally
+most of them agreed that the pigeons had gone to the far north, beyond
+the reach of mail and telegraphic communication. As a last hope,
+we went, on May 15, to Oden, in the northern part of the southern
+peninsula, about twenty miles south of the Straits of Mackinac. Here
+we found that there had been, as elsewhere in Michigan, a heavy flight
+of birds in the latter part of April, but that all had passed on.
+Thus our trip proved a failure as far as actually seeing a pigeon
+'nesting' was concerned; but partly by observation, partly by talking
+with the netters, farmers, sportsmen, and lumbermen, we obtained much
+information regarding the flight of 1888, and the larger nestings that
+have occurred in Michigan within the past decade, as well as many
+interesting details, some of which appear to be new about the habits of
+the birds.
+
+"Our principal informant was Mr. S. S. Stevens, of Cadillac, a veteran
+pigeon netter of large experience, and, as we were assured by everyone
+whom we asked concerning him, a man of high reputation for veracity
+and carefulness of statement. His testimony was as follows: 'Pigeons
+appeared that year in numbers near Cadillac, about the 20th of April.
+He saw fully sixty in one day, scattered about in beech woods near the
+head of Clam Lake, and on another occasion about one hundred drinking
+at the mouth of the brook, while a flock that covered at least 8
+acres was observed by a friend, a perfectly reliable man, flying in a
+north-easterly direction. Many other smaller flocks were reported."
+
+"The last nesting of any importance in Michigan was in 1881, a few
+miles west of Grand Traverse. It was only of moderate size, perhaps 8
+miles long. Subsequently, in 1886, Mr. Stevens found about fifty dozen
+pairs nesting in a swamp near Lake City. He does not doubt that similar
+small colonies occur every year, besides scattered pairs. In fact, he
+sees a few pigeons about Cadillac every summer, and in the early autumn
+young birds, barely able to fly, are often met with singly or in small
+parties in the woods. Such stragglers attract little attention, and no
+one attempts to net them, although many are shot.
+
+"The largest nesting he ever visited was in 1876 or 1877. It began
+near Petoskey, and extended northeast past Crooked Lake for 28 miles,
+averaging 3 or 4 miles wide. The birds arrived in two separate bodies,
+one directly from the south by land, the other following the east coast
+of Wisconsin, and crossing at Manitou Island. He saw the latter body
+come in from the lake at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It was a
+compact mass of pigeons, at least 5 miles long by 1 mile wide. The
+birds began building when the snow was 12 inches deep in the woods,
+although the fields were bare at the time. So rapidly did the colony
+extend its boundaries that it soon passed literally over and around
+the place where he was netting, although when he began, this point
+was several miles from the nearest nest. Nestings usually start in
+deciduous woods, but during their progress the pigeons do not skip
+any kind of trees they encounter. The Petoskey nesting extended 8
+miles through hardwood timber, then crossed a river bottom wooded with
+arborvitæ, and thence stretched through white pine woods about 20
+miles. For the entire distance of 28 miles every tree of any size had
+more or less nests, and many trees were filled with them. None were
+lower than about 15 feet above the ground.
+
+"Pigeons are very noisy when building. They make a sound resembling
+the croaking of wood frogs. Their combined clamor can be heard 4 or 5
+miles away when the atmospheric conditions are favorable. Two eggs are
+usually laid, but many nests contain only one. Both birds incubate, the
+females between 2 o'clock P.M. and 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock the next
+morning; the males from 9 or 10 o'clock A.M. to 2 o'clock P.M. The
+males feed twice each day, namely, from daylight to about 8 o'clock
+A.M. and again late in the afternoon. The females feed only during the
+forenoon. The change is made with great regularity as to time, all the
+males being on the nest by 10 o'clock A.M.
+
+"During the morning and evening no females are ever caught by the
+netters; during the forenoon no males. The sitting bird does not leave
+the nest until the bill of its incoming mate nearly touches its tail,
+the former slipping off as the latter takes it place.
+
+"Thus the eggs are constantly covered, and but few are ever thrown out
+despite the fragile character of the nests and the swaying of the trees
+in the high winds. The old birds never feed in or near the nesting,
+leaving all the beech mast, etc., there for their young. Many of them
+go 100 miles each day for food. Mr. Stevens is satisfied that pigeons
+continue laying and hatching during the entire summer. They do not,
+however, use the same nesting place a second time in one season, the
+entire colony always moving from 20 to 100 miles after the appearance
+of each brood of young. Mr. Stevens, as well as many of the other
+netters with whom we talked, believes that they breed during their
+absence in the South in the winter, asserting as proof of this that
+young birds in considerable numbers often accompany the earlier spring
+flights.
+
+"Five weeks are consumed by a single nesting. Then the young are forced
+out of their nests by the old birds. Mr. Stevens has twice seen this
+done. One of the pigeons, usually the male, pushes the young off the
+nest by force. The latter struggles and squeals precisely like a tame
+squab, but is finally crowded out along the branch, and after further
+feeble resistance flutters down to the ground. Three or four days
+elapse before it is able to fly well. Upon leaving the nest it is often
+fatter and heavier than the old birds; but it quickly becomes much
+thinner and lighter, despite the enormous quantity of food it consumes.
+
+"On one occasion an immense flock of young birds became bewildered in
+a fog while crossing Crooked Lake, and descending struck the water and
+perished by thousands. The shore for miles was covered a foot or more
+deep with them. The old birds rose above the fog, and none were killed.
+
+"At least five hundred men were engaged in netting pigeons during the
+great Petoskey nesting of 1881. Mr. Stevens thought that they may
+have captured on the average 20,000 birds apiece during the season.
+Sometimes two carloads were shipped south on the railroad each day.
+Nevertheless he believed that not one bird in a thousand was taken.
+Hawks and owls often abound near the nesting. Owls can be heard hooting
+there all night long. The cooper's hawk often catches the stool-pigeon.
+During the Petoskey season Mr. Stevens lost twelve stool birds in this
+way.
+
+"There has been much dispute among writers and observers, beginning
+with Audubon and Wilson, and extending down to the present day, as to
+whether the wild pigeon has two eggs or one. I questioned Mr. Stevens
+closely on this point. He assured me that he had frequently found two
+eggs or two young in the same nest, but that fully half the nests which
+he had examined contained only one.
+
+"Our personal experience with the pigeon in Michigan was as follows:
+
+"During our stay at Cadillac we saw them daily, sometimes singly,
+usually in pairs, never more than two together. Nearly every large
+tract of old growth mixed woods seemed to contain at least one pair.
+They appeared to be settled for the season, and we were convinced that
+they were preparing to breed. In fact, the oviduct of a female, killed
+May 10, contained an egg nearly ready for the shell.
+
+"At Oden we had a similar experience, although there were perhaps fewer
+pigeons there than about Cadillac.
+
+"On May 24, Mr. Dwight settled any possible question as to their
+breeding in scattered pairs, by finding a nest on which he distinctly
+saw a bird sitting. The following day I accompanied him to this nest,
+which was at least 50 feet above the ground, on the horizontal branch
+of a large hemlock, about 20 feet out from the trunk. As we approached
+the spot an adult male pigeon started from a tree near that on which
+the nest was placed, and a moment later a young bird, with stub tail
+and barely able to fly, fluttered feebly after it. This young pigeon
+was probably the bird seen the previous day on the nest, for on
+climbing to the latter, Mr. Dwight found it empty, but fouled with
+excrement, some of which was perfectly fresh. A thorough investigation
+of the surrounding woods, which were a hundred acres or more in extent,
+and composed chiefly of beeches, with a mixture of white pines and
+hemlocks of the largest size, convinced us that no other pigeons were
+nesting in them.
+
+"All the netters with whom we talked believe firmly that there are
+just as many pigeons in the West as there ever were. They say the
+birds have been driven from Michigan and the adjoining States, partly
+by persecution, and partly by the destruction of the forests, and
+have retreated to uninhabited regions, perhaps north of the Great
+Lakes in British North America. Doubtless there is some truth in this
+theory; for, that the pigeon is not, as has been asserted so often
+recently, on the verge of extinction, is shown by the flight which
+passed through Michigan in the Spring of 1888. This flight, according
+to the testimony of many reliable observers, was a large one, and
+the birds must have formed a nesting of considerable extent in some
+region so remote that no news of its presence reached the ears of the
+vigilant netters. Thus it is probable that enough Pigeons are left to
+restock the West, provided that laws sufficiently stringent to give
+them fair protection be at once enacted. The present laws of Michigan
+and Wisconsin are simply worse than useless, for, while they prohibit
+disturbing the birds _within_ the nesting, they allow unlimited netting
+only a few miles beyond its outskirts _during the entire breeding
+season_. The theory is, that they are so infinitely numerous that their
+ranks are not seriously thinned by catching a few millions of breeding
+birds in a summer, and that the only danger to be guarded against is
+that of frightening them away by the use of guns or nets in the woods
+where their nests are placed. The absurdity of such reasoning is
+self-evident, but, singularly enough, the netters, many of whom struck
+me as intelligent and honest men, seem really to believe in it. As
+they have more or less local influence, and, in addition, the powerful
+backing of the large game dealers in the cities, it is not likely that
+any really effectual laws can be passed until the last of our Passenger
+Pigeons are preparing to follow the great auk and the American bison."
+
+In order to show a little more clearly the immense destruction of the
+Passenger Pigeon _in a single year and at one roost_ only, I quote the
+following extract from an interesting article "On the Habits, Methods
+of Capture, and Nesting of the Wild Pigeon," with an account of the
+Michigan nesting of 1878, by Prof. H. B. Roney, in the Chicago _Field_
+(Vol. X, pp. 345-347):
+
+"The nesting area, situated near Petoskey, covered something like
+100,000 acres of land, and included not less than 150,000 acres within
+its limits, being in length about 40 miles by 3 to 10 in width. The
+number of dead birds sent by rail was estimated at 12,500 daily, or
+1,500,000 for the summer, besides 80,352 live birds; an equal number
+was sent by water. We have," says the writer, "adding the thousands
+of dead and wounded ones not secured, and the myriads of squabs left
+dead in the nest, at the lowest possible estimate, a grand total of one
+billion pigeons sacrificed to Mammon during the nesting of 1878."
+
+The last mentioned figure is undoubtedly far above the actual number
+killed during that or any other year, but even granting that but a
+million were killed at this roost, the slaughter is enormous enough,
+and it is not strange that the number of these pigeons are now few,
+compared with former years.
+
+Capt. B. F. Goss, of Peewaukee, Wisconsin, writes me: "Ten years
+ago the wild pigeon bred in great roosts in the northern parts of
+Wisconsin, and it also bred singly in this vicinity; up to six or eight
+years ago they were plenty. The nest was a small, rough platform of
+twigs, from 10 to 15 feet from the ground. I have often found two eggs
+in a nest, but one is by far the more common. These single nests have
+been thought by some accidental, but for years they bred in this manner
+all over the county, as plentifully as any of our birds. I also found
+them breeding singly in Iowa. These single nests have not attracted
+attention like the great roosts, but I think it is a common manner of
+building with this species."
+
+Mr. Frank J. Thompson, in charge of the Zoölogical Gardens at
+Cincinnati, Ohio, gives the following account of the breeding of the
+wild pigeon in confinement: "During the spring of 1877, the society
+purchased three pairs of trapped birds, which were placed in one of the
+outer aviaries. Early in March, 1878, I noticed that they were mating,
+and procuring some twigs, I wove three rough platforms, and fastened
+them up in convenient places, at the same time throwing a further
+supply of building material on the floor. Within twenty-four hours two
+of the platforms were selected; the male carrying the material, whilst
+the female busied herself in placing it. A single egg was soon laid
+in each nest and incubation commenced. On March 16, there was quite
+a heavy fall of snow, and on the next morning I was unable to see
+the birds on their nests on account of the accumulation of the snow
+piled on the platforms around them. Within a couple of days it had all
+disappeared, and for the next four or five nights a self-registering
+thermometer, hanging in the aviary, marked from 14° to 10°. In spite
+of these drawbacks both of the eggs were hatched and the young ones
+reared. They have since continued to breed regularly, and now I have
+twenty birds, having lost several eggs from falling through their
+illy-contrived nests and one old male."
+
+The Passenger Pigeon has been found nesting in Wisconsin and Iowa
+during the first week in April, and as late as June 5 and 12 in
+Connecticut and Minnesota. Their food consists of beech nuts, acorns,
+wild cherries, and berries of various kinds, as well as different kinds
+of grain. They are said to be very fond of, and feed extensively on,
+angle worms, vast numbers of which frequently come to the surface after
+heavy rains, also on hairless caterpillars.
+
+Their movements, at all seasons, seem to be very irregular, and are
+greatly affected by the food supply. They may be exceedingly common
+at one point one year, and almost entirely wanting the next. They
+generally winter south of latitude 36°.
+
+Their notes during the mating season are said to be a short "coo-coo,"
+and the ordinary call note is a "kee-kee-kee," the first syllable being
+louder and the last fainter than the middle one.
+
+Opinions differ as to the number of broods in a season; while the
+majority of observers assert that but one, a few others say that two,
+are usually raised. The eggs vary in number from one to two in a
+set, and incubation lasts from eighteen to twenty days, both sexes
+assisting. These eggs are pure white in color, slightly glossy, and
+usually elliptical oval in shape; some may be called broad elliptical
+oval.
+
+The average measurements of twenty specimens in the U. S. National
+Museum collection is 37.5 by 26.5 millimetres. The largest egg measures
+39.5 by 28.5, the smallest 33.5 by 26 millimetres.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Netting the Pigeons
+
+By William Brewster, from "The Auk," a Quarterly Journal of
+Ornithology, October, 1889.
+
+
+In the spring of 1888 my friend, Captain Bendire, wrote to me that
+he had received news from a correspondent in central Michigan to the
+effect that wild pigeons had arrived there in large numbers and were
+preparing to nest. Acting on this information I started at once, in
+company with Mr. Jonathan Dwight, Jr., to visit the expected "nesting"
+and learn as much as possible about the habits of the breeding birds,
+as well as to secure specimens of their skins and eggs.
+
+... Pigeon netting in Michigan is conducted as follows: Each netter
+has three beds; at least two, and sometimes as many as ten "strikes"
+are made on a single bed in one day, but the bed is often allowed to
+"rest" for a day or two. Forty or fifty dozen birds are a good haul for
+one "strike." Often only ten or twelve dozen are taken. Mr. Stevens'
+highest "catch" is eighty-six dozen, but once he saw one hundred and
+six dozen captured at a single "strike." If too large a number are on
+the bed, they will sometimes raise the net bodily and escape. Usually
+about one-third are too quick for the net and fly out before it falls.
+Two kinds of beds are used, the "mud" bed and the "dry" bed. The former
+is the most killing in Michigan, but, for unknown reason, it will not
+attract birds in Wisconsin.
+
+It is made of mud, kept in a moist condition and saturated with a
+mixture of saltpeter and anise seed. Pigeons are very fond of salt
+and resort to salt springs wherever they occur. The dry bed is simply
+a level space of ground carefully cleared of grass, weeds, etc., and
+baited with corn or other grain. Pigeons are peculiar, and their habits
+must be studied by the netter if he would be successful. When they are
+feeding on beech mast, they often will not touch grain of any kind, and
+the mast must be used for bait.
+
+A stool bird is an essential part of the netter's outfit. It is tied
+on a box, and by an ingenious arrangement of cords, by which it can be
+gently raised or lowered, is made to flap its wings at intervals. This
+attracts the attention of passing birds which alight on the nearest
+tree, or on a perch which is usually provided for that purpose. After a
+portion of the flock has descended to the bed, they are started up by
+"raising" the stool bird, and fly back to the perch. When they fly down
+a second time all or nearly all the others follow or accompany them and
+the net is "struck."
+
+The usual method of killing pigeons is to break their necks with a
+small pair of pincers, the ends of which are bent so that they do
+not quite meet. Great care must be taken not to shed blood on the
+bed, for the pigeons notice this at once and are much alarmed by it.
+Young birds can be netted in wheat stubble in the autumn, but this is
+seldom attempted. When just able to fly, however, they are caught in
+enormous numbers near the "nestings" in pens made of slats. A few dozen
+old pigeons are confined in the pens as decoys, and a net is thrown
+over the mouth of the pen when a sufficient number of young birds have
+entered it.
+
+Mr. Stevens has known over four hundred dozen young pigeons to be
+taken at once by this method. The first birds sent to market yield
+the netter about one dollar a dozen. At the height of the season the
+price sometimes falls as low as twelve cents a dozen. It averages about
+twenty-five cents.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+Efforts to Check the Slaughter
+
+By Prof. H. B. Roney, East Saginaw, Mich.
+
+  The following article appeared in "American Field," of Chicago, Jan.
+  11, 1879. Parts omitted here referred to an ineffectual attempt on the
+  part of the Saginaw and Bay City Game Protection Clubs to put a stop
+  to the illegal netting and shooting of pigeons. The Michigan law was
+  a bungling piece of business, working rather in the interest of the
+  netters than of the birds. Prof. Roney and Mr. McLean accompanied the
+  two representatives of the Game Protective Clubs sent North on this
+  mission. I make this explanation as certain parts of the article I
+  reproduce would otherwise not be as well understood.
+
+
+For many years Passenger Pigeon nestings have been established in
+Michigan, and by a noticeable concurrence, only in even alternate
+years, as follows: 1868, 1870, 1872, 1874, 1876, 1878. In 1876 there
+were no less than three nestings in the State, one each in Newaygo,
+Oceana, and Grand Traverse counties.
+
+Large numbers of professional "pigeoners," as they term themselves,
+devote their whole time to the business of following up and netting
+wild pigeons for gain and profit. These men carefully study the habits
+and direction of flight of the birds, and in the spring of the year can
+tell with considerable accuracy in about what locality a nesting is
+to form. The indications are soon known throughout the fraternity and
+the gathering of the clans commences. The netters follow up the pigeons
+in their flight for hundreds of miles. The past year there have been
+nestings in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, though in the former two
+States they were of short duration, as they soon broke up and the birds
+turned their flight to the northwest. The flight of a pigeon is, under
+favorable conditions, sixty to ninety miles an hour, and these birds
+of passage leaving the Pennsylvania forests at daybreak can reach the
+Michigan nesting grounds by sunset.
+
+Many of the little travellers came from the westward, crossing the
+stormy waters of the lake with the speed of a dart. From the four
+quarters of the globe, seemingly, they gather. Over the mountains,
+lakes, rivers, and prairies they speed their aërial flight, through
+storm, in sunshine and rain. Actuated as if by a common impulse toward
+the same object, their swift wings soon reach the summer nursery,
+to which they are drawn from points hundreds of miles distant by an
+instinct which surpasses human comprehension.
+
+No less remarkable is the wisdom with which the nesting places are
+chosen, they being always in the densest woods, not in large and heavy
+timber, but generally in smaller trees with many branches, cedars,
+and saplings. The presence of large quantities of mast, which is the
+principal food of these birds, especially beech nuts, is a prominent
+consideration in the selection of a nesting ground. As the feed in the
+vicinity of the nesting becomes exhausted, the birds are compelled to
+go daily farther and farther for food, even as high as seventy-five or
+one hundred miles, and these trips, which are taken twice a day, are
+known as the morning and evening flights.
+
+The apparatus for the capture of wild pigeons consists of a net about
+six feet wide and twenty to thirty feet long. The operator first
+chooses the location for setting his net, which, it is needless to
+add, is in utter disregard of the State law, which prescribes certain
+limits within which nets must not be placed. A bed of a creek or low
+marshy spot is chosen, if possible at a natural salt lick, or a bed
+of muck, upon which the birds feed. The ground is cleared of grass
+and weeds, and to allure the birds the bed is "baited" with salt and
+sulphur several days before the net is to be placed. A bough house is
+made about twenty feet from the end of the bed, and all is ready for
+the net and its victims. A bird discovers the tempting spot, and with
+the instinct of the honey-bee, returns and brings several others, while
+these in turn bring a multitude, and in less than two days the bed is
+fairly blue with birds feeding on the seasoned muck.
+
+The net is then set by an adjustment of ropes and a powerful spring
+pole, the net being laid along one side of the bed, and the operator
+retires to his bough house, through which the ropes run, where he
+waits concealed for the flights.
+
+Many trappers use two nets ranged along opposite sides of the bed,
+which are thrown toward each other and meet in the center. When enough
+birds are gathered upon the beds to make a profitable throw, the
+operator gives a quick jerk upon the rope, the net flies over in an
+instant, while in its meshes struggle hundreds of unwilling prisoners.
+
+After pinching their necks the trapper removes the dead victims, resets
+the trap, and is ready for another haul. To lure down the birds from
+their flight overhead, most netters use "fliers" or "stool-pigeons."
+The former are birds held captive by a cord, tied to the leg, being
+thrown up into the air when a flight is observed approaching, and drawn
+fluttering down when the "flier" has reached its limit. The latter is a
+live pigeon tied to a small circular framework of wood or wire attached
+to the end of a slender and elastic pole, which is raised and lowered
+by the trapper from his place of concealment by a stout cord and which
+causes constant fluttering. A good stool-pigeon (one which will stay
+upon the stool) is rather difficult to obtain, and is worth from $5 to
+$25. Many trappers use the same birds for several years in succession.
+
+The number of pigeons caught in a day by an expert trapper will seem
+incredible to one who has not witnessed the operation. A fair average
+is sixty to ninety dozen birds per day per net and some trappers will
+not spring a net upon less than ten dozen birds. Higher figures than
+these are often reached, as in the case of one trapper who caught and
+delivered 2,000 dozen pigeons in ten days, being 200 dozen, or about
+2,500 birds per day. A double net has been known to catch as high as
+1,332 birds at a single throw, while at natural salt licks, their
+favorite resort, 300 and 400 dozen, or about 5,000 birds have been
+caught in a single day by one net.
+
+The prices of dead birds range from thirty-five cents to forty cents
+per dozen at the nesting. In Chicago markets fifty to sixty cents.
+Squabs twelve cents per dozen in the woods, in metropolitan markets
+sixty cents to seventy cents. In fashionable restaurants they are
+served as a delicious tid-bit at fancy prices. Live birds are worth
+at the trapper's net forty cents to sixty cents per dozen; in cities
+$1 to $2. It can thus be easily seen that the business, when at all
+successful, is a very profitable one, for from the above quotations a
+pencil will quickly figure out an income of $10 to $40 per day for the
+"poor and hard-working pigeon trapper." One "pigeoner" at the Petoskey
+nesting was reported to be worth $60,000, all made in that business. He
+must have slain at least three million pigeons to gain this amount of
+money.
+
+For several years violations of the laws protecting pigeons in brooding
+time have been notorious in the Michigan nestings. Professional
+"pigeoners" did not for an instant pretend to observe the law, and a
+lax and indifferent public opinion permitted the illegal slaughter
+to go on without let or hindrance, while itinerant pigeon trappers
+from all parts of the United States, grew rich at the expense of the
+commonwealth, and in intentional violation of its laws. Each succeeding
+year the news has been spread far and wide until it became useless
+to conceal the fact that pigeon trapping was a profitable business,
+the year of 1876 witnessing a magnitude in the traffic which exceeded
+anything heretofore known in the country.
+
+In the early part of March last, a pigeon nesting formed just north
+of Petoskey, Michigan. Not many days had passed before information
+was conveyed to the game protection clubs of East Saginaw and Bay
+City, that enormous quantities of pigeons were being killed in open
+and defiant violation of the law. On reaching Petoskey we found the
+condition of affairs had not been magnified; indeed, it exceeded
+our gravest fears. Here, a few miles north, was a pigeon nesting of
+irregular dimensions, estimated by those best qualified to judge, to
+be forty (40) miles in length, by three to ten in width, probably the
+largest nesting that has ever existed in the United States, covering
+something like 100,000 acres of land, and including not less than
+150,000 acres within its limits.
+
+At the hotel we met one we were glad to see, in the person of "Uncle
+Len" Jewell, of Bay City, an old woodsman and "land-looker." Len had
+for several weeks been looking land in the upper peninsula, and was
+on his return home. At our solicitation he agreed to remain for two
+or three days, and co-operate with us. In the village nothing else
+seemed to be thought of but pigeons. It was the one absorbing topic
+everywhere. The "pigeoners" hurried hither and thither, comparing
+market reports, and soliciting the latest quotations on "squabs." A
+score of hands in the packing-houses were kept busy from daylight until
+dark. Wagon load after wagon load of dead and live birds hauled up to
+the station, discharged their freight, and returned to the nesting for
+more. The freight house was filled with the paraphernalia of the pigeon
+hunter's vocation, while every train brought acquisitions to their
+numbers, and scores of nets, stool-pigeons, etc.
+
+The pigeoners were everywhere. They swarmed in the hotels, postoffice,
+and about the streets. They were there, as careful inquiry and the
+hotel registers showed, from New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania,
+Michigan, Maryland, Iowa, Virginia, Ohio, Texas, Illinois, Maine,
+Minnesota, and Missouri.
+
+Hiring a team, we started on a tour of investigation through the
+nesting. Long before reaching it our course was directed by the birds
+over our heads, flying back and forth to their feeding grounds. After
+riding about fifteen miles, we discovered a wagon-track leading into
+the woods, in the direction of the bird sounds which came to our ears.
+Three of the party left the wagon and followed it; the twittering
+grew louder and louder, the birds more numerous, and in a few minutes
+we were in the midst of that marvel of the forest and Nature's
+wonderland--the pigeon nesting.
+
+We stood and gazed in bewilderment upon the scene around and above us.
+Was it indeed a fairyland we stood upon, or did our eyes deceive us. On
+every hand, the eye would meet these graceful creatures of the forest,
+which, in their delicate robes of blue, purple and brown, darted hither
+and thither with the quickness of thought. Every bough was bending
+under their weight, so tame one could almost touch them, while in every
+direction, crossing and recrossing, the flying birds drew a network
+before the dizzy eyes of the beholder, until he fain would close his
+eyes to shut out the bewildering scene.
+
+This portion of the nesting was the first formed, and the young birds
+were just ready to leave the nests. Scarcely a tree could be seen but
+contained from five to fifty nests, according to its size and branches.
+Directed by the noise of chopping and falling trees, we followed on,
+and soon came upon the scene of action.
+
+Here was a large force of Indians and boys at work, slashing down the
+timber and seizing the young birds as they fluttered from the nest.
+As soon as caught, the heads were jerked off from the tender bodies
+with the hand, and the dead birds tossed into heaps. Others knocked
+the young fledglings out of the nests with long poles, their weak
+and untried wings failing to carry them beyond the clutches of the
+assistant, who, with hands reeking with blood and feathers, tears the
+head off the living bird, and throws its quivering body upon the heap.
+
+Thousands of young birds lay among the ferns and leaves dead, having
+been knocked out of the nests by the promiscuous tree-slashing, and
+dying for want of nourishment and care, which the parent birds, trapped
+off by the netter, could not give. The squab-killers stated that "about
+one-half of the young birds in the nests they found dead," owing to the
+latter reason. Every available Indian, man and boy, in the neighborhood
+was in the employ of buyers and speculators, killing squabs, for which
+they received a cent apiece.
+
+Early in the morning, Len, with his land-looker's pack and half-ax, and
+the writer, started out to "look land." Taking the course indicated
+by the obliging small boy, we soon struck into an old Indian trail
+which led us through another portion of the nesting, where the birds
+for countless numbers surpassed all calculation. The chirping and
+noise of wings were deafening and conversation, to be audible, had
+to be carried on at the top of our voices. On the shores of the lake
+where the birds go to drink, when flushed by an intruder, the rush
+of wings of the gathered millions was like the roar of thunder and
+perfectly indescribable. An hour's walk brought us to a ravine which we
+cautiously approached.
+
+Directed by the commotion in the air, we soon discovered the bough
+house and net of the trapper. Evidence being what we sought, we stood
+concealed behind some bushes to await the spring of the trap. The black
+muck bed soon became blue and purple with pigeons lured by the salt and
+sulphur, when suddenly the net was sprung over with a "whiz," retaining
+hundreds of birds beneath it, while those outside its limits flew to
+adjacent trees. We now descended from the brink of the hill to the net,
+and there beheld a sickening sight not soon forgotten.
+
+On one side of the bed of a little creek was spread the net, a double
+one, covering an area when thrown, of about ten by twenty feet. Through
+its meshes were stretched the heads of the fluttering captives vainly
+struggling to escape. In the midst of them stood a stalwart pigeoner
+up to his knees in the mire and bespattered with mud and blood from
+head to foot. Passing from bird to bird, with a pair of blacksmith's
+pincers, he gave the neck of each a cruel grip with his remorseless
+weapon, causing the blood to burst from the eyes and trickle down the
+beak of the helpless captive, which slowly fluttered its life away,
+its beautiful plumage besmeared with filth and its bed dyed with its
+crimson blood. When all were dead, the net was raised, many still
+clinging to its meshes with beak and claws in their death grip and were
+shaken off. They were then gathered, counted, deposited behind a log
+with many others and covered with bushes, and the death trap set for
+another harvest.
+
+Scarcely able to conceal our indignation, we sat upon the bank and
+questioned this hero, learning that he had pursued the business for
+years, and had caught as high as 87 dozen in one day, learning later
+that he caught and killed upon that day, 82 dozen, or 984 birds. This
+outrage was perpetrated within 100 rods of the nests and in plain
+hearing of the nesting sounds, instead of two miles away, as the law
+prescribes. After gaining some further information, the old gray-headed
+land-looker and his companion withdrew, bidding the pigeon pirate
+good-day, and leaving him none the wiser for the visit. Out of sight
+we worked our way back to the road, overtook the stage and returned to
+Petoskey. The next day the writer swore out a warrant and caused the
+arrest of the offender, who could not do otherwise than plead guilty,
+and had the satisfaction of seeing him pay over his fine of $50 for his
+poor knowledge of distances.
+
+The shooting done at the nesting was in the most flagrant violation of
+the protective laws. The five-mile limit was a dead letter. The shotgun
+brigade went where they listed, and shot the birds in the nesting as
+they sat in rows on the trees or passed in clouds overhead. Before we
+arrived, a party of four men shot 826 birds in one day and then only
+stopping from sheer fatigue. Other parties continued the fusillade
+until the guns became so foul they could not be used, and would return
+to the village with a wagon-box full of birds. Scores of dead pigeons
+were left on the grounds to decay, and the woods were full of wounded
+ones. H. Frayer, a justice of the peace, informed us that a few days
+previously he had picked up fifteen maimed birds, his neighbor, a Mr.
+Green, twenty, and a Mr. Crossman, thirty-six, all in one day, after a
+shooting party had passed through.
+
+The news of the formation of the nesting was not long in reaching the
+various Indian settlements near Petoskey, and the aborigines came in
+tens and fifties and in hordes. Some were armed with guns, but the
+majority were provided with powerful bows, and arrows with round, flat
+heads two or three inches in diameter. With these they shot under or
+into the nests, knocked out the squabs to the ground, and raked the
+old birds which loaded the branches. For miles the roads leading to
+the nesting were swarming with Indians, big and little, old and young,
+squaws, pappooses, bucks and young braves, on ponies, in carts and on
+foot. Each family brought its kit of cooking utensils, axes, a stock of
+provisions, tubs, barrels and firkins to pack the birds in, and came
+intending to carry on the business until the nesting broke up. In some
+sections the woods were literally full of them.
+
+[Illustration: UPPER SPECIMEN, PASSENGER PIGEON (_Ectopistes
+Migratoria_)
+
+LOWER SPECIMEN, MOURNING DOVE (_Zenaidura Macroura_)
+
+Frequently mistaken for Passenger Pigeon]
+
+With the aid of Sheriff Ingalls, who spoke their language like a
+native, we one day drove over 400 Indians out of the nesting, and
+their retreat back to their farms would have rivaled Bull Run. Five
+hundred more were met on the road to the nesting and turned back. The
+number of pigeons these two hordes would have destroyed would have
+been incalculable. Noticing a handsome bow in the hands of a young
+Indian, who proved to a son of the old chief, Petoskey, a piece of
+silver caused its transfer to us, with the remark, "Keene, kensau, mene
+sic" (now you can go and shoot pigeons), which dusky joke seemed to be
+appreciated by the rest of the young chief's companions.
+
+There are in the United States about 5,000 men who pursue pigeons
+year after year as a business. Pigeon hunters with whom we conversed
+incognito stated that of this number there were between 400 and 500
+at the Petoskey nesting plying their vocation with as many nests, and
+more arriving upon every train from all parts of the United States.
+When it is remembered that the village was alive with pigeoners, that
+nearly every house in the vast area of territory covered by the nesting
+sheltered one to six pigeon men, and that many camped out in the woods,
+the figures will not seem improbable. Every homesteader in the country
+who owned or could hire an ox team or pair of horses, was engaged in
+hauling birds to Petoskey for shipment, for which they received $4 per
+wagon load. To "keep peace in the family" and avoid complaint, the
+pigeon men fitted up many of the settlers with nets, and instructed
+them in the art of trapping.
+
+Added to these were the buyers, shippers, packers, Indians and boys,
+making not less than 2,000 persons (some placed it at 2,500) engaged
+in the traffic at this one nesting. Fully fifty teams were engaged
+in hauling birds to the railroad station. The road was carpeted with
+feathers, and the wings and feathers from the packing-houses were used
+by the wagon load to fill up the mud holes in the road for miles out of
+town. For four men to attempt to effect a work, having for opponents
+the entire country, residents and non-residents included, was no slight
+task.
+
+The majority of the pigeoners were a reckless, hard set of men, but
+their repeated threats that they would "buckshot us" if we interfered
+with them in the woods failed to inspire the awe that was intended. It
+was four against 2,000. What was accomplished against such fearful odds
+may be seen by the following:
+
+The regular shipments by rail before the party commenced operations
+were sixty barrels per day. On the 16th of April, just after our
+arrival, they fell to thirty-five barrels, and on the 17th down to
+twenty barrels per day, while on the 22d the shipments were only eight
+barrels of pigeons. On the Sunday previous there were shipped by
+steamer to Chicago 128 barrels of dead birds and 108 crates of live
+birds. On the next Sabbath following our arrival the shipments were
+only forty-three barrels and fifty-two crates. Thus it will be seen
+that some little good was accomplished, but that little was included
+in a very few days of the season, for the treasury of the home clubs
+would not admit of keeping their representatives longer at the nesting,
+the State clubs, save one, did not respond to the call for assistance,
+and the men were recalled, after which the Indians went back into the
+nesting, and the wanton crusade was renewed by pigeoners and all hands
+with an energy which indicated a determination to make up for lost time.
+
+The first shipment of birds from Petoskey was upon March 22, and the
+last upon August 12, making over twenty weeks, or five months, that the
+bird war was carried on. For many weeks the railroad shipments averaged
+fifty barrels of dead birds per day--thirty to forty dozen old birds
+and about fifty dozen squabs being packed in a barrel. Allowing 500
+birds to a barrel, and averaging the entire shipments for the season at
+twenty-five barrels per day, we find the rail shipments to have been
+12,500 dead birds daily, or 1,500,000 for the summer. Of live birds
+there were shipped 1,116 crates, six dozen per crate, or 80,352 birds.
+
+These were the rail shipments only, and not including the cargoes by
+steamers from Petoskey, Cheboygan, Cross Village and other lake ports,
+which were as many more. Added to this were the daily express shipments
+in bags and boxes, the wagon loads hauled away by the shotgun brigade,
+the thousands of dead and wounded ones not secured, and the myriads of
+squabs dead in the nest by trapping off of the parent birds soon after
+hatching (for a young pigeon will surely die if deprived of its parents
+during the first week of its life), and we have at the lowest possible
+estimate a grand total of 1,000,000,000 pigeons sacrificed to Mammon
+during the nesting of 1878.
+
+The task undertaken in behalf of justice and humanity was a Herculean
+one, but backed up by such true sportsmen as A. H. Mershon and Wm. J.
+Loveland, of East Saginaw, and Judge Holmes, S. A. Van Dusen, D. H.
+Fitzhugh, Jr., and others of Bay City, as well as by the sentiment of
+every humane citizen of the State, we could not do other than follow
+the advice of Davy Crockett, and being sure we were right, we decided
+to "go ahead." The question of a wise protection to the game and fish
+of our State is one in which the writer holds a deep and fervent
+interest, and in serving this cause, he will swerve from no duty, nor
+shrink from consequences in the discharge of that duty.
+
+The foregoing article is the result of an honest conviction that the
+best interests of the State demanded a full exposure of the methods by
+which the pigeon is threatened with extinction.
+
+  AMONG THE PIGEONS.
+
+  A Reply to Professor Roney's Account of
+  the Michigan Nestings of 1878.
+
+  --BY--
+
+  E. T. MARTIN,
+
+  In the Chicago Field, Jan. 25, 1879.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  E. T. Martin's Headquarters at Boyne Falls, Michigan, during the
+  Nesting of 1878.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Fac-simile reproduction of circular, issued 1879, showing E. T.
+Martin's pigeon headquarters at Boyne Falls, Mich.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+The Pigeon Butcher's Defense
+
+By E. T. Martin, from the "American Field," Chicago, January 25, 1879.
+
+  The preceding chapter by Prof. H. B. Roney in _American Field_, was
+  answered by E. T. Martin, a game dealer of Chicago, who afterwards
+  issued a pamphlet, the first page of which is herewith reproduced, and
+  I make quite extensive extracts from the body of the circular, which
+  incidentally advertises Martin as "the largest dealer in live pigeons
+  for trap shooting in the world, also a dealer in guns, glass balls,
+  traps, nets, etc."
+
+  I call the reader's attention to the following:
+
+  In the table given of the shipments from Petoskey and Boyne Falls,
+  etc., during 1878, Martin estimates the number shipped alive from
+  Cheboygan as 89,730, yet H. T. Phillips of Detroit, shows from his
+  records that he alone shipped from that point 175,000 that year. So if
+  Martin's estimates are all as far wrong as this one, he should account
+  for a total shipment of over 2,000,000 pigeons.
+
+  In Martin's circular, he seems to take offense at some remarks Prof.
+  Roney has made in this article that reflect upon the character of
+  these netters, for Martin uses in quotation marks the following: "A
+  reckless, hard set of men, pirates, etc.," which seems to have some
+  foundation in fact, as Martin says: "In proof of the pigeons feeding
+  squab indiscriminately, I may mention the fact that one of the men
+  in my employ this year, while at the Shelby nesting in 1876 in one
+  afternoon shot and killed six hen pigeons that came to feed the one
+  squab in the same nest." Further comment is unnecessary.--W. B. M.
+
+
+A little after the middle of March a body of birds began nesting some
+twelve miles north of Petoskey, near Pickerel Lake. About April 8
+another and larger body "set in" along Maple and Indian Rivers, and
+Burt Lake, and near Cross Village, there being in all some seven or
+eight distinct nestings, covering perhaps, of territory actually
+occupied by the nesting, a tract some fifteen miles long and three of
+average width, or forty-five square miles.
+
+The principal catch was made from the Crooked and Maple rivers
+nestings, and when the former "broke," which was about May 25, the
+pigeoners pulled up and left, many going home, and others to the Boyne
+Falls nesting, some thirty miles south, which "set in" at about the
+same time. This gave a duration of two and one-third months to the
+Petoskey nesting proper, though it is true that, feed being abundant,
+some very few birds remained around, roosting for a little longer.
+
+The Boyne Falls nesting lasted something over a month and broke early
+in July; from this the catch was very light. After that, the only catch
+was a few young birds taken "on bait."
+
+Besides these nestings, there was one further south on the Manistee
+River, some twenty-six miles long by five average width, or 130 square
+miles, in which the birds hatched three times, and from which not a
+bird was caught, as it was an impenetrable swamp, and the putting of
+birds on the market would be attended with such expense as to destroy
+the profit. There were also one or two smaller ones, east of this
+one. These comprised the Michigan nestings, in addition to which, at
+Sheffield, Pa., there was fully as large a body, and fully as large a
+catch as at the Crooked and Maple nestings, the birds hatching there,
+I think, three times, each hatching taking four weeks, from the
+beginning of nest building to the time the old birds leave the young.
+
+It is true, however, that birds were shipped from Petoskey the middle
+of August, but they were birds belonging to me that I was holding there
+for a market, my Chicago pens being full. Every bird of them had been
+in my possession for a month previous, and many for six weeks. So the
+actual pigeon business lasted not five months, as Prof. Roney says, but
+about three; part of which time the total catch was not fifty dozen per
+day.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They (Prof. Roney et al.) came to Petoskey with a great flourish of
+trumpets, hired expensive livery rigs to ride around the country in,
+made one or two arrests, secured one conviction by default, were
+defeated in every case that came to trial, had one of the party play
+the rôle of "terrible example" in the trout case, and then went home,
+and in the face of the fact that they had eaten, or known of having
+been eaten, hundreds of pigeons, and of the certainty that the report
+was false, had published in the Saginaw paper a report that the pigeons
+then being caught in Michigan were feeding on poisoned berries, and
+the using them for food had caused much sickness, and in one or two
+instances loss of life.
+
+This was not only published in the home papers, but was telegraphed
+to New York, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis and Cincinnati, and marked
+copies of the notice sent to the press of neighboring cities, the
+avowed object being to cause such a decline in price as to force the
+netters to quit. It was based on the idea that most of them were men of
+small means, and that unless ready market offered for their birds, they
+must give out. The effect was to cause a drop in price of fifty cents
+a dozen in New York and Boston in a single day, to cause the price in
+Chicago to decline to twenty cents per dozen, and to take the last
+cent out of the pockets of a hundred netters, leaving many who became
+discouraged and had to walk long distances to their homes, dependent on
+chance for even a mouthful to eat. Many, though, held out. Telegrams
+of denial were sent, and the market in a week or two rallied somewhat,
+though it was a month before prices in the East touched the same figure
+as when the "poison-berry" telegrams were received. During the week
+when prices were lowest I refused to buy many dead birds offered me
+at five cents per dozen, preferring to lend the netter money, or to
+advance it on his next catch to be saved alive.
+
+And, by the way, let me say that killing the pigeons by pincers is an
+instantaneous and painless death, the neck being broken by a single
+movement, and the fluttering spoken of being the same seen in any bird
+shot through the head, or with the head cut off. But had the market
+remained unbroken, had this infamous poisoned berry story never been
+started, no such net results in way of profit would have been reached
+as Prof. Roney says. Under very favorable circumstances, a good netter
+in such a season as we had in 1878, would make from $100 to $200, but
+by far the larger portion would not reach $100 over expenses.
+
+At the Crooked and Maple nestings day in and day out the average catch
+was about twenty dozen per day to each net and two men. These sold,
+except immediately after the "poisoned berry story," at from twenty to
+thirty cents per dozen head, at the net, or if the catcher was saving
+alive, in which case his catch would be one-third smaller, owing to the
+trouble of handling the live birds, he would get from thirty-five to
+forty-five cents.
+
+The principal object in saving them alive was that no birds spoiled
+from warm weather, and at my pens close by the nesting they would be
+received at any hour, while to sell dead birds it was necessary to
+depend on some chance buyer or to haul to Petoskey, fourteen miles
+distant. At Boyne Falls prices were a little higher, say twenty-five
+for dead and fifty cents for live, but the average catch was not five
+dozen per day to each net. There were exceptions both ways, which
+went of course to make up the average, the most notable being that of
+the 2,000 dozen caught by one party, not in ten days, but in twenty,
+employing two nets and six men. This I know, for I was at the net and
+saw part of the catching, while Prof. Roney never got that far. This
+2,000 dozen was shipped East and netted the catchers just fifteen
+cents a dozen at the net, or $300 for twenty days' work for six men and
+two nets, while on the other hand, during the same time, many better
+catchers who had not been lucky in location hadn't made enough to pay
+for board. Names, locations, etc., can be furnished if Prof. Roney
+desires.
+
+The Professor then goes on to lament his failure before our Emmett
+County jury. The reason why is very simple, _he never proved his
+case_. This whole pigeon trade was a perfect Godsend to a large
+portion of Emmett County. The land outside of Petoskey is taken up
+by homesteaders, who, between clearing their land, scanty crops,
+poor soil, large families, and small capital, are poorer than Job's
+turkey's prodigal son, and in years past have had all they could do
+fighting famine and cold, and but a year or so since all Michigan was
+sending relief to keep them from starving, thousands of dollars being
+contributed, and then most harrowing tales being told of need and
+destitution.
+
+The "pirates and bummers" left some $35,000 in good greenbacks right
+among the most needy of these people. Many were enabled to buy a team,
+others to clear more land, more to increase their crops, and all to lay
+in provisions and clothing to meet the bitter winter we are now passing
+through, and this money did more to open up Emmett County than years
+of ordinary work. It put scores of honest, hard-working homesteaders
+on their feet; it increased trade, and, if sent by a special act of
+Providence, could not have done more good. Such being the case, can any
+blame be given an Emmett County jury if they required evidence direct
+and to the point before convicting? And in no case that came to trial
+was direct evidence given. So the four true "sportsmen" there in behalf
+of justice and humanity, had such a cold reception from all, that they
+concluded strategy beat that kind of work all to death, pulled up
+stakes and hurried home, and worked up the poisoned berry business.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, about the merciless slaughter. Prof. Roney estimates 1,500,000
+dead and 80,000 live birds as the shipments, and then goes on to say
+that _one billion_ birds have been destroyed! What logic.
+
+I have official figures before me, and they show that the shipments
+from Petoskey and Boyne Falls were:
+
+  Petoskey, dead, by express                  490,000
+  Petoskey, alive, by express                  86,400
+  Boyne Falls, dead                            47,100
+  Boyne Falls, alive                           42,696
+  Petoskey, dead, by boat, estimated          110,000
+  Petoskey, alive, by boat, estimated          33,640
+  Cheboygan, dead, by boat, estimated         108,300
+  Cheboygan, alive, by boat, estimated         89,730
+  Other points, dead and alive, estimated     100,000
+                                            ---------
+        Total                               1,107,866
+
+This may be set down as accurate or nearly so, and 1,500,000 will
+cover the total destruction of birds by net, gun and Indians. The
+total number of nesting squabs taken by the Indians would not reach
+100,000 and not over fifty barrels of these ever reached a market,
+the Indians smoking the remainder for winter use. No one knows how
+many birds 1,500,000 are until they see them, and handle a few. As an
+illustration: To buy and sell 125,000 birds in four months, it took
+myself, two men and a boy all our time, working from daylight until
+after dark every day.
+
+I doubt if there were a billion birds in all the Crooked and Maple
+nestings. I am certain that there were not at any one time. I am also
+certain that more than double as many young birds left those nestings
+than all the birds caught, killed or destroyed. The morning that the
+Crooked nesting broke, I was out at daylight, and at the net to see and
+help one of my men make a strike; for an hour and a half a continuous
+body of birds half a mile wide and very thick was going out; our strike
+was twenty-nine dozen, twenty-five dozen young and four dozen old,
+about the same proportion as the other catchers. This showed that of
+the immense body over five-sixths were young birds, barely old enough
+ones remaining to guide the body of young, and this was out of the
+nesting from which the bulk of the birds had been caught, where the
+destruction had been the greatest. When it is considered that the
+Manistee birds hatched three times unmolested, that there was a body
+several times larger there, than at the Crooked and Maple, and that
+many from each body went further north entirely out of reach and nested
+at least once, possibly twice again, some idea may be formed of the
+immense addition to the army of pigeons from the Michigan nestings of
+1878. Many more young birds left the Crooked River nesting alone, than
+all, old or young, destroyed during the entire season's pigeoning.
+
+Prof. Roney's lament about the young dying when deprived of the parent
+bird, and his addition to the number "sacrificed to Mammon" from that
+source, compares favorably with the poisoned berry story, or the attack
+on Turner. Admitting that 1,500,000 birds were caught and killed, not
+more than half of these would be old birds, some of which would not be
+nesting, and from some of which the young had left the nest. If for
+every one of the 750,000 old birds caught and killed, the squab had
+died, this would make a total slaughter of 2,250,000, or about one four
+hundred and fiftieth of the number he says.
+
+I don't believe Prof. Roney knows what a billion is. However, there
+were not 750,000, no, nor 100,000 squabs killed by losing their
+parents. It is a well-proved fact that the old bird coming in will stop
+and feed any squab heard crying for food, that in this way they look
+out for one another's young, and the orphans or half-orphans are cared
+for. It is rare, however, for both old birds to be caught or killed,
+since the toms and hens when nesting always fly separately, and the
+chance of both the parents of the squab falling a "victim to Mammon,"
+particularly in a large nesting, is small. As proof of the pigeons
+feeding squabs indiscriminately, I may mention that one of the men in
+my employ this year, at the Shelby nesting in 1876, in one afternoon
+shot and killed six hen pigeons that came to _feed_ the _one squab_ in
+the _same nest_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Why, Prof. Roney, the catch went on all the same, your party made no
+difference of note, but the weather was rough and somewhat stormy; the
+birds didn't "stool" well, and during the days mentioned the catch was
+very small, hence the decrease in shipments. Now, regarding the law, it
+is well enough as it is; one shotgun near a nesting is more destructive
+than a dozen nets; the report of the gun causes the birds to rise in
+thousands, and, when repeated, to leave in a body, regardless of nest
+or squab, and never to return; as an example, may be mentioned, the
+Minnesota nesting of 1877, when the birds were driven entirely away.
+
+The net is silent; its work occasions no alarm; it makes no cripples,
+consequently it can be admitted nearer to the nests than its more noisy
+partner. Protect the pigeons entirely, and a law forbidding catching
+during nesting time is equivalent to entire protection, and you have
+northern Michigan overrun with a pest that will destroy the farmer's
+seed as fast as sown, and when harvest time approaches, pounce upon a
+wheat field ready for the reaper and in an hour not leave even enough
+for the gleaner. Their increase would be more rapid, their stay longer,
+and in four years not only would the law be repealed, but inducements
+to slaughter would be held out to rid the State of the rapidly
+increasing and destructive pests.
+
+The pigeon never will be exterminated so long as forests large enough
+for their nestings and mast enough for their food remain.
+
+In conclusion, the pigeons are as much an article of commerce as wheat,
+corn, hogs, beeves, or sheep. It is no more cruel to kill them for
+market by the thousand, than it is to countenance the killing at the
+stock yards in this or any other large commercial center. The paper
+to-night shows that in six cities over four million hogs have been
+killed since Nov. 1, 1878, or two and a half months, a larger slaughter
+than, during the same time, of pigeons at the nestings by nearly
+threefold. Yet this is not "sacrificing to Mammon." A farmer can market
+his poultry dead or alive at any time of the year, and the slaughter,
+the country over, is larger than that of pigeons, yet no one in the
+interest of "justice and humanity" interferes.
+
+The pigeon is migratory, it can care for itself. It nests in the
+impenetrable wilds of Arkansas, the Indian Territory, Canada and
+British America, as often as in the land of civilization where it
+can be reached for market. It is a source of profit to the poor, or
+pleasure to the rich. Its benefits to the Emmett County homesteaders,
+as felt through the cold of this winter alone, are enough to compensate
+for evils even as black as our Prof. Roney paints, and Emmett County is
+but a sample of whatever location the birds may settle in.
+
+Let the law, in regard to distance, stand as it is. Enforce it against
+all alike; make no exceptions; let the rule of supply and demand
+govern the catchings, and you will have something better than all
+the professors in Michigan suggest. Let the supply be so large that
+prices are low and wages can't be made, and law or no law, the catching
+will stop. But don't make a law that will take bread out of the
+homesteader's mouth, and work from hundreds of poor and honest men; no,
+not even if the birds should be sacrificed, to a certain extent, for
+man is above the beasts, and the "beasts of the field and the birds of
+the air" are given unto him for his benefit and his profit.
+
+[Illustration: H. T. PHILLIPS' STORE
+
+A typical game store of the early 70's]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Notes of a Vanished Industry
+
+  I have corresponded with many men who were actively interested in
+  hunting and observing the Passenger Pigeon when its flocks still
+  numbered uncounted millions of birds. Some of the data supplied in
+  kind response to my queries is in the form of hastily jotted notes,
+  which, when they are brought together, include more or less repetition
+  of personal experiences. They have a certain value, however, when
+  taken _en masse_, for they are the testimony of eye-witnesses who will
+  soon be gone, after which the Passenger Pigeon will become as much a
+  matter of written history and tradition as the auk or the buffalo.
+
+  I am under obligation to Mr. Henry T. Phillips, of Detroit, for much
+  practical information regarding the capture of pigeons, and the
+  business of marketing them as he knew it in those earlier days. There
+  follows a portion of a letter written me by Mr. Phillips in October,
+  1904.--W. B. M.
+
+
+I am in receipt of your letter asking for information about the wild
+pigeon, but I do not know that I can be of much benefit to you, though
+I will give you what information I can.
+
+I began business in Cheboygan, Mich., in May, 1862, as a dealer in
+groceries and produce and added the commission business a little
+later, as I was fond of shooting, and I began advertising the sale
+of game. I have been credited by dealers in New York with being the
+largest shipper of venison in the United States. In 1864 (I think it
+was) I had a shipment of live wild pigeons which we brought down the
+Cheboygan River from Black Lake in crates holding six dozen each. All
+of these crates were made by hand by one E. Osborn, who was then one
+of the traveling pigeon catchers, the firm being Osborn & Thompson,
+well known by all men who traveled then. From that time I have handled
+live pigeons in quantities up to 175,000 per year until they left the
+country. The last nesting in Michigan was up on Crooked Lake near
+Petoskey in 1878, I believe, from which I shipped 150,000.
+
+In 1866, they nested in the town of Vassar, Tiscola County, Mich., and
+usually each alternate year, as the mast crop was every second season,
+beech nuts being their choice food. The other years they nested in
+Wisconsin on acorns, or in Minnesota, feeding on spring wheat. New York
+sometimes held them, and Pennsylvania often, for a nesting; but being
+a hard place they never caught many there, Michigan being the favorite
+trapping ground. 1874 there was a nesting at Shelby, Oceana County,
+Mich., on which it was estimated they made the heaviest catches I have
+ever known of: 100 barrels daily on an average of thirty days of dead
+birds, besides the live ones, of which I shipped 175,000.
+
+There were five nestings that year in the State, three going on at
+the same time, but all not heavily worked. That year I shipped by the
+steamer _Fountain City_, from Frankfort, 478 coops, six dozen each,
+one shipment going to Oswego, N. Y., for the Leather Stocking Club
+Tournament.
+
+I bought from Dr. Slyfield 600 dozen at $1 per dozen, agreeing to pay
+only in one-hundred-dollar bills. He traveled two days to get twelve
+dozen to make up the shortage. The pigeons at that time wintered in
+southern Missouri and the Indian Nation, and were shot at night by
+natives and marketed in St. Louis. As they fed on pine-oak acorns,
+which tainted the meat, the market was poor and prices low. The
+traveling netters usually worked at something else while South.
+
+The pigeons started north about the last of March, and usually located
+the last of May, according to weather. If food was plentiful they
+nested in large bodies; if not, they divided and nested in fewer
+numbers. In Wisconsin I have seen a continual nesting for 100 miles,
+with from one to possibly fifty nests on every oak scrub.
+
+In Michigan usually the feeding grounds were across the straits, where
+blueberries were abundant, until fall, when the birds scattered back in
+small bodies, feeding on stubble and elm seed. Frequently they would
+go into a roosting place, and make it a home for weeks before leaving
+for the South. Traveling north, they usually flew until about ten or
+eleven in the morning and again in the evening. I have known of large
+quantities being drowned in Lake Huron, crossing from Canada on the way
+north, and have had lake captains tell me of passing for three hours
+through dead birds, which had been caught in a fog.
+
+In 1874 there were over six hundred professional netters, and when
+the pigeons nested north, every man and woman was either a catcher
+or a picker. They used to catch them in different ways. What was
+known as flight-catching was in the early morning and evening, a spot
+being cleared of usually twelve to sixteen feet wide and twenty to
+twenty-four feet long, large enough for a net. This was known as the
+bed. About fifty feet from the bed a brush house was built and the
+net was staked down, two spring poles were set to spring the net out
+straight, but loose enough to fall easy and cover the full size of the
+bed. The front line of the net was tied to these stakes and they were
+sprung or set back as if all of the net was in a roll. A short stake
+with a line attached to the outside edge ran to the bough house, a
+stick about three feet long was placed under a catch called the hub,
+and the other end of this stick was placed against another peg driven
+in the ground. When the short stick was pulled from underneath the
+crotch, the spring poles forced the net over the bed; the short sticks
+raised the net about three feet; and of course it was all done very
+quickly.
+
+Another method was employed later in the season; a place was baited
+with buckwheat, sometimes with broomcorn seed, or wheat, for a week or
+two, and, when a large body of birds was collected, the net was set.
+A much larger net is used now. Then is when we got our live birds for
+shooting matches. In the spring time is money, and the netters could
+save many more dead than alive.
+
+I knew of a man paying $300 for the privilege of netting on one salt
+spring near White River. It was a spring dug for oil, boarded up
+sixteen feet square. He cut it down a little and built a platform, and
+caught once or twice each week. He got 300 dozen at one haul in this
+house. He said they were piled there three feet deep.
+
+I once pulled a net on a bait bed and we saved 132 dozen alive, but
+many got out from underneath the net, there being too many on the bed.
+The net used was 28 × 36 feet. I have lost 3,000 birds in one day
+because the railroad did not have a car ready on the date promised. I
+threw away what cost me $250 in eight hours, fat birds, because the
+weather was too hot. I have bought carloads in Wisconsin at 15 and 25
+cents per dozen, but in Michigan we usually paid from 50 cents to $1
+a dozen. I have fed thirty bushels of shelled corn daily at $1.20 per
+bushel, and paid out from $300 to $600 per day for pigeons.
+
+I never allowed game to be shipped to me out of season; if it came, I
+never paid for it.
+
+About two years ago I was told by a man who just got back from the
+Northwest, Calgary, that the birds were so thick in the north that
+they darkened the sun. They were probably nesting, as he said they
+were seen every morning.... Up to ten years ago I was shooting on the
+Mississippi bayous for twenty-five years, and used to see and kill some
+pigeons nearly every spring, from the middle of March to the middle of
+April. We have shot seventy-two pounds of powder in my camp in thirty
+days, the party consisting of three men; and two of us have killed
+twelve barrels of ducks (Mallards) in four days. On the Detroit River
+I have shot, in one week, mostly redheads, the following on different
+days: 102, 119, 142, 155....
+
+[I have quoted from the latter part of Mr. Phillips' letter to show how
+plentiful other kinds of birds were in the old days.]
+
+Under date of Nov. 1, 1904, Mr. Phillips writes as follows:
+
+"In regard to dates, would say that the last nesting of birds set in
+at about 5 P.M., May 5, 1878, on the southeast side of Crooked Lake.
+Express charges on barrels to New York from Michigan were $6.50, from
+Wisconsin $8; on live birds $3 per cwt."
+
+Mr. Phillips also incloses a letter written to him by Mr. Osborn, of
+Alma, Mich., under date of February 23, 1898, which reads:
+
+
+                                  Alma, Mich., February 23, 1898.
+
+Friend H. T. Phillips:
+
+Yours with the questions to be answered received, and will say:
+
+... There have been several bodies nesting in Michigan at the same
+time, and I will give the years and places that I was out. In 1861 a
+large body of birds were in Ohio roosting in the Hocking Hills, my
+first year out. We were at Circleville, and my company shipped over
+225 barrels, mostly to New York and Boston. The birds fed on the corn
+fields. In 1862 the birds nested at Monroe, Wis. We commenced in May
+and remained until the last of August. The several companies put up
+some ten thousand dozen for stall feeding after the freight shipment.
+Express charges on each barrel were from $7 to $9. In the fall of 1862
+we had fine sport shooting birds in the roost at Johnstown, Ohio (now
+Ada), some four weeks. Then the birds moved to Logan County. After two
+weeks the birds skipped South, it being December and snow on the ground.
+
+In 1863 the birds nested in Pennsylvania. We had some fine sport at
+Smith Port and at Sheffield. We located at Cherry Grove, six miles from
+Sheffield. The birds fed on hemlock mast. There were other nestings
+in Pennsylvania at the same time. In 1864, at St. Charles, Minn., we
+had some fine sport, but our freights were high to New York, so we
+came to Leon, Wis. A heavy body was nesting in the Kickapoo woods, and
+several companies of hunters located here. In 1865 a heavy nesting was
+in Canada, near Georgian Bay. We were at Angus Station on the Northern
+Railroad, and the snow was two feet under the nesting. We next went
+to Wisconsin, where a heavy snowstorm broke up the roosts. We were at
+Afton, Brandon and Appleton. We then went to Rochester, Minn., the end
+of the railroad. At that time birds nested in the Chatfield timber. We
+then went to Marquette in the Upper Peninsula and camped on Dead River.
+A heavy body had got through nesting, but worlds of birds were feeding
+on blueberries.
+
+This was the year the _Pewabic_ sunk. Mr. George Snook had 1,400
+barrels of trout and whitefish on her. We went up on the _Old Traveler_
+and came down on the _Meteor_. In 1866 the birds nested in a heavy body
+near Martinsville, Ind. We caught some birds at Cartersburg. After we
+closed up in Indiana we went to Pennsylvania. There was a heavy nesting
+near Wilcox, at Highlands. In gathering squabs five of us got a barrel
+apiece, which netted us $75 to $100 per barrel in New York. They struck
+a bare market.
+
+In July we had a big time with young birds at Fort Gratiot, near Port
+Huron, from the Forestville nesting. Mr. H. T. Phillips of Detroit was
+chief of a party which had fine shooting on a Mr. Palmer's place. In
+six days I shipped thirteen barrels to Tremain & Summer, New York, and
+received a check for over $400. They returned me about one-half what
+they sold for.
+
+In 1867 we were in Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and caught more or
+less birds on bait. The birds were broken up by shooting and deep
+snow. In 1868 there was a large nesting near Manistee, and we did
+some big catching, shipped by steamer to Grand Haven, then via rail.
+In April and May was also at Mackinac and North Port and in June did
+some catching at Cheboygan, and here I made our crates of split cedar
+and floated the birds down the river six miles on two canoes lashed
+together, and had to transfer over the dam before reaching the little
+steamer to Mackinac, twelve miles, and then transferred to the Detroit
+boat. The birds were shipped to H. T. Phillips & Co. At Cheboygan I fed
+over one hundred bushels of corn and wheat for bait.
+
+In 1869 the birds were in Canada, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin,
+all at the same time, and shooters broke them up. We located a body
+at Oakfield, Wis., and had a big catch until the farmers broke them
+up. The birds were pulling wheat badly; other feed was gone. The birds
+nested in Michigan, up from Mt. Pleasant, but too far inland to get
+them out. In 1870 the birds nested near Goderich, Can. Did not do much
+there. We then went to Glen Haven and caught some birds. Then we went
+to Cheboygan; sent more or less live birds to H. T. Phillips & Co.,
+of Detroit. In 1871 we located a large body at Tomah, Wis., and did
+some heavy shipping. We used three tiers of ice from a large icehouse,
+and the express per barrel was $12 to New York and Boston. We also
+shipped from Augusta, Wis., express, $13.50 per barrel. A nesting at
+Eau Claire, but we could not get to do much with them there. In 1872 a
+large nesting near South Haven, Mich. We located at Bangor and had a
+big catch in some big snowstorms. Another body near Clam Lake, end of
+railroad. In 1873 we did baiting in Ohio and Wisconsin, but located no
+nesting. In 1874 the birds nested at Shelby in two different locations
+and another at Stanton, Mich.; small body at Stanton. We did heavy
+shipping at Shelby, from one to three cars per day, both alive and
+dead. The birds nested this year at Shelby, two places, and at Stanton,
+and one at Mill Brook and at Frankfort and at Leeland, and probably at
+other points we did not learn of. In 1875 was not out, only baiting
+near St. Johns, Mich. In 1876 a heavy nesting at Shelby, Mich., and
+at Frankfort. I caught at Shelby and at Glen Haven heavy shipments.
+In 1877 was not out, but did some baiting at Eureka. In 1878 a heavy
+nesting between Petoskey and Cheboygan. H. T. Phillips located at
+Cheboygan. I caught at several points between the two cities.
+
+The above is part of my experience with the birds, since which time
+I have kept no record of the movements, but will say that during the
+winter season birds have nested in large numbers in the southern
+States; in Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri. For a great many
+years the birds have been moving west. Last winter I was in Southern
+California, and a body of pigeons were west of Los Angeles, among the
+acorn timber. There are worlds of feed in the foothills, for thousands
+of miles, to feed the birds. They are a greedy bird and will eat
+everything from a hemlock seed to an acorn. I have known them to nest
+on hemlock mast alone in Pennsylvania, and in Michigan on the pine mast
+after the beech mast was gone. Most of the nesting in Michigan happens
+March to July, and then they skip farther north and return in wheat
+seeding.
+
+                                     Alma, Mich., February 24, 1898.
+
+Friend H. T. Phillips:
+
+I will give you a few catches. In 1862, at Monroe, Wis., George Paxon,
+of Evans Center, N. Y., and myself made one haul of 250 dozen five
+miles south of the city on corn bait in a pen 32 × 64 feet with nets
+sprung across the top. We fed at this bed over five hundred bushels
+of corn at 25 cents per bushel, and at our other beds nearly as much.
+After the flight-birds were over, with a single net sprung on the
+ground we have taken 100 dozen at a time.
+
+At Augusta, Wis., in 1871, Charles Curtin, then of Indiana (dead now),
+over one hundred dozen; William W. Cone of Masonville, N. Y., Samuel
+Schook of Circleville, Ohio, and some other boys, 100 dozen and over.
+L. G. Parker of Camden, N. Y., C. S. Martin, the Rocky Mountain hunter
+of Wisconsin, E. G. Slayton of Chetek, Wis., are old trappers and could
+tell of big catches. In 1868, at Cheboygan, I took over six hundred
+fat birds before sunrise. I sold to the United States officers at
+Mackinac for trap shooting, also to Island House. In 1861 there were
+only a few professionals: Dr. E. Osborn of Saratoga, N. Y; William N.
+Cone, Masonville, N. Y; John Ackerman, Columbus, Ohio; L. G. Parke,
+Camden, N. J.; James Thompson, Hookset, N. H.; S. K. Jones, Saratoga,
+N. Y.; George and Charles Paxon of Evans Center, N. Y., and maybe a few
+others. After this time, trappers increased fast. More salt was used in
+Michigan for bait than any other State. I paid at Shelby $4 per barrel.
+Big bodies of pigeons were drowned off Sleeping Bear Point because of
+fog and wind, while trying to cross Lake Michigan. I have seen them.
+
+In the Logan County roost, Ohio, I killed with two barrels, of a
+six-bore shoulder gun, 144 birds. The other boys killed nearly as many
+with smaller guns; we shot on the roost in the dark. Our plan was to
+fire one barrel on the roost and the other as the pigeons flew. The
+highest price paid per dozen was in New York City--$3--by Trimm &
+Summer from Pennsylvania.
+
+For a good many years the birds were in the eastern States, with heavy
+catching in Massachusetts and New York, also Pennsylvania, and the
+hunters worked into Canada, then into Ohio, and so on to Michigan and
+Indiana, long before they took in Wisconsin and Minnesota, after they
+left the eastern country for the west. A big body was at Grand Rapids
+in 1858 or 1859, before I joined the band.
+
+The trappers at Grand Rapids were Dr. Osborn, Cone, Ackerman, the
+two Paxons, Latimer, and a few others, who did some heavy shipping,
+catching the birds on the salt marshes. I have no earlier records for
+Michigan.
+
+I kept no record of the amounts shipped from different points. The old
+books of the express will show if they have kept them. I wait to see
+your report, and remain,
+
+                          Yours truly,
+
+                                                       E. Osborn.
+
+
+                                Detroit, Mich., November 2, 1904.
+
+W. B. Mershon:
+
+Dear Sir:--Last evening I looked over some old papers and found a
+few memoranda that lead to my making some changes in my notes to you
+in regard to the date of last nestings in our State. I also find my
+later surmise confirmed by a letter from one of the first traveling
+pigeon-catchers in the business, Ephraim Osborn, whose uncle, Dr.
+Osborn of Saratoga, N. Y., was one of the original catchers. You will
+note by Mr. Osborn's letter that he has been a shipper of mine for
+a long time. I am well acquainted with him and knew all the men he
+mentioned (with many others) at the Shelby nesting. There were nearly
+six hundred names in the register book of pigeoners in Wisconsin.
+Nearly every one of the farmers, and their wives and daughters, were
+pigeon catchers.
+
+In regard to the dates of last nesting: 1878 was the last year that
+the catch amounted to enough to keep men in the business. I find I was
+at Cheboygan part of the time, and got only a small number of birds in
+1880, but some few nested (small body) that year.
+
+                          Yours truly,
+
+                                                    H. T. Phillips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Recollections of "Old Timers"
+
+
+Mr. Oscar B. Warren, now of Houghton, Mich., has been interested for
+years in collecting data about the Passenger Pigeon, and kindly turned
+over to me his entire budget. Among his letters is the following from
+Mr. H. T. Blodgett, Superintendent of Public Schools, Ludington, Mich.,
+dated November 19, 1904:
+
+... Your pigeon is a stranger to me, or rather has been a stranger for
+six or more years. I can distinctly remember clouds of them, darkening
+the sky, almost, in Pennsylvania, thirty years ago. Later, in Michigan,
+they were abundant, coming to this part of the State as soon as the
+snow was gone, picking up the beech nuts and "shack" of the woods.
+After a few weeks' flying about and feeding they would disappear;
+reappearing again in June, young pigeons, fat, and the choicest eating.
+They would stay a few weeks, not more than about three weeks, going
+about July 1. During this visit the birds haunted the thick woods, and
+would call from the shade of the leaves of beech, maple, and hemlock
+trees through the heat of the day, feeding mornings and evenings on
+the sprouted beech nuts under the leaves.
+
+There would often be a third appearance in September, when I have seen
+buckwheat fields blue with them. Also fall-sowed wheat fields would be
+so covered with them that the farmer had to watch his fields to save
+the seed he had sowed.
+
+During the spring and also the fall visit, flocks searching for feeding
+ground could be called down from flight and induced to light on trees
+near where the call was sounded. The call was one in imitation of the
+pigeon's own call, given either as a peculiar throat sound (liable to
+make the throat sore if too often repeated) or with a silk band between
+two blocks of wood, like this
+
+[Illustration: The pigeon call]
+
+held between the lips and teeth and blown like a blade of grass between
+the thumbs. By biting or pressing with the teeth at (A) (A) the tension
+upon the silk band would be increased, raising the tone of the call or
+relaxing for a lower note. Cleverly used, it was very successful in
+calling pigeons feeding in small flocks to alight.
+
+Much to my regret I have seen none of the beautiful birds for about
+six years. The savage warfare upon them, from nesting place to nesting
+place by pot-hunters and villainous fellows who barreled them for
+market, with nets and every brutal means for wholesale destruction, has
+driven them, I know not whither. If there are considerable flocks of
+them anywhere, I should be glad to know it.
+
+I wish I might help you. Such things as are here hastily recalled and
+written will not be likely to afford anything of interest, but if there
+is any thought or anything in it, it is cheerfully given.
+
+On the great sand bluffs which line our shores in many places, flocks
+of pigeons in passing would fly so low that a man with a club could
+knock them down. At Lincoln, three miles north of here, nets were put
+on the top of the hills, like gill nets, to catch them in their flight.
+
+They were never very successful.
+
+[Illustration: Showing the method of placing pigeon net]
+
+   (_Notes by the Allen Brothers, Joseph and Isaac, of Manchester, Mich.
+  A copy of their letter was received through kindness of L. Whitney
+  Watkins, of Manchester, Mich._)
+
+We have had about fifty years' experience in the business [pigeon
+catching], as we used to help our father as long ago as we can
+recollect, he being one of the best pigeoners in his day, working a
+great deal at the business in the summer season. Until we were twenty
+years old we lived on the shores of Lake Ontario in Wayne County, N. Y.
+
+The pigeons used to have a flying course along the shore of the lake on
+their way to the Montezuma marshes after salt. Pigeons are very fond of
+salt, or, rather, brine. It seems to be a necessary article for them.
+Their course was generally from west to east. They seldom flew west by
+the same route. How far they came, we could not tell; perhaps from this
+State or perhaps farther west. Sometimes they would go west by the same
+route. If so, they were much easier to catch than when going east. When
+going east they were looking for salt; when west, for food.
+
+They used to commence to fly about the 1st of April and keep it up
+until the middle of June. After that time they would scatter over the
+country, and did not fly in large flocks as in the spring.
+
+It would be hard to make any estimate of their numbers that people
+would believe at this late day. I was going to say that a thousand
+million could have been seen in the air all at once. There would
+be days and days when the air was alive with them, hardly a break
+occurring in a flock for half a day at a time. Flocks stretched as far
+as a person could see, one tier above another. I think it would be safe
+to say that millions could have been seen at the same time.
+
+In the year 1854 we moved to Michigan, settling near Adrian, where we
+found pigeons quite plentiful. When they were flying here (Adrian) they
+seemed to scatter over the State, having no regular course.
+
+The supply of pigeons kept very regular here for about twenty-five or
+thirty years. About the time we came west the pigeons became scarce in
+New York, and very few have been seen there since. It is five years
+(1890) since we have seen or heard of any being seen in this State
+(Michigan) or in any other.
+
+Our "pigeoning" was more for sport than profit, and we liked a nice
+broiled pigeon for breakfast about as well as anything we could have,
+especially when they were worth $6.00 per dozen. If the pigeons had
+been sent to the New York market they could have been sold for big
+prices, as pigeons sold for larger and better prices than any other
+game in that market. Our father did not like the idea of sending
+pigeons to New York for a market.
+
+After we came to where we now live (Cambridge), and when I was going
+to Adrian, I stopped at father's on my road. He had been out catching
+pigeons that morning and had secured 600 by 10 o'clock. He said to me:
+
+"I wish you would take these pigeons to Adrian and sell them if you
+can. Take them to the depot and sell them for 10 cents per dozen. If
+you cannot sell them, give them to the workingmen in the shops."
+
+I thought 10 cents was pretty cheap, so I went to selling at 20 cents
+per dozen. When the men came out of the work-shops I sold them all at
+25 cents per dozen. After I left for town, father caught 500 more, and
+took them to Adrian the same day and sold them for 10 cents per dozen.
+If the same lot of pigeons had been shipped to New York, they would
+probably have brought $2 or more per dozen.
+
+About a year from that time we caught 600 in one day, and made up our
+minds we would ship them to New York. We took them to Adrian to ship.
+When we got to Adrian we saw father, who, after inquiring about our
+intentions concerning their shipment, said:
+
+"It is foolish for you to send them, as they will never be heard from."
+
+He advised us to dispose of them for 25 cents per dozen; this was the
+highest price pigeons were worth in Adrian. To please him we tried
+to sell them for that price, but could not, so, taking them to the
+express office, we shipped them. In about four days the returns came,
+netting us 70 cents per dozen, about the lowest price we ever got. They
+explained that the pigeons had been poorly handled or they would have
+brought more. This was thirty-five years ago, _and these were probably
+the first pigeons shipped from this State to New York_.
+
+We have shipped thousands since. They would probably average $2 per
+dozen. We have sold them as high as $3.75 per dozen and have seen them
+quoted as high as $6 per dozen. A pigeoner from Pennsylvania told us
+he shipped two barrels at one time and got $5.50 per dozen. We caught
+2,400 one week, having them all on hand at one time. We got a market
+report from New York where they were quoted at $6.50 per dozen. We
+packed and shipped ours as soon as possible. When they reached market
+they sold for $1.50 per dozen. The army of pigeoners had struck a big
+nesting in the State of Wisconsin the same week we caught ours, and
+they shipped them to market by the wholesale. The market dropped from
+$6.50 to $1.25 in one week.
+
+The pigeon business was very profitable for men who were used to it,
+and there were probably from one to three hundred men in the trade.
+When the pigeons changed their location, the pigeoners would follow
+them, sometimes going over a thousand miles.
+
+When this army of men had good luck they would ship them by the
+hundreds of barrels. Probably as many as five hundred barrels have
+been shipped to New York and Boston in one day. Our commission man in
+New York wrote us that 100 barrels a day could be sold there without
+affecting the market but very little.
+
+I was at a pigeon nesting in the State of Pennsylvania where there were
+from three to five hundred men catching pigeons and squabs. It was a
+great sight to see the birds going back and forth after food. When
+nesting in such large bodies, they leave the food in the near vicinity
+for their young. If they can find plenty of food, they nest in large
+bodies; if not, they scatter over the country and nest in scattered
+colonies.
+
+The nesting I mentioned in Pennsylvania was within one mile of the
+cleared lands. We camped within two miles of the nesting. The pigeons
+kept up a continual roaring by their combined twittering and cooing, so
+that it could be heard for miles away by night as well as day.
+
+Sometimes it is almost impossible to catch the pigeons. At the nesting
+mentioned the most experienced hands found it impossible to take large
+numbers. The whole crowd of men could not catch more than one man ought
+to have caught under the circumstances.
+
+The young pigeons (squabs) were much sought after in New York and
+Boston, and if sent in moderate numbers brought big prices, usually
+about two dollars per dozen. When the squabs were old enough to
+market, the army of pigeoners (estimated to be about five hundred)
+commenced taking them. Entering the woods in which the nesting was
+located, they cut down the trees right and left, cutting the timber
+over thousands of acres. When a tree fell, bringing with it the squabs,
+they picked the young birds up, sometimes getting as many as two dozen
+from one tree. The large trees, which might have yielded fifty or a
+hundred, were left standing. Our company of five took in two days
+thirteen barrels of squabs, averaging 400 to the barrel.
+
+There were shipped from two stations on the Erie road in one day 200
+barrels of these young pigeons. If they had been old birds, they would
+not have broken the market, but this was too many squabs, and the price
+dropped 25 to 45 cents per dozen.
+
+Osborn told me that he once caught 3,500 at one catch. It was at a big
+nesting in the State of Wisconsin. He had an enormous flock baited.
+He said that he put out as high as forty bushels of shelled corn at
+one time on the bed where he caught this large number. For a trap, he
+had constructed a board pen built up from the ground four or five feet
+high. This pen was about one hundred feet long by twenty feet wide. He
+took three large-sized nets, and, tying them together, set them on this
+pen. He had feeding pens built by the side of the trap-pen, so when
+he made a catch he could drive the pigeons into the feeding pens and
+fatten them for market, these "stall-fed" birds bringing much higher
+prices than poor birds. This large catch filled all his feeding pens.
+He said he could have made another catch fully as large as the one just
+mentioned, in one-half hour afterward but, having no room, he could not
+take care of any more.
+
+This method of catching pigeons was much the best when they were to be
+preserved alive. It was rather a late invention in the pigeon-netting
+business. We have caught with one net in the same way as many as four
+hundred at one time. With a net set on the ground we have taken from
+three to five hundred a great many times. In this latter manner, a
+brother of mine caught 556 with one net. Without help, in one day I
+have caught from thirteen to fourteen hundred out of a flock as they
+were flying over.
+
+We have two ways of pigeoning. One is catching out of flocks as they
+are flying over; the other is catching baited pigeons. One way of
+bringing the flocks out of the air was by using live pigeons kept for
+that purpose. These we called "fliers" and "stool-pigeons;" generally
+from three to five fliers and two stool-pigeons. For the "fliers" and
+"stools" we made what we called "boots" of soft leather. These were
+slipped on the leg a little above the foot. To the boots of the fliers
+were fastened small stout cords from two to four rods long, on the
+other end of which was fastened a small bush. If the birds were flying
+high, we used a longer string.
+
+The stool-pigeons were fastened to stools and set on the "bed"; when
+the net was sprung the birds were under it. The bed over which the net
+was sprung was the same size as the net, or from thirty to forty feet
+long by twelve to fifteen feet wide. It was made by clearing the ground
+of all rubbish, and making it as clean as a garden. Before the net was
+set it covered the bed. We tied a rope to each of the front corners. On
+the front side we used two spring stakes fastened in the ground at the
+ends of the ropes, which were tied to the stake about five feet from
+the ground. At one of the stakes we built a bough house so that the
+rope from the net would pass through the house. The back corners were
+fastened with small, notched stakes which were driven in the ground so
+that the notches faced the bough house. We used what we called "flying
+staffs"--small stakes about four feet long and the thickness of a broom
+handle, with a notch cut in one end. We also used two more small stakes
+to set the flying staffs against, to hold the net when set. It took two
+to properly set a net. Each one took a staff, stepped in front, one
+at each corner, caught hold of the rope, and crowded the front edge
+back of the back edge about six inches. Then the flying staffs were
+placed against the small stakes, notch end against the ropes. The net
+was now crowded to the ground and the staffs slipped into the notches
+of the stakes to hold the net in place. The slack of the net was laid
+alongside the rope on the ground. By crowding the net back, it sprung
+the stakes over, which sprung the net. The stool-pigeons were made
+to hover by pulling a line reaching into the bough house, where the
+pigeoner awaited them with his fliers.
+
+When a flock of pigeons came near enough to spy the fliers, the
+pigeoner threw the tethered birds into the air. They quickly flew the
+length of the line and then hovered near the ground. They had the
+appearance of feeding on the bed, which, of course, has been supplied
+with food. The wild flock alighted and began feeding. The net rope
+passing through the bough house was pulled by the pigeoner, and this
+drew the flying staffs from under the hooks, the staffs raised the
+front edge of the net up about four feet, and over it went as quick as
+a flash, covering or catching perhaps five hundred at once.
+
+[Illustration: BAND-TAILED PIGEON (_Columba fasciata_)
+
+Often mistaken for Passenger Pigeon]
+
+
+Letter from James B. Purdy, of Plymouth, Mich.:
+
+                                                   November, 1894.
+
+Oscar B. Warren,
+
+    Palmer, Mich.
+
+Dear Sir:--Yours of November 24 received, asking me to send notes
+on the Passenger Pigeon. In the beginning I would say that I am now
+fifty-one years of age, and I am writing this under the roof of the old
+homestead where I was born, hence my memory of the passenger pigeon
+for this locality extends back to my early boyhood, when millions of
+pigeons visited this locality on their spring and fall migrations, and
+during their spring migrations comparatively few halted with us to
+feed, but the great majority of them winged their way in a high-flying
+flock of unbroken columns, sometimes half a mile in length, to the
+north and west, probably to their breeding grounds; but on their
+return, from the first to the fifteenth of September, they would swarm
+down on our newly sowed wheat fields until acres of ground would be
+blue, and when they arose they would darken the air and their wings
+would sound like distant thunder. They were not so shy at this time
+of the year, as part of them were young birds, which were easily
+distinguished from the old ones by their speckled breasts; and I would
+here state that, during both spring and fall migrations, their greatest
+flight seemed to be from sunrise until about nine or ten o'clock A.M.
+
+My father was an old pigeon catcher, and it was during these fall
+migrations that he would go out in the middle of a wheat field, build
+his bough house, set his net, and prepare for the finest sport in which
+it was ever my good fortune to participate; and many a time have I been
+with him when he has caught hundreds of them in a single morning. You
+may ask, What did you do with so many pigeons? Well, I will tell you.
+We skinned out the breasts, pickled them for two or three days in weak
+brine, and then strung them on strings, from one hundred and fifty to
+two hundred on a string, and hung them up to dry in the same manner
+as dried beef (I mean the breasts). Of course the remainder of the
+carcasses we cooked for immediate use, or as much of them as we needed
+for the family. Let me tell you that those pigeon breasts were a dainty
+morsel, and would last as long as dried beef and was far its superior
+in taste.
+
+While rummaging through the attic a few days since, I came across
+the old pigeon stool upon which the stool-pigeon was tied, which my
+father used so many years ago, and it carried me back to my boyhood and
+conveyed to my mind vivid memories of the past.
+
+The pigeons continued to visit us in great abundance for a number of
+years, although there would be an occasional season when there would
+not be so many. As the years rolled by they became fewer in number
+until in the fall of 1876, when I saw my last Passenger Pigeons (a
+small flock of ten or fifteen), I tried hard to procure some for my
+cabinet, but failed.
+
+One peculiar habit of the Passenger Pigeons was that during their
+migrations, should they alight and their crops were filled with
+inferior food, they would vomit it up in order to fill themselves with
+something better should they find it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+F. N. Lawrence stated in _Forest and Stream_ of February 18, 1899,
+that when a boy, in the late forties, he spent most of his time on
+his grandfather's country seat at Manhattanville, on the North River.
+In those years the wild pigeon flew south on both sides of the North
+River by the thousands in the fall, and in lesser numbers flew north in
+the spring.
+
+He also wrote: "These migrations occurred with the utmost regularity.
+The first easterly storm after September 1st, clearing up with a strong
+northwest wind, was as surely followed by a flight of wild pigeons as
+the sun was to rise. During such storms, I have passed many a sleepless
+night watching to catch the first change of wind, and when it veered
+northwest, daybreak found me on the river bank watching for the flight
+that never failed. Ah! how my heart jumped as flock after flock of wild
+pigeons came flying over Fort Washington like small clouds. I have
+shot a great many of them, but alas, like the buffalo, they are almost
+exterminated."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have run across what was evidently my first diary, dated 1872, when I
+was fourteen years old. I make the following extracts from it:
+
+April 6th. "Pigeon flew this morning."
+
+Then on April 8th I mention 9 pigeons shot in the afternoon by my
+father, and say "they flew very thick in the morning."
+
+The record, like most boys' diaries, seems to have many skips, for the
+next item about pigeons is on the 11th of May, saying that I shot 2
+that day and on the 1st of June I mention that I killed 3 pigeons in
+the morning, "the most I ever have shot at one time."
+
+My marksmanship seems to have improved after that, for on the 7th
+of June I mention shooting 7, and on the 8th 8 (I used to go every
+morning), and on the 10th I got 8 again and on the 11th 12, and so on
+with varying success. On June 11 I mention that the young ones were
+beginning to fly plentifully.
+
+                                                         W. B. M.
+
+
+Extract from a letter written by the late Alexander McDougall of
+Duluth, February 8, 1905:
+
+I have been about Lake Superior since 1863. Have never known any
+rookery near the lake or in Lake Superior Basin, although I think they
+did breed near Lake Superior, for they were in such great quantities
+about the lake during the whole summer. In 1871 when this town (Duluth)
+was first building, there were millions of them about here. In the Lake
+Superior region there are lots of berries but no beech nuts, except
+near Grand Island, 40 miles east of Marquette. It is likely if there
+was any roosting on Lake Superior, this would be the most favorable
+place.... The pigeon was numerous on Lake Superior in 1872, for I have
+recollections of catching some that year while captain of the Steamer
+_Japan_. During foggy weather and at night, they would alight on the
+boat in great numbers, tired out. On foggy mornings, the blowing of
+our whistle would start them up. Often, when they would light on the
+eave of our overhanging deck, we could sneak along under the deck and
+quickly snatch one. I remember having caught several in that way. As
+clearly as I can remember, they left all at once along about 1875.
+I have seen a few here along about 1882, and one fall in October, I
+think, of 1884, I saw two or three, the last I remember of them.
+
+
+                                  Kalamazoo, Mich., June 13th, 1905.
+
+Wm. B. Mershon, Saginaw, Mich.:
+
+   *   *   *   *   *
+
+It seems too bad that this noble bird should have been blotted out. The
+last flock, a small one, that I ever saw was in 1891. I saw pigeons in
+1883, 1885 and 1886.
+
+I have been in their nesting grounds. The males and the females sit on
+the nest on alternate days. When their big nesting was near South Haven
+in this State, the birds used to fly over this town every day in their
+quest for food, some of them going fully seventy-five miles in an air
+line from their nesting. One day it would be a continuous stream of
+male birds and the next day it would be the females.
+
+How the netters did massacre them and ship them away by thousands and
+thousands. Many were kept alive and shipped all over the country for
+pigeon shoots. The last wild pigeons ever used for this purpose that
+I know of was at John Watson's Grand Grossing, Chicago, Illinois, in
+1886. I asked Watson, in February last, where he got those birds, and
+he said from Indian Territory, so I think the netters finally cleaned
+up what was left of the big flight that perished from the sleet and fog
+at their last nesting in Michigan, near Petoskey, in 1881.
+
+Their nests were built and eggs laid in late April. A big wind and
+storm of sleet came up just at dusk and the birds left; there was a big
+fog on Lake Michigan, and the birds were swallowed up by the storm;
+anyhow they disappeared then and there. I have heard tell of the beach
+being strewn for miles with dead pigeons, and I heard an old woodsman
+tell of the stench arising from dead pigeons in the woods.
+
+It was that storm of ice that surely wiped them out.
+
+I was at Petoskey in 1882, and no pigeons showed up that year.
+
+What a host of memories of boyhood days are recalled, when one thinks
+of the wild pigeons. I can see myself a boy again, equipped with a
+long, single barrel shot gun, shot pouch and powder flask a-dangling, a
+box of G. D. caps in my pocket, and I a-sneakin' and a-sneakin' up for
+a shot at an old cock pigeon perched away up on a dead limb at the top
+of a tall tree. How handsome is that old cock with neck outstretched
+and tail a-streamin', the richness of his coloring, the red of the
+breast, the metallic sheen of that outstretched neck is of marvelous
+luster as bathed in the glories of the morning sunlight. He turns
+his head! He is onto that boy who is sneaking so carefully along the
+old rail fence. Carefully the gun is raised and aimed; the trigger
+is pressed. "Ker-whang" in a cloud of smoke is the loud report. The
+old cock, startled, flies away. "Missed him, by gosh!" is the boy's
+lament as he starts to reload, whilst in unison with the rattle of the
+grains of powder in the flask, there comes drifting down on the morning
+breeze, slowly wafting here and there, a long tail feather from that
+noble bird to show that though missed, yet the aim was true.
+
+                          Yours truly,
+
+                                                        Ben O. Bush.
+
+
+                                   Kalamazoo, Mich., June 17th, 1905.
+
+Dear Mershon:
+
+Do not understand me as to my assertion, that in nesting time the wild
+pigeons in feeding, the males always alternate with the females, each
+having a day off and a day on throughout the period of incubation and
+the rearing of the young. It depended upon the amount of food and the
+distance that they had to go to get it, and they changed their habit
+according to the conditions. If they had to make a long flight, as was
+the case when they passed over here, then they alternated; but I will
+agree with you that their habit in nesting time when food was plenty
+and not far away, was for the males to sit first in the morning, then
+the females, and sometimes the males a second time, all in the same
+day. Pigeons require a great deal of water, and sometimes their crops
+would show that they had been to water prior to their return flight,
+while at other times the food in their crops would be dry.
+
+Some other boys and I had a lot of wild birds that we bought alive
+from a netter. We put the birds in the loft of a big barn where there
+was a lot of beans that had not been threshed. We would put in a big
+trough of water for them every day. The way those birds threshed out
+those bean pods was a caution. They became very fat and fairly tame.
+What wouldn't I give to hear the call note of Tete! Tete! Tete! of the
+pigeons once more.
+
+                          Yours truly,
+
+                                                         Ben O. Bush.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+J. S. Van Cleef of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., wrote in _Forest and Stream_ of
+May 20, 1899, as follows:
+
+For many years up to about 1850, flocks of wild pigeons in the fall
+were quite abundant, and were very often taken with nets, which was
+a very favorite way of capturing them at that time, but very few, if
+any, have been taken in this manner since that time. A few small flocks
+appeared in the fifties, but not to such an extent that an attempt was
+made to capture them through the aid of pigeon nets, and I find upon
+inquiry that the experience of others agrees with my own.
+
+The last flight of pigeons of which I have any knowledge occurred in
+the seventies, where they nested in the mountain range south of the
+Beaverkill in the lower part of Ulster County. There were two flights
+about this time, one small one, and in the course of two or three years
+this was followed by a flight where the pigeons appeared in great
+numbers.
+
+This flock had nested in Missouri in the month of April, and the
+most of the squabs were killed by those who were in the business of
+furnishing squabs for the market.
+
+When the nesting was over the entire flock went to Michigan, where they
+nested again, and they were followed there by the same persons who
+again destroyed most of the squabs. When they left Michigan they took
+their flight eastward, and telegrams were sent all over that part of
+the country where the pigeons would be likely to nest a third time, and
+as soon as they settled in the Catskills these persons were apprised of
+the location and very soon appeared on the scene.
+
+The party, about thirty strong, stopped at Monson's, whose house was
+located on the upper Beaverkill, about three miles from the nest.
+
+This nest was a mile from the Willewemoc Lodge, where I happened to
+be during the whole time that the pigeons were in their roost. It was
+claimed at the time that the squabs were sent down to New York by the
+ton, but as to this I have no personal knowledge, though I do know that
+during the nesting all, or nearly all, of the squabs were destroyed,
+and this was done by invading the grounds at night and striking the
+trunks of the trees with a heavy axe or sledge hammer, upon which the
+squabs would tumble out of the nests on the ground, and be picked up
+and carried to Monson's and shipped to New York the next day.
+
+I do know, however, that from a natural ice house and the ice house
+belonging to our club, these persons obtained not less than fifteen
+tons of ice for the purpose of preserving the squabs.
+
+This is the last flight of pigeons that has ever taken place in this
+part of the country, so far as I have any knowledge, and I am very sure
+that if there had been any I would have known it.
+
+  Poughkeepsie, N. Y., May 12.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+The Last of the Pigeons
+
+  From "The Auk," July, 1897, under the title "Additional Records of the
+  Passenger Pigeon (_Ectopistes migratorius_.)"
+
+
+Most of the notes on the Passenger Pigeon recorded in the past year
+have referred to single birds or pairs. It is with much pleasure that
+I now call attention to a flock of some fifty, observed in southern
+Missouri. I am not only greatly indebted to Mr. Chas. H. Holden, Jr.,
+for this interesting information, but for the present of a beautiful
+pair which he sent me in the flesh, he having shot them as they flew
+rapidly overhead. Mr. Holden was, at the time (December 17, 1896),
+hunting quail in Attie, Oregon County, Mo. The residents of this hamlet
+had not seen any pigeons there before in some years.
+
+Simon Pokagon, Chief of the remaining Pottawattamie tribe, and probably
+the best posted man on the wild pigeon in Michigan, writes me under
+date of October 16, 1896: "I am creditably informed that there was a
+small nesting of pigeons last spring not far from the headwaters of
+the Au Sable River in Michigan." Mr. Chase S. Osborn, State Game and
+Fish Warden of Michigan, under date, Sault Ste. Marie, March 2, 1897,
+writes: "Passenger Pigeons are now very rare indeed in Michigan, but
+some have been seen in the eastern parts of Chippewa County, in the
+upper peninsula, every year. As many as a dozen or more were seen in
+this section in one flock last year, and I have reason to believe that
+they breed here in a small way. One came into this city last summer
+and attracted a great deal of attention by flying and circling through
+the air with the tame pigeons. I have a bill in the Legislature of
+Michigan, closing the season for killing wild pigeons for ten years."
+
+                                            Ruthven Deane,
+                                                    Chicago, Ill.
+
+
+  From "The Auk," April, 1898, Vol. 15, Page 184, under the title, "The
+  Passenger Pigeon (_Ectopistes migratorius_) in Wisconsin and Nebraska."
+
+Our records of this species during the past few years have referred
+in most instances, to very small flocks and generally to pairs or
+individuals. In _The Auk_ for July, 1897, I recorded a flock of some
+fifty pigeons from southern Missouri, but such a number has been very
+unusual. It is now very gratifying to be able to record still larger
+numbers and I am indebted to Mr. A. Fugleberg of Oshkosh, Wis., for
+the following letter of information, under date of September 1, 1897:
+"I live on the west shore of Lake Winnebago, Wis. About 6 o'clock on
+the morning of August 14, 1897, I saw a flock of wild pigeons flying
+over the bay from Fisherman's Point to Stony Beach, and I assure you
+it reminded me of old times, from 1855 to 1880, when pigeons were
+plentiful every day. So I dropped my work and stood watching them.
+This flock was followed by six more flocks, each containing about
+thirty-five to eighty pigeons, except the last, which only contained
+seven. All these flocks passed over within half an hour. One flock
+of some fifty birds flew within gunshot of me, the others all the
+way from one hundred to three hundred yards from where I stood." Mr.
+Fugleberg is an old hunter and has had much experience with the wild
+pigeon. In a later letter dated September 4, 1897, he writes: "On Sept.
+2, 1897, I was hunting prairie chickens near Lake Butte des Morts,
+Wis., where I met a friend who told me that a few days previous he had
+seen a flock of some twenty-five wild pigeons and that they were the
+first he had seen for years." This would appear as though these birds
+were instinctively working back to their old haunts, as the Winnebago
+region was once a favorite locality. We hope that Wisconsin will follow
+Michigan in making a close season on wild pigeons for ten years,
+and thus give them a chance to multiply, and, perhaps, regain, in a
+measure, their former abundance.
+
+In _Forest and Stream_ of Sept. 25, 1897, appeared a short notice of
+"Wild Pigeons in Nebraska," by "W. F. R." Through the kindness of
+the editor he placed me in correspondence with the observer, W. F.
+Rightmire, to whom I am indebted for the following details given in
+his letter of Nov. 5, 1897: "I was driving along the highway north of
+Cook, Johnson County, Neb., on August 17, 1897. I came to the timber
+skirting the head stream of the Nemaha River, a tract of some forty
+acres of woodland lying along the course of the stream, upon both
+banks of the same, and there feeding on the ground or perched upon the
+trees were the Passenger Pigeons I wrote the note about. The flock
+contained seventy-five to one hundred birds. I did not frighten them,
+but as I drove along the road the feeding birds flew up and joined the
+others, and as soon as I had passed by they returned to the ground and
+continued feeding. While I revisited the same locality, I failed to
+find the pigeons. I am a native of Tompkins County, N. Y., and have
+often killed wild pigeons in their flights while a boy on the farm,
+helped to net them, and have hunted them in Pennsylvania, so that I
+readily knew the birds in question the moment I saw them." I will here
+take occasion to state that in my record of the Missouri flock (_Auk_,
+July, 1897, p. 316) the date on which they were seen (Dec. 17, 1896)
+was, through error, omitted.
+
+                                            Ruthven Deane,
+                                                    Chicago, Ill.
+
+
+  From "The Auk," January, 1896, under the title, "Additional Records
+  of the Passenger Pigeon (_Ectopistes migratorius_) in Wisconsin and
+  Illinois."
+
+I am indebted to my friend, Mr. John L. Stockton, of Highland Park,
+Ill., for information regarding the occurrence of this pigeon in
+Wisconsin. While trout fishing on the Little Oconto River in the
+Reservation of the Menominee Indians, Mr. Stockton saw, early in June,
+1895, a flock of some ten pigeons for several consecutive days near his
+camp. They were first seen while alighting near the bank of the river,
+where they had evidently come to drink. I am very glad to say that they
+were not molested.
+
+Mr. John F. Ferry of Lake Forest, Ill., has kindly notified me of the
+capture of a young female pigeon which was killed in that town on
+August 7, 1895. The bird was brought to him by a boy who had shot it
+with a rifle ball, and although in a mutilated condition he preserved
+it for his collection.
+
+I have recently received a letter from Dr. H. V. Ogden, Milwaukee,
+Wis., informing me of the capture of a young female pigeon which
+was shot by Dr. Ernest Copeland on the 1st of October, 1895. These
+gentlemen were camping at the time in the northeast corner of Delta
+County, Mich. (Northern Peninsula), in the large hardwood forest that
+runs through that part of the State. They saw no other of the species.
+
+                                            Ruthven Deane,
+                                                    Chicago, Ill.
+
+
+  From "The Auk," July, 1895, under the title, "Additional Records of
+  the Passenger Pigeon in Illinois and Indiana."
+
+The occurrence of the wild pigeon (_Ectopistes migratorius_) in this
+section of the country, and, in fact, throughout the West generally, is
+becoming rarer every year, and such observations and data as come to
+our notice should be of sufficient interest to record.
+
+I have, in the past few months, made inquiry of a great many sportsmen
+who are constantly in the field and in widely distributed localities,
+regarding any observations on the wild pigeon, and but few of them have
+seen a specimen in the past eight or ten years. N. W. Judy & Co., of
+St. Louis, Mo., dealers in poultry, and the largest receivers of game
+in that section, wrote as follows: "We have had no wild pigeons for two
+seasons; the last we received were from Siloam Springs, Ark. We have
+lost all track of them, and our netters are lying idle."
+
+I have made frequent inquiry among the principal game dealers in
+Chicago and cannot learn of a single specimen that has been received in
+our markets in several years. I am indebted to the following gentlemen
+for notes and observations regarding this species, which cover a period
+of eight years. I have various other records of the occurrence of the
+pigeon in Illinois and Indiana, but do not consider them sufficiently
+authentic to record, as to the casual observer this species and the
+Carolina dove are often confounded.
+
+A fine male pigeon was killed by my brother, Mr. Chas. E. Deane, April
+18, 1887, while shooting snipe on the meadows near English Lake, Ind.
+The bird was alone and flew directly over him. I have the specimen now
+in my collection.
+
+In September, 1888, while teal shooting on Yellow River, Stark County,
+Ind., I saw a pigeon fly up the river and alight a short distance off.
+I secured the bird which proved to be a young female.
+
+On Sept. 17, 1887, Mr. John F. Hazen and his daughter Grace, of
+Cincinnati, Ohio, while boating on the Kankakee River near English
+Lake, Ind., observed a small flock of pigeons feeding in a little oak
+grove bordering the river. They reported the birds as quite tame and
+succeeded in shooting eight specimens.
+
+Mr. Frank M. Woodruff, Assistant Curator, Chicago Academy of Sciences,
+informs me that on Dec. 10, 1890, he received four Passenger Pigeons
+in the flesh, from Waukegan, Ill., at which locality they were said to
+have been shot. Three of the birds were males and one was a female.
+One pair he disposed of, the other two I have recently seen in his
+collection. In the fall of 1891, Mr. Woodruff also shot a pair at Lake
+Forest, Ill., which he mounted and placed in the collection of the Cook
+County Normal School, Englewood, Ill.
+
+In the spring of 1893, Mr. C. B. Brown, of Chicago, Ill., collected a
+nest of the wild pigeon containing two eggs at English Lake, Ind., and
+secured both parent birds. Mr. Brown describes the nest as being placed
+on the horizontal branch of a burr oak about ten feet from the trunk
+and from forty to fifty feet from the ground. He did not preserve the
+birds, but the eggs are still in his collection. The locality where
+this nest was found was a short distance from where the Hazens found
+their birds six years before.
+
+Mr. John F. Ferry informs me that three pigeons were seen near the Des
+Plaines River in Lake County, Ill., in September, 1893. One of these
+was shot by Mr. F. C. Farwell.
+
+In an article which appeared in the Chicago _Tribune_ Nov. 25, 1894,
+entitled "Last of His Race," Mr. E. B. Clark related his experience in
+observing a fine male wild pigeon in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Ill., in
+April, 1893. I quote from the article: "He was perched on the limb of
+a soft maple and was facing the rising sun. I have never seen in any
+cabinet a more perfect specimen. The tree upon which he was resting
+was at the southeast corner of the park. There were no trees between
+him and the lake to break from his breast the fullness of the glory of
+the rising sun. The pigeon allowed me to approach within twenty yards
+of his resting place and I watched him through a powerful glass that
+permitted as minute an examination as if he were in my hand. I was more
+than astonished to find here, close to the pavements of a great city,
+the representative of a race which always loved the wild woods, and,
+which I thought had passed away from Illinois forever."
+
+Mr. R. W. Stafford of Chicago, Ill., who has shot hundreds of pigeons
+in former years within the present city limits of Chicago, informs me
+that in the latter part of September, 1894, while shooting at Marengo,
+Ill., he saw a flock of six flying swiftly over and apparently alight
+in a small grove some distance off.
+
+The above records will show that while in this section of the country
+large flocks of Passenger Pigeons are a thing of the past, yet they are
+still occasionally observed in small detachments or single birds.
+
+A. B. Covert of Ann Arbor, Mich., wrote under date of Oct. 27, 1894:
+"Prior to the spring of 1881 the wild pigeon was everywhere a common
+bird of passage throughout the southern part of Michigan and nested
+commonly in the northern part. My home, in 1880, and for a few years
+after, was at Cadillac, Mich., and there was at that time a nesting
+place near Muskrat Lake in Missaukee County. Thousands of the birds
+were killed there. In the spring of 1881 the birds failed to make
+their appearance, and since then have been very rare. Nov. 23, 1892,
+I secured one male and two young females; these were killed in Scio,
+Washtenaw County, Oct. 9, 1893; one male near Ypsilanti, Mich., Sept.
+27, 1894; one female killed at Honey Brook, Scio, Washtenaw County.
+There is also a female bird in this city that was killed in Livingston
+County in October, 1892."
+
+In a bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club, Vol. II, No. 3-4,
+July to December, 1898, Mr. A. B. Covert, the club's president, tells
+of seeing a flock of about two hundred pigeons. On Oct. 1, 1898, in
+Washtenaw County, Mich., he watched a large number of them all day.
+
+Mr. Stewart E. White writes from Ann Arbor under date of Feb. 9, 1894:
+"My notebooks are not here so I cannot give exact dates, but I can
+remember distinctly every specimen I ever saw. I observed one flock of
+about sixty in Kent County in the fall, the last of October or first
+of November, 1890. At Mackinac Island at various times in September
+of 1889 I saw parts of a large flock, of say two hundred. My field
+experience in the western part of Michigan has been quite extensive and
+thorough, but these two flocks are all I ever recorded."
+
+F. M. Falconer of Hillsdale, Mich., on Dec. 3, 1904, writes to Mr.
+Warren as follows: "During the last week of March, 1892, one of the
+students here shot a nice male. There were two together, but only one
+was secured. That summer I saw a small flock feeding in some thick
+woods along the banks of a stream in which I was fishing, in Chautauqua
+County, N. Y. There were eight or ten birds at least, and perhaps many
+more, as they scattered along in spots."
+
+Mr. T. E. Douglas of Grayling, Mich., reports that in the year 1900
+he saw three Passenger Pigeons on the East Branch of Au Sable River,
+Michigan, and about five years previous to that date a flock of ten
+was seen around George's Lake, which is eight miles southwest of West
+Branch, Michigan.
+
+I also have a record of one pigeon taken by Mr. John H. Sage, in
+Portland, Conn., in October, 1889.
+
+In May, 1904, Hon. Chase S. Osborn wrote:
+
+  Dear Mr. Mershon: I haven't much information relating to the pigeons
+  in this section of the country. In fact, the pigeon was practically
+  gone from the north when I first visited the country in 1880. I
+  remember seeing a flock of about three hundred in Florence County,
+  Wis., which would probably be on a line fifty miles south of here,
+  in 1883. In 1884 I saw a flock in that same section, in the woods
+  northwest of Florence, of about fifty. In 1890 I six of these birds
+  near the mouth of the Little Munoskong River in this county. This
+  river empties into Munoskong Bay, about thirty miles southeast of
+  here. In 1897 I saw a single wild pigeon, flying with the tame
+  pigeons around this town. It was a remarkable sight and attracted the
+  attention of many local bird lovers. There is no doubt that it was a
+  pigeon, and it was absolutely alone as far as we could discover.
+
+Upon inquiry here among old residents, I am told that there was quite
+a large roost on a beech ridge about forty miles west of here, which
+would be at a point north of the present station of Eckerman. I have
+been unable to learn just when this roosting place was discontinued,
+but as near as I can make out from comparing statements and records, it
+must have been in '78, '79, or '80.
+
+I have heard of a large roosting place in northern Wisconsin which was
+used as late as 1874 by vast numbers of birds. It was located to the
+south and a little west of Lac Vieux Desert. At the head of the Pike
+River in Wisconsin, a point probably sixty-five miles south of here,
+and west into that State, the pigeons were seen in large numbers until
+1872. As I understand it, in the early days they were very likely to
+frequent the same section year after year when not too much disturbed.
+
+Mr. Newell A. Eddy of Bay City, Mich., under date of Aug. 7, 1905,
+wrote me as follows:
+
+  I find that I have but few notes regarding this species. On Sept. 13,
+  1880, I took a single bird near the city of Bangor, Maine. The sex
+  was not determined. This was an unusual capture for the place and the
+  time. A few years previous to that time, on a canoeing trip to the
+  headwaters of the Penobscot River, I fell in with a small flock of a
+  dozen or more in an old burnt-over swamp, but was unable to secure
+  any of them.
+
+  I presume that you have an abundance of notes on the Passenger Pigeon
+  in this section of the country at the time it was so abundant here, as
+  such information is readily obtainable from any of the old inhabitants
+  of this locality. I had a very interesting interview the other day
+  with Mr. C. E. Jennison of this city, who was one of our earliest
+  settlers, and he gave me a great deal of information about this bird
+  in the earlier days of Bay City. He also stated, which was quite
+  interesting, that six or seven years ago he saw a few birds at Thunder
+  Bay Island, near Alpena. This appears to be his last record of this
+  species.
+
+  The most interesting information I have was obtained from Mr. Birney
+  Jennison, his son, who advised me a few days ago while we were on
+  our way to Point Lookout, Saginaw Bay, that about the 15th of July,
+  this year, he saw a pair of these birds in a swale at Point Lookout
+  while roaming through the woods. He and I visited the same locality
+  about two weeks after that, but saw nothing of them. Of course there
+  is some likelihood that the birds Mr. Jennison saw may have been the
+  common Carolina doves. Mr. Birney Jennison also had a great deal of
+  experience with this bird in his younger days about Bay City, and
+  there would appear to be no question as to his ability to accurately
+  identify the bird.
+
+From Mr. Neal Brown, Warsaw, Wis., May 20, 1904:
+
+Mr. W. B. Mershon, Saginaw, Mich.
+
+Dear Sir:--Your favor at hand with reference to the wild pigeon.
+It was, I think, three or four years ago that, in hunting with Mr.
+Emerson Hough near Babcock in this State in September, we killed an
+unmistakable wild pigeon. I saw a few pigeons in the woods in Forest
+County, in this State, about fifteen years ago. About seven years ago
+I saw three near Wausau and shot one of them. There was a pigeon roost
+for many years in Wood County, in this State, but it has long since
+disappeared.
+
+When I was a boy in southern Wisconsin in the 60's and 70's, wild
+pigeons were so numerous as to almost darken the air. In the early 70's
+there was a small roost on Bark River, near Ft. Atkinson, in this State.
+
+The wild pigeon had practically disappeared in southern Wisconsin as
+early as 1880, in fact, it was two or three years before that that I
+saw the last of them.
+
+Charles W. Ward of Queens, L. I., New York, reports that in October,
+1883, he saw a flock of at least one hundred Passenger Pigeons along
+the Manistee River in Township 26-5 and the following year about one
+dozen nested in a Spruce swamp near Orchard Lake on his old homestead.
+He often saw the nest and the birds. He remembers the time as being
+the season of the year when huckleberries were ripe, for he was
+berry-picking when he first observed them.
+
+The writer of the following newspaper clipping of recent date is
+emphatically skeptical regarding the present-day existence of even an
+isolated pigeon:
+
+
+LAST PIGEON FLIGHT IN IOSCO IN 1880
+
+MILLIONS PASSED THROUGH THEN, BUT THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN THERE SINCE
+
+Tawas, Mich., July 27.--John Sims, county game and fish warden,
+ridicules the idea of flocks of wild pigeons being found in Iosco
+County, as was reported in some of the State papers. He says: "There
+are no wild pigeons in Iosco County; nor have there been any here since
+April 1, 1880. There fell about six inches of snow on that day, then
+the weather cleared and the sun rose bright and clear, but it was but
+for a short time, as the air was clouded with pigeons going westward.
+That was the first time they had been here for a number of years, and,
+although it was Sunday, everyone who had a gun was shooting or trying
+to shoot, and there were lots of pigeons killed that day in nearly
+all the streets of Tawas. There were simply millions of them going
+westward, and those that were killed were picked up out of the snow.
+Since that day there have been no wild pigeons here. We have lots of
+mourning doves here, and the writer has probably seen these. There
+is a certain magazine that offers $50 for a pair of wild pigeons, and
+I think the sportsmen would add another $50 to it to have the wild
+pigeons with us again."
+
+In the report of the Massachusetts commissioners on fisheries and game
+for the year ending December 31, 1903, is to be found the following:
+
+The occurrence of the wild pigeon is a matter of public and scientific
+interest, and for this reason, and not because it is a game bird,
+reference to it is introduced here. Deputy Samuel Parker, who is
+perfectly familiar with the wild pigeon, makes mention of its
+appearance at Wakefield this year as follows: "In September a flock of
+wild pigeons, twenty-five or thirty in number, came over Crystal Lake."
+This notice of the presence of a species believed to be extinct is
+interesting and must be important to ornithologists.[C]
+
+[Footnote C: I believe that this informant was mistaken--W. B. M.]
+
+George King, guide and trapper, living in Otsego County, Michigan, told
+me in 1904 that four years before he had seen along Black River a flock
+of wild pigeons, a dozen or more birds. He said there is no mistake
+about it, because he was familiar with the wild pigeon early in life.
+These alighted in a tree near him. He said that in 1902, also, he heard
+the call of two wild pigeons, although he hunted for the birds and did
+not find them.
+
+[Illustration: COMPARATIVE SIZE OF PIGEON AND DOVE
+
+From photo furnished by Prof W. B. Burrows, of the Michigan
+Agricultural College]
+
+I believe that six wild pigeons were actually seen in the latter part
+of April of 1905 near Vanderbilt, Mich., by this George King. I have
+tested his honesty and truthfulness time and time again. He told me
+he was seated in the branches of an apple tree when he saw six wild
+pigeons alight in another tree near him. He kept perfectly still and
+watched their movements for about thirty minutes. They flew from the
+old tree in which they had alighted, underneath a beech tree and began
+feeding on beech nuts from the ground. He says he heard them call and
+they made the same old crowing call of the wild pigeon. He was close to
+them; he is perfectly familiar with the dove and knows that these six
+were Passenger Pigeons. King has for many years lived in the section
+that formerly was the great pigeon nesting and feeding ground of
+northern Michigan.
+
+                                     Michigan Agricultural College,
+                                                      July 14, '05.
+
+Dear Sir:--I have been away for the past three weeks and find your
+letter of June 27 here on my return. The photographs sent you were
+those of the Passenger Pigeon and the Carolina dove, the one of the two
+birds being intended to show relative size and appearance. It was taken
+from two of the best specimens in the museum, placed at exactly the
+same distance from the camera so that the picture shows the comparative
+size exactly. The birds being so similar in general appearance, the
+smaller one looks as if it were further away than the larger, and
+this, I think, shows clearly how impossible it is for the ordinary
+observer to discriminate between these two species when seen separately
+in the field. Of course a mixed flock would be a different proposition,
+but so far as I know the two species never mingle, and, at least in
+this State, it is an unusual thing to find the Carolina dove in large
+compact flocks such as are characteristic of the Passenger Pigeon. In
+several cases, however, during August and September I have seen large
+scattered flocks of the Carolina dove which were feeding on weed seeds
+and grain in open fields, and which when disturbed, gathered into small
+bands of twenty to fifty each and flew and perched very much like
+Passenger Pigeons. In one case I saw at least five hundred Carolina
+doves acting this way, and had hard work to convince a sportsman friend
+of mine that they were not Passenger Pigeons. Finally, after getting
+directly under a small tree on which a dozen or more were perched, he
+was able to see that characteristic black dot on the side of the neck,
+and was also able to estimate more correctly the actual size of the
+birds.
+
+                                  Yours very truly,
+                                          Walter B. Burrows,
+                                             _Professor of Zoology._
+
+
+                                               Agricultural College,
+                                   Ingham Co., Mich., June 17, 1905.
+
+Mr. W. B. Mershon, Saginaw, Mich.
+
+Dear Sir:--Yours of the 16th is at hand and in reply I would say that
+the Carolina dove is _rarely_ found north of the Au Sable River, and I
+should not expect _ever_ to see it there in flocks in the spring; on
+the other hand it is just as likely to be found _early_ in the season
+as the Passenger Pigeon, since the Carolina dove winters regularly in
+southern Michigan and is one of the first birds to appear in the spring
+in this county, in fact not infrequently staying _here_ through the
+winter. On the whole, however, I think there can be little doubt that
+Mr. King's report relates to the Passenger Pigeon and not to the dove.
+I have had some photographs taken of the Carolina dove and Passenger
+Pigeon together, and will ask my assistant, Mr. Myers, to mail you
+prints of these within a few days as soon as he has time to make some
+good ones. If these do not show what you desire we will try again.
+
+                                  Yours very truly,
+                                          Walter B. Burrows,
+                                             _Professor of Zoology._
+
+Mr. George E. Atkinson, to whom I am indebted for much valuable data in
+this book, writes from Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, July 21, 1905, as
+follows:
+
+I was on a holiday trip on the Assiniboia River last week, and a pair
+of birds flew by me at a few yards' distance, flashing the pigeon color
+to all appearances in the sun and alighting on the bank. I turned my
+boat and until after I shot the bird, I would have sworn it was a
+pigeon, but it proved to be a large, bright plumaged dove. Atmospheric
+conditions considerably affected the size so that I am convinced that
+it is possible for even the best of us to be deceived, and a scientific
+record must not be formed on any supposition.
+
+                                              Iron Mountain, Mich.,
+
+                                                      May 30, 1904.
+
+Mr. W. B. Mershon, Saginaw, Mich.
+
+Dear Sir:--In reply to your letter of inquiry respecting the Passenger
+Pigeon, I will say that my knowledge of it is very limited except from
+hearsay, but I am credibly informed that it nested at the east end of
+Deerskin Lake, Sec. 30, N44 W31, as late as 1888. Mr. Armstrong, a
+timber cruiser, late a resident of this city, gave me this information.
+He said there was a small colony of less than a hundred birds then.
+Fire has since destroyed the timber there and he doubted if they were
+still there when he told me about them. Mr. A. was a keen observer and
+thoroughly reliable; had been familiar with the species when abundant
+in lower Michigan, and I have great confidence in the accuracy of his
+reports. I used to see them as late as 1883 in this vicinity. They
+were shot in the summer of 1883 during the blueberry season. I should
+estimate that as many as fifty birds were taken that summer. I cannot
+imagine why they should have disappeared from this region. I have no
+reports concerning the birds from the north shore.
+
+In 1897 a young bird was taken in the neighboring town of Norway with a
+broken wing and identified by hunters who had known the species in the
+day of its abundance.
+
+Dr. J. D. Cameron of this city informs me that he saw a flock of about
+fifty birds flying over the St. George Hospital of this place on the
+28th of October, 1900. He was positive that he was not mistaken, as
+the birds were flying low, and he had formerly been well acquainted
+with the species in Canada. You can take this latter for what it is
+worth. Dr. C's. veracity is beyond question, but whether he could have
+mistaken some other birds for the pigeons I am not prepared to say.
+He is not interested in ornithology and I would not expect him to
+recognize ordinary birds, but he may have hunted the wild pigeon in his
+younger days and so be familiar with its manner of flight. I cannot
+imagine any other birds that he could mistake for them.
+
+I have an idea that I may have seen one myself in the summer of 1900,
+but am not sufficiently well acquainted with it to recognize it at
+sight. I fired at it with a .22 rifle, and the peculiar maneuvers
+which it executed in the air as the bullet passed, attracted my
+attention. I was afterward told that the wild pigeon tumbled in the air
+that way when fired at. I thought at first that it was hit.
+
+                          Yours truly,
+
+                                                     E. E. Brewster.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+What Became of the Wild Pigeon?
+
+  By Sullivan Cook, from "Forest and Stream," March 14, 1903.[D]
+
+[Footnote D: I think that anyone who reads this article will be, like
+myself, satisfied that the destruction of the pigeons was wrought to
+gratify the avarice and love of gain of a few men who slaughtered them
+until they were virtually exterminated.--W. B. M.]
+
+
+When a boy and living in northern Ohio, I often had to go with a gun
+and drive the pigeons from the newly sown fields of wheat. At that time
+wheat was sown broadcast, and pigeons would come by the thousands and
+pick up the wheat before it could be covered with the drag. My father
+would say, "Get the gun and shoot at every pigeon you see," and often I
+would see them coming from the woods and alighting on the newly sowed
+field. They would alight until the ground was fairly blue with these
+beautiful birds.
+
+I would secrete myself in a fence corner, and as these birds would
+alight on the ground they would form themselves in a long row,
+canvassing the field for grain, and as the rear birds raised up and
+flew over those in front, they reminded one of the little breakers on
+the ocean beach, and as they came along in this form, they resembled a
+windrow of hay rolling across the field.
+
+I would wait until the end of this wave was opposite my hiding place
+and then arise and fire into this windrow of living, animated beauty,
+and I have picked up as many as twenty-seven dead birds killed at a
+single shot with an old flintlock smooth bore. Later in the fall these
+birds would come in countless millions to feed on the wild mast of
+beech nuts and acorns, and every evening they would pass over our home,
+going west of our place to what was known as Lodi Swamp.
+
+Many and many a time have I seen clouds of birds that extended as far
+as the eye could reach, and the sound of their wings was like the roar
+of a tempest. And for those who are not acquainted with the habits
+and flight of these birds, I wish to say that once in the month of
+November, while these pigeons were going from their feeding grounds
+to this roost in the Lodi Swamp, they were met with a storm of sleet
+and snow. The wind blew so hard that they could not breast it and were
+compelled to alight in a sugar orchard near our place. This orchard
+consisted of twenty acres, where the timber had all been cut out,
+except the maples, and when they commenced alighting, the trees already
+partially loaded with snow and ice, and the vast flock of pigeons being
+attracted by those alighting, all sought the same resting place.
+
+Such vast numbers alighted that in a short time the branches of the
+trees were broken and as fast as one tree gave way those birds would
+alight on the already loaded tree adjoining, and, that, too, was
+stripped of its long and limber branches. Suffice it to say that in a
+half hour's time this beautiful sugar orchard was entirely ruined by
+the loads of birds which had attempted to rest from the storm.
+
+About this time I enjoyed my first pigeon hunt in a roost. Being a boy
+about sixteen years of age, having a brother about thirteen, and as we
+had seen the pigeons going by to their roost for hours and knowing that
+many people went there every night to shoot pigeons on the roost, my
+brother and I were seized with a desire to go and enjoy this exciting
+sport. Then arose the difficulty of a gun suitable for the occasion.
+As we had nothing but a small-bore rifle and not owning a shotgun, we
+appealed to father as to what we should do for a gun. We had previously
+gained his consent to our going. He suggested that we take the old
+horse pistol; one of the Revolutionary time, which had been kept in the
+family as a reminder of troublesome years.
+
+Let the young man of to-day, who hunts with the improved breechloader,
+think of two boys starting pigeon hunting, their only outfit consisting
+of a horse pistol, barrel twelve inches long, caliber 12-gauge,
+flintlock, one pound of No. 4 shot, a quarter of a pound of powder, a
+pocket full of old newspaper for wadding, a two-bushel bag to carry
+game in, and a tin lantern. Thus equipped, we started for the pigeon
+roost a little after dark. Although three miles from the roost when
+we started from home, we could hear the sullen roar of that myriad of
+birds, and the sound increased in volume as we approached the roost,
+till it became as the roar of the breakers upon the beach.
+
+As we approached the swamp where the birds roosted, a few scattered
+birds were frightened from the roost along the edge of the swamp. These
+scattering birds we could not shoot, but kept advancing further into
+the swamp. As we approached this vast body of birds, which bent the
+alders flat to the ground, we could see every now and then ahead of us
+a small pyramid which looked like a haystack in the darkness, and as
+we approached what appeared to be this haystack, the frightened birds
+would fly from the bended alders, and we would find ourselves standing
+in the midst of a diminutive forest of small trees of alders and
+willows.
+
+We now found these apparent haystacks were only small elms or willows
+completely loaded down with live birds. My brother suggested that I
+shoot at the next "haystack." So we advanced along very carefully among
+the now upright alders till we came to where it was a perfect roar of
+voices and wings, and just ahead of us we saw one of those mysterious
+objects which so resembled a haystack.
+
+My brother suggested that I aim at the center of it and let the old
+horse pistol go. I instantly obeyed his suggestion, pointing as best I
+could in the dim light at the center of that form, and pulled. There
+was a flash and a roar, and the very atmosphere seemed to be alive
+with flying, chattering birds. The old tin lantern was lighted. The
+horse pistol was hunted for, as it had recoiled with such force I had
+lost hold of it. The gun being found, we then approached as nearly as
+we could the place where I had shot at the stack. From this discharge
+we picked up eighteen pigeons and saw some hobbling away into thick
+brush, from which we could not recover them. After an hour of this kind
+of hunting our bag was full of pigeons, and our tallow candle in the
+lantern nearly consumed. We retraced our steps out of the swamp, and
+about 11 o'clock at night arrived home well satisfied with the night's
+hunt in the pigeon roost. We had had acres of enjoyment and had brought
+home bushels of pigeons.
+
+This is only to give an idea of what pigeons were in northern Ohio in
+the days of my boyhood. This was in the years of 1844 to 1846. In 1854,
+having grown to man's estate, I moved to Michigan and settled in Cass
+County, where I built a log house and began clearing up a farm. After
+having cleared three or four fields around my house, one morning one of
+my girls came running in from out of doors and said: "Pa, come out and
+see the pigeons."
+
+I went to the door and saw scooting across my fields, as it seemed
+skimming the surface of the earth, flock after flock of the birds,
+one coming close upon the heels of another. I hastened into the house
+and grasped my double barreled shotgun, powder flask and shot pouch;
+my little girl, then a miss of twelve summers, following me. I took a
+stand on a slight rise in the middle of a five-acre field and commenced
+shooting, you might say, at wads of pigeons, so closely huddled were
+they as they went by. Letting the birds get opposite me and firing
+across the flock, I was enabled to kill from three to fifteen pigeons
+at a shot. And my girl was wildly excited, picking up the dead birds
+and catching the winged ones and bringing them to me.
+
+You never saw two mortals more busy than we were for a half hour. At
+this time my wife called for breakfast, as we were near the house, and
+I found my stock of ammunition nearly exhausted. We went into the house
+for our breakfast and when we came out the birds were flying as thickly
+as ever. She says, let us count the pigeons and see how many we have.
+We found we had killed and picked up in this short time twenty-three
+dozen. My wife said I had better take them to Three Rivers, which
+was our nearest town, and sell them. And as my ammunition was about
+exhausted, I hitched up my team, took twenty dozen of the birds and
+drove ten miles to the station, sold my birds for sixty-five cents a
+dozen and returned home well satisfied with my day's work, and having
+on hand a good supply of ammunition for the next morning's flight.
+
+Now I wish to pass along, the lapse of time being about sixteen years.
+During this time I had removed from Cass County to Van Buren County,
+where I had located in the beautiful village of Hartford. In the year
+1869 or 1870, the pigeoners, a class of men who lived in Hartford, made
+a business of netting pigeons, and they are living here yet, and not
+one of them feels any pride in the part he took in the destruction of
+these beautiful birds. In March, 1869, word was received that a large
+flight of pigeons were coming north through the State of Indiana. These
+men, who had followed the pigeons for years, said, "As we have snow on
+the ground they will be sure to nest near here, and as we have had a
+big crop of beech nuts and acorns last fall they will be sure to stop
+to get the benefit of this mast." A queer thing about the pigeon was
+that he always built his nest on the borders of the snow, that is,
+where the ground underneath was covered with snow.
+
+Sure enough, as predicted, in two days after receiving notice of the
+flight of the birds from Indiana, myriads of pigeons were passing north
+along the east shore of Lake Michigan, and soon scattering flocks
+were seen going south towards the bare ground. In a few days word was
+received that pigeons had gone to nesting in what was then called
+Deerfield Township, a vast body of hardwood and hemlock timber. Then it
+was that the pigeon killers, with their nets, stool birds and flyers
+commenced making preparations for the slaughter of the beautiful birds
+when they began laying their eggs. This takes place only three or four
+days after they commence nesting, as a pigeon's nest is the simplest
+nest ever built by a bird seen in a tree. It consists of a few little
+twigs laid crosswise, without moss or lining of any kind, and the lay
+of eggs is but one. As soon as one egg is laid, they commence sitting,
+and the male pigeon is quite a gentleman in his way, taking his turn
+and sitting one-half of the time.
+
+In about twelve or fourteen days--some claim twenty--the young pigeon
+is hatched. As soon as hatched the male and female birds commence
+feeding on what is known as marsh feed, that is, on low, springy
+ground. And from this feed is supplied to both the male and female bird
+what is known as pigeon's milk, forming inside of the crop a sort of
+curd, on which the young pigeon is fed by both father and mother, who
+supply this food. The young bird is gorged with this food, and in a few
+days becomes as heavy as the parent bird. Another singular thing about
+the wild pigeon is that as the snow melts and the ground is left bare
+where the nesting is, the old birds never eat the nuts in the nesting,
+but leave them for the benefit of the young one, and so when he comes
+off the nest he always finds an abundance of food at his very door,
+as it were. As soon as the young birds are able to leave the nest and
+begin feeding on the ground in the nesting, the old birds immediately
+forsake them, move again on to the borders of the snow and start
+another nesting. In five or ten days the young birds will follow in
+the direction of the old birds.
+
+When the young birds first come off the nest and commence feeding on
+the ground, they are fat as balls of butter, but in ten days from this
+time, when they start on their northern flight to follow their mother
+bird, they are poor as snakes, and almost unfit to eat, while, when
+they first leave the nest they are the most palatable morsel man ever
+tasted. However, in about forty days from the time they began nesting
+to the time they took their northern flight, there were shipped from
+Hartford and vicinity, three carloads a day of these beautiful meteors
+of the sky. Each car containing 150 barrels with 35 dozen in a barrel,
+making the daily shipment 24,750 dozen.
+
+Young men who are now hunting for something to shoot and wondering
+what has become of our game, must hear with anger and regret such
+reports as this from western Michigan in the days gone by: "In three
+years' time there were caught and shipped to New York and other eastern
+cities 990,000 dozen pigeons, and in the two succeeding years it was
+estimated by the same men who caught the pigeons at Hartford that there
+were one-third more shipped from Shelby than from Hartford; and from
+Petoskey, Emmett County, two years later, it is now claimed by C. H.
+Engle, a resident of this town, who was a participant in this ungodly
+slaughter, that there were shipped five carloads a day for thirty
+days, with an average of 8,250 dozen to the carload. Now, when one asks
+you what has become of the wild pigeons, refer them to C. H. Engle,
+Stephen Stowe, Chas. Sherburne, and Hiram Corwin, and a man by the name
+of Miles from Wisconsin, Mr. Miles having caught 500 dozen in a single
+day. And when you are asked what has become of the wild pigeons, figure
+up the shipping bills, and they will show what has become of this, the
+grandest game bird that ever cleft the air of any continent."
+
+My young friends, I want to humbly ask your forgiveness for having
+taken a small part in the destruction of this, the most exciting of
+sport. And there is not one of us but is ashamed of the slaughter which
+has robbed you of enjoyment. If we had been restrained by laws of
+humanity, you, too, could have enjoyed this sport for years to come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A Novel Theory of Extinction
+
+By C. H. Ames and Robert Ridgway
+
+
+                                             Boston, March 8, 1906.
+
+Mr. W. B. Mershon:
+
+Dear Sir:--Thank you for your note of the third in reply to mine of
+the first, in regard to your book on the Passenger Pigeon. I note that
+you say:
+
+  "There is room to make additions if you think you have something
+  that would be interesting, and would like to submit it to me for my
+  consideration."
+
+Thanking you for your courtesy in the matter, I beg to say that I have
+long had great interest in the problem of the so sudden and complete
+destruction of this great species, and have from the first been quite
+unable to believe that the ordinarily assigned agencies for the
+destruction of the pigeon were adequate, or anywhere near adequate, to
+make a destruction so sudden and complete.
+
+Several accounts which have come to my notice have strengthened my
+view. I know well that the attack of man and beast upon the pigeons
+in their rookeries, or breeding places, was fierce, persistent and
+enormously destructive, and that at these breeding places the
+destroyers gathered in great numbers, but, with my vivid recollection
+of the tremendous flights of pigeons which I myself saw in the '60's
+in northern Illinois, the wide distribution of the bird, and what I
+know of its migratory habits (I wish I knew very much more about these
+habits), I cannot think that in so few years the practical destruction
+of the species could be effected by the means referred to.
+
+Years ago--I cannot tell how many, but I am confident it must have been
+at about the time of the disappearance of the great pigeon flights--I
+read an account, either in or quoted from a New Orleans newspaper,
+giving the stories of several ship captains and sailors who had arrived
+in New Orleans from the Gulf of Mexico. They stated that they had, in
+crossing the Gulf, sailed over leagues and leagues of water covered,
+and covered thickly, with dead pigeons. The supposition was that an
+enormous flight of the pigeons crossing the waters of the Gulf had been
+overwhelmed by a cyclone, or some such atmospheric disturbance, and
+that the birds had been whirled into the surf and drowned.
+
+I have been told by competent ornithologists connected with the Boston
+Society of Natural History that Pigeon Cove, a well-known and much
+frequented extremity of Cape Ann, near Gloucester, Mass., received
+its name from the fact that a large flight of pigeons was similarly
+overwhelmed in flying along the Atlantic near that place, and that
+their bodies covered the shore in "windrows."
+
+Not more than two years ago, if so long, I read a lengthy and signed
+account in a Montreal paper of a similar catastrophe to a great flight
+of pigeons in attempting to cross Lake Michigan, and similar statement
+was made that for miles the beach above Milwaukee was heaped and piled
+with "windrows" of dead pigeons.
+
+Within two or three years several accounts have reached us, bearing
+every mark of believability, that considerable flights of geese, swans
+and ducks have been drowned in the surf off the New Jersey and Maryland
+shores. These flights of birds have been overwhelmed in a sudden storm
+or gale of wind, which beat them down into the surf where they were
+drowned, their bodies drifting about, and some of them being thrown up
+on the shore.
+
+These accounts have come from fishermen, sportsmen and others, and I
+see no reason whatever to doubt that a flight of birds of any species
+known could easily be destroyed if caught off shore in some of the
+wind storms of which we have so many instances. I have frequently in
+_Forest and Stream_ propounded my theory and asked for information
+about it before it became too late. The whole theory stands or falls,
+as it seems to me, with the ascertainment of the southern limit of the
+migration of the great pigeon flight. If the birds did not cross the
+Gulf of Mexico there is far less likelihood of my theory being the
+correct one, though my inquiries in _Forest and Stream_ elicited one
+very circumstantial account of an enormous destruction of pigeons on
+the Gulf Coast, the birds being blown into the Gulf and destroyed by
+a fierce "norther" which beat down the coast for two or three days.
+Persons familiar with this phenomena of the Texas "norther" need no
+help to their imaginations in seeing how a pigeon flight, being caught
+on the shores of the Gulf by such a wind could be practically destroyed.
+
+I do not know that you will think my theory worth any consideration,
+but I have finally interested a number of ornithologists who share my
+view that the final and sudden wiping out of the great bulk of the
+pigeon flight must have been by some cataclysmic agency. It seems to
+me that the question is one of great interest from the point of view
+of the naturalist and biologist, and well worth serious investigation
+by all who care for these things. I shall be pleased to know if what I
+have said seems to you of interest and to have any weight.
+
+Wishing you all success in your admirable undertaking, and anticipating
+with great pleasure the results of your studies in your proposed book,
+I am,
+
+                          Yours very truly,
+
+                                                        C. H. Ames.
+
+
+  _Memorandum prepared by Mr. Robert Ridgway, Curator of the Division
+  of Birds, U. S. National Museum, to accompany letter to Mr. W. B.
+  Mershon, Saginaw, Mich._
+
+If Mr. Mershon will communicate on the subject of Passenger Pigeons
+with Mr. William Brewster,[E] 145 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Mass., he
+may get some data which will (or ought to) dismiss from consideration
+the idea that the passenger pigeon could have been exterminated in the
+manner suggested by Mr. Ames. During a visit to northern Michigan, Mr.
+Brewster talked with a great many pigeon netters. I have forgotten
+the figures, and may be very inexact in my recollection of them, but
+my recollection is that at one "roost" there were one hundred netters
+who averaged one thousand (it may have been ten thousand) pigeons per
+day. When it is considered that this was the rate of destruction at one
+locality in one State only, that the same was going on in other States,
+and that tens of thousands were being killed by hunters and others, and
+this year after year, I cannot see anything surprising in the eventual
+extermination of the species, no matter how numerously represented
+originally.
+
+[Footnote E: See Chapter VII, "Netting the Pigeon" by Wm. Brewster.]
+
+Nothing in the history of the Passenger Pigeon is more certainly known
+than the fact that its range to the southward _did not extend beyond
+the United States_. There is a single Cuban record, but the occurrence
+was purely accidental. The migrations of the Passenger Pigeon were
+wholly different in their character from those of true emigrants, that
+is to say, they were influenced or controlled purely by the matter of
+food supply, as in the case of the robin and some other birds, and the
+flights were as often from west to east and _vice versa_ as from south
+to north or north to south; in short, the flocks moved about in various
+directions in their search for food or nesting places. For myself, I
+do not believe in the story of drowning in the Gulf of Mexico for two
+reasons. In the first place the birds are extremely unlikely to have
+been there, a hurricane from the _northward_ being absolutely necessary
+to explain their presence in that quarter, and, in the second place,
+no such explanation is needed in view of what is known to be the facts
+concerning their wholesale destruction by human agency alone.
+
+The range of the Passenger Pigeon was limited to the mixed hardwood
+forest region of the eastern United States and Canada, and any that
+occurred beyond were stragglers, pure and simple. Consequently it was
+not found, except as stragglers, in the long-leaf pine belt of the
+Gulf Coast, but only on the uplands from northern or middle Alabama,
+Mississippi, and Louisiana, northward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+News from John Burroughs
+
+
+When the following report from so high an authority as John Burroughs
+appeared in _Forest and Stream_ it seemed too important to be
+overlooked. I therefore ventured to open a correspondence with this
+famous naturalist, even suggesting that his informants might have
+mistaken some other species of migratory bird for a flight of wild
+pigeons. I had once made a similar mistake in Texas when the northern
+migration of the curlews was in full flight. Countless flocks of them
+were streaming past at a considerable distance from me, and I could
+have sworn they were wild pigeons until I was lucky enough to see them
+at much closer range. Even now the newspapers east and west contain
+an annual crop of wild pigeon reports, most of which are to be found
+fake reports upon careful investigation. It has happened often that
+hunters and woodsmen mistake the wild dove for the pigeon, and refuse
+to believe otherwise. The correspondence explains itself, however, and
+is a valuable contribution to the subject in hand.
+
+                                                            W. B. M.
+
+
+A FLOCK OF WILD PIGEONS[F]
+
+[Footnote F: From _Forest and Stream_, May 19, 1906.]
+
+                                         West Park, N. Y., May 11th.
+
+Editor _Forest and Stream_:
+
+I have received evidence which is to me entirely convincing that a
+large flock of Passenger Pigeons was seen to pass over the village
+of Prattsville, Greene County, this State, late one afternoon about
+the middle of April. The fact was first reported in the local paper,
+the Prattsville _News_. An old boyhood schoolmate of mine, Charles
+W. Benton, was, with others, reported to have seen them. I have
+corresponded with Mr. Benton and have no doubt the pigeons were seen
+as stated. Mr. Benton saw pigeons, clouds of them, in his boyhood, and
+could not well be mistaken. He says it was about 5 o'clock, and that
+the flock stretched out across the valley about one-half mile and must
+have contained many hundreds. It came from the southeast, and went
+northwest. Mr. Benton says that a large flock was reported last year as
+having passed over the village of Catskill, and that a wild pigeon was
+shot near Prattsville last fall. A friend of mine saw two pigeons in
+the woods at West Point a year or so ago.
+
+I have no doubt, therefore, that the wild pigeon is still with us, and
+that if protected we may yet see them in something like their numbers
+of thirty years ago.
+
+                                                       John Burroughs.
+
+
+                                      West Park, N. Y., May 27, 1906.
+
+To W. B. Mershon:
+
+Dear Sir:--I can give you no more definite information about that flock
+of pigeons than I reported to _Forest and Stream_. I have no doubt
+about the fact. If you will write to C. W. Benton, Prattsville, N. Y.,
+he can put you in communication with several people who saw the flock.
+
+I am just about to write to _Forest and Stream_ of another very large
+flock of pigeons that was seen to pass over the city of Kingston,
+N. Y., on the morning of the 15th. I have written to Judge A. T.
+Clearwater of that city, who replies that he has talked with many
+persons who saw the pigeons and who had seen the pigeons years ago.
+The flock is described as a mile long. I am going up to Kingston soon
+to question the persons who saw the flock. If I learn anything to
+discredit the story I will let you know. We never have a flight of any
+birds here that could be mistaken for pigeons by any one who had ever
+seen the latter. If these flocks were pigeons, where have they been
+hiding all these years?
+
+                         Very sincerely yours,
+
+                                                       John Burroughs.
+
+
+                                     Prattsville, N. Y., June 9, 1906.
+
+W. B. Mershon, Saginaw, Mich.:
+
+Dear Sir:--Yours of the 6th inst. is before me and I hasten to reply.
+Now, in the first place, you speak of John Burroughs. Mr. Burroughs
+and I went to school together when we were boys, and, as you say, he is
+a good authority on natural history, and I have had some communication
+with him on the pigeon question. I live in the heart of the Catskill
+Mountains, which was once a great resort for wild pigeons, and I have
+seen a vast number of them, dating back as far as 1848, when this
+country was literally covered with them, and for some years after.
+Now in regard to the wild pigeons I saw this spring. I was going to
+my home in the village of Prattsville, in company with a man by the
+name of M. E. Kreiger, one Sunday afternoon, and when near my house we
+stopped to talk a few minutes, when, on looking up, we saw the flock of
+pigeons. They were coming from the southeast and went to the northwest.
+The flock was about one-half mile long and flew in the same manner as
+pigeons of old. There were thousands of them. Now in regard to ducks,
+teal and plover, we never see any of them here in the mountains, though
+once in a while a few ducks, but only in small flocks of seven or eight
+in a bunch; and there are no birds that gather in flocks here but crows
+in the fall, but never at any other time. Wild geese fly over here in
+the fall.
+
+The _Daily Leader_, a daily paper published in Kingston, Ulster County,
+N. Y., contained an item a few weeks since stating that a flock of wild
+pigeons passed over the city a short time ago. The flock was about one
+mile long and contained many thousands. And in the spring of 1905, the
+_Catskill Recorder_, a newspaper published in this county, reported
+seeing a flock similar to the one seen at Kingston.
+
+Wishing you success on your fishing trip, I am,
+
+                          Yours truly,
+
+                                                         C. W. Benton.
+
+
+THE SULLIVAN COUNTY PIGEONS
+
+                                          West Park, N. Y., June 30th.
+
+Editor _Forest and Stream_:
+
+Since I wrote you a few weeks ago, I have been looking up the men who
+were reported to have seen wild pigeons recently. I have seen six men
+who are positive they have seen flocks of wild pigeons--some of them
+two years ago, and some of them this past spring. As these men were all
+past middle age and had been familiar with the pigeon thirty and forty
+years ago and were, moreover, men reported truthful and sober by their
+neighbors, and who impressed me as being entirely reliable, I feel
+bound to credit their several statements. At De Bruce, Sullivan County,
+Mr. Cooper, the postmaster and village blacksmith, said he had seen a
+large flock of pigeons in the fall two years ago. They were about a
+buckwheat field. He pointed out the hill about which they were flying.
+Mr. Cooper had shot and trapped a great many pigeons years ago, and was
+sure he could not mistake any other bird for a pigeon. A farmer, whose
+name I do not now remember and who heard Mr. Cooper's statement, said
+he saw a large flock last fall about a buckwheat field, in the same
+town. This man was reported to me as perfectly reliable, and he gave me
+that impression.
+
+At Port Ewen, I met a Hudson River shad fisherman, Mr. Van Vliet, who
+said he had seen early one morning in April or May, two years ago,
+a flock of wild pigeons over the Hudson. He estimated the flock as
+containing seventy or eighty birds. Mr. Van Vliet is a man nearly
+seventy years old, and one cannot look into his face and have him speak
+and doubt for a moment the truth of what he is saying. When I asked him
+if he knew the wild pigeon, he smiled good-humoredly and said he knew
+them as well as he knew anything; he had lived in the time of pigeons,
+and had killed hundreds of them.
+
+Another man, one of the leading grocerymen of Port Ewen, said he had
+seen a very large flock of pigeons between 4 and 5 o'clock on May 15
+last, flying over as he was on his way to open his store. His hired
+man, who was with him, also saw them. Mr. Van Leuven had also seen
+pigeons in his youth and described to me accurately their manner of
+flight and the form of the flock against the sky. A neighbor of his
+told me he had seen a flock of fifteen or twenty pigeons on a foggy
+morning only a few days before. The rush of their wings overhead first
+attracted his attention to them. But he had never seen wild pigeons,
+and might have been deceived, though he was sure they were pigeons by
+their speed and general look.
+
+None of these men could have had any motive in trying to deceive me,
+and I feel bound to credit their stories. Their statements, taken in
+connection with the statement of my old schoolfellow at Prattsville, N.
+Y., of whom I wrote you, makes me believe that there is a large flock
+of wild pigeons that still at times frequents this part of the State,
+and perhaps breeds somewhere in the wilds of Sullivan or Ulster County.
+But they ought to be heard from elsewhere--from the south or southwest
+in winter.
+
+                                                       John Burroughs.
+
+P. S.--Just as I finished the above, I came upon the following in the
+Poughkeepsie _Sunday Courier_:
+
+"We noticed recently an item asking whether wild pigeons are returning.
+Sullivan County people seem to be taking the lead in answering the
+question, but a Dutchess County farmer named David Rosell, living near
+Fishkill Plains, who was familiar with the aforesaid birds in old days,
+reports having seen a flock of about thirty feeding on his buckwheat
+patch one morning last week, which gives evidence that the birds are
+not extinct as supposed, but a flock may merely be taking a tour around
+the world like Magellan of old. Mr. Rosell stated that he had not
+seen any before in about forty years. At first sight, he could hardly
+believe his eyes, but he was not long in becoming convinced of their
+identity."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+The Pigeon in Manitoba[G]
+
+By George E. Atkinson
+
+[Footnote G: This paper was read at a meeting of the Manitoba
+Historical and Scientific Society at Winnepeg in 1905, by the author, a
+naturalist, residing at Portage la Prairie.]
+
+
+While the biological history of any country records the decrease
+and disappearance of many forms of life due to just or unjust
+circumstances, it remains for the historical records of North America
+to reveal a career of human selfishness which may be considered the
+paragon. Within four centuries of North American civilization (or
+modified barbarism) we can be credited with the wiping into the past
+of at least three species of animal life originally so phenomenally
+abundant and so strikingly characteristic in themselves as to evoke
+the wonder and amazement of the entire world. And, sad to relate,
+so effectual has been the extermination, that it is doubtful if our
+descendants a few generations hence will be able to learn anything
+whatever about them save through the medium of books. While herein
+again we shall be just subjects of their censure for having manifestly
+failed to preserve in history's archives any material amount of
+specific information.
+
+The early settlers landing upon the Atlantic coast between Newfoundland
+and the Carolinas found them in possession of armies of great auks, and
+the few scraps of authenticated history which we now possess disclose a
+most iniquitous course of wanton slaughter and destruction which ended
+in the complete extinction of the bird over sixty years ago. Yet in the
+face of this destruction there remain but four mounted specimens and
+two eggs in the collections of North America to-day, while but seventy
+skins remain in the collections of the entire world.
+
+If possible, more ruthless and inhuman was the carnage waged against
+the noble buffalo, the countless thousands of which roaming over virgin
+prairies excited the wonder and amazement of the entire sporting and
+scientific world, and which, to-day, are represented only in the
+zoölogical parks, where all individuality will eventually be lost in
+domestication.
+
+Coincident almost with the passing of the buffalo we have to record
+the decline and fall of the Passenger Pigeon, a bird which aroused
+the excitement and wonder of the entire world during the first half
+of the last century because of its phenomenal numbers; a bird also
+which stood out unique in character and individuality among the 300
+described pigeons of the world and which won the admiration of every
+ornithologist who was fortunate enough to have experience with it
+living or dead. Yet it was not exempt from the oppression of its human
+foe, who has been instrumental, through interference with the breeding
+and feeding grounds and through a continued persecution and ruthless
+slaughter for the market, in reducing the species almost beyond the
+hope of salvation.
+
+The Passenger Pigeon, the species under observation, was first
+described under the genus _Columba_, or type pigeons, but subsequently
+Swainson separated it from these and placed it under the genus
+_Ectopistes_ because of the greater length of wing and tail.
+
+Generically named _Ectopistes_, meaning moving about or wandering, and
+specifically named _Migratoria_, meaning migratory, we have a technical
+name implying not only a species of migrating annually to and from
+their breeding ground, but one given to moving about from season to
+season, selecting the most congenial environment for both breeding and
+feeding.
+
+... With all the knowledge we have possessed of the inestimable
+multitudes which existed during the early part of the last century,
+and with their decline, begun and noted generally in the later sixties
+and early seventies, we still find that no steps whatever were taken
+to prevent their possible depletion, and few records of any value are
+made of the continuance or speed of this decrease; and not until the
+last decade of the century do we awake to the fact that the pigeons
+are gone beyond the possibility of a return in any numbers. When a
+few years later reports are made that pigeons still exist and are
+again increasing, scientific investigation shows that the mourning
+dove has been mistaken for the pigeon or that the band-tailed pigeon
+of California is taken for the old Passenger Pigeon, and so we have
+continued since the early nineties investigating rumors of their
+appearance from all over America, north and south, and the West India
+Islands, but all reports point us to the past for the pigeon and some
+other species under suspicion.... I doubt very much if the historian
+desirous of compiling any historical work would find himself confronted
+with such a decided blank in historical records during an important
+period as that confronted in the compilation of a historical record of
+the Passenger Pigeon within any district which it formerly frequented
+during the period from about 1870, when the decline was first noticed,
+to 1890, when the birds had practically passed away....
+
+In this matter, Mr. J. H. Fleming of Toronto, in writing me, says:
+"The pigeons seem to have gone off like dynamite. Nobody expected it
+and nobody prepared a series of skins"; and to this I can add that no
+one seems to have made any series of records of the birds from year
+to year. Since their disappearance, however, things have changed:
+everybody is alert for pigeons, and everybody has a theory; but beyond
+offering subject of social conversation, or awakening a recital of old
+pigeon experiences from the old timers, these rumors and theories seem
+to return to the winds from whence they came.
+
+The latest theory advanced to me by a correspondent is the possibility
+of some disturbance of the elements in the shape of a cyclone, or a
+storm striking a migrating host in crossing the Gulf of Mexico and
+destroying them almost completely. This is a plausible theory, but I am
+unable to conceive how such immense hosts of pigeons as are recorded up
+to 1865 could possibly have met with sudden disaster in this manner,
+even in the center of the Gulf, without leaving some wreckage to tell
+the story, and such is not recorded. While again I do not think that
+the entire host would cross the Gulf, but that a large portion of
+the migrating birds would take an overland route through Mexico and
+Central America to the southern boundary of their flight. Personally
+I am inclined to cherish my original contentions that the continued
+disturbance of the breeding and feeding grounds, both by the slaughter
+of the birds for market and by the dissipating of the original immense
+colonies by the clearing of the hardwood and pine forests of the United
+States and eastern Canada, compelling these sections of the main column
+to travel farther in search of congenial environment, curtailing the
+breeding season, and, I have no doubt, frequently preventing many from
+breeding for several seasons.
+
+While the persistent persecution and destruction for the market was
+in no way proportionately lessened in the vicinity of these smaller
+colonies as long as a sufficient number of the birds remained to make
+the traffic profitable, it can at once be seen that this continued
+drain upon these smaller colonies, when other conditions were becoming
+more difficult for the birds to contend with, would be instrumental in
+depleting the entire former main column to a point when netting and
+shooting were no longer profitable; and, the remnant of these colonies
+having to run a gantlet of persecution over their entire course of
+migration to and from winter quarters, there could be but one result to
+such proceeding, and that one we now face; extermination.
+
+Of these records made during the pigeons' day, as we might call it,
+the earliest we have are those made by a Mr. T. Hutchins, who was a
+Hudson's Bay Company trader, operating for some twenty-five years
+in the district adjacent to Hudson's Bay, during which time he made
+copious notes of the birds frequenting that district, which were
+afterwards published by Pennant in his "Arctic Zoölogy" in 1875. He
+says in part:
+
+"The first pigeon I shall take note of is one I received at Severn in
+1771; and, having sent it home to Mr. Pennant, he informed me that it
+was the _migratoria_ species. They are very numerous inland and visit
+our settlement in the summer. They are plentiful about Moose Factory
+and inland, where they breed, choosing an arboreous situation. The
+gentlemen number them among the many delicacies the Hudson's Bay
+affords our tables. It is a hardy bird, continuing with us until
+December. In summer their food is berries, but after these are covered
+with snow, they feed upon the juniper buds. They lay two eggs and
+are gregarious. About 1756 these birds migrated as far north as York
+Factory, but remained only two days."
+
+In a report issued in 1795, Samuel Hearne also reports the birds being
+abundant inland from the southern portion of Hudson's Bay, but states
+that, though good eating, they were seldom fat.
+
+The first provincial record is that made by Sir John Richardson in
+1827, in which he says: "A few hordes of Indians who frequent the low
+floods districts at the south end of Lake Winnipeg subsist principally
+on the pigeons during the period when the sturgeon fishing is
+unproductive and the wild rice is still unripened, but farther north
+the birds are too few in numbers to furnish material diet."
+
+I presume that he means farther up the Lake Winnipeg shores, since
+Hutchins and Hearne both reported them common nearer Hudson's Bay.
+
+The early records of the birds in eastern Canada in later years
+corroborate the earlier statements of Wilson and Audubon in almost
+every particular; and one acquainted with the timbered conditions of
+the country to the immediate west of the Red River Valley and north of
+the American boundary line can readily appreciate the utter inadequacy
+of an acceptable food supply for these countless millions of pigeons;
+and we can also readily understand how very soon the breaking up of
+the original hardwood forests of eastern Canada would tend to decrease
+the visible food supply and cause these hungry millions to seek new
+pastures.
+
+The breaking of these feeding grounds would first be instrumental in
+scattering or breaking up the largest flocks, and even the very long
+distances the bird was able to fly from breeding to feeding ground
+would be exceeded, necessitating next the nesting in smaller colonies,
+where careless nesting habits with continued changing conditions
+would tend to continue to decline their numbers, while the tenacity
+with which even the smaller roosts were clung to by man, like leeches
+to a frog, and the hapless victim shot, netted and stolen from the
+nest before maturity, was but another effectual and not the least
+responsible agent in the relegation of the pigeon to that past from
+which none return.
+
+When I decided to attempt the preparation of a review history of the
+pigeon in Manitoba, I felt that, having had practically no experience
+with the bird myself, I should have to depend upon the reports of
+representative pioneers of the country for my facts as to the numbers
+of the birds formerly found here, and the period of their decline
+and disappearance. I accordingly drafted a series of questions which
+I submitted to these gentlemen, and I have to tender them all my
+sincere thanks, as well as that of the scientific world, for the ready
+responses and the conciseness of the information received.
+
+One of the earliest residents of Portage la Prairie, Mr. George A.
+Garrioch, informs me:
+
+"I was born in Manitoba and came to Portage la Prairie about 1853. I
+was then only about six years old, and as far back as I can remember
+pigeons were very numerous.
+
+"They passed over every spring, usually during the mornings, in very
+large flocks, following each other in rapid succession.
+
+"I do not think they bred in any numbers in the province, as I only
+remember seeing one nest; this contained two eggs.
+
+"The birds, to my recollection, were most numerous in the fifties, and
+the decline was noticed in the later sixties and continued until the
+early eighties, when they disappeared. I have observed none since until
+last year, when I am positive I saw a single male bird south of the
+town of Portage la Prairie."
+
+Mr. Angus Sutherland of Winnipeg, in reply to my interrogation, states:
+
+"I was born in the present city of Winnipeg and have lived here over
+fifty years. The wild pigeons were very numerous in my boyhood. They
+frequented the mixed woods about the city, and while undoubtedly
+many birds bred here, I remember no extensive breeding colonies in
+the province, and believe the great majority passed farther north to
+breed. About 1870 the decrease in their numbers was most pronouncedly
+manifest, this decline continuing until the early eighties, when they
+had apparently all disappeared, and I have seen only occasional birds
+since, and none of late years."
+
+Mr. W. J. McLean, formerly of the Hudson's Bay Company and at present
+a resident of Winnipeg, sends me some valuable information, which
+supports my contention regarding the influence of food supply. He
+writes:
+
+"I came to the Red River Settlement in 1860 and found the pigeons
+very plentiful on my arrival. The birds came in many thousands, and
+great numbers of them bred in the northeastern portion of the province
+through the district north of the Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake,
+where the cranberry and blueberry are abundant. These fruits constitute
+their chief food supply, as they remain on the bushes and retain much
+of their food properties until well on into the summer following their
+growth. They also feed largely on acorns wherever they abound. The
+decline began about the early seventies, and 1877 was the first year
+in which I encountered large flocks of them passing northwesterly from
+White Sand River near Fort Pelly. This was on a dull, drizzling day
+about the middle of May, and I presume they were then heading towards
+the Barren Grounds district, where the blueberry and the cranberry are
+very abundant."
+
+Mr. E. H. G. G. Hay, formerly police magistrate of Portage la Prairie,
+now of St. Andrews, reports:
+
+"I came to the country in June, 1861, and found that the pigeons were
+abundant previous to my arrival. To give you an idea of their numbers,
+a Mr. Thompson of St. Andrews some mornings caught with a net about ten
+feet square as many as eighty dozen, and in the spring of 1864 I fired
+into a flock as they rose from the ground and picked up seventeen birds.
+
+"The birds were mostly migratory in what is now known as Manitoba,
+and most of them went farther north after the seeding season. I never
+heard of any extensive rookeries such as those observed in the east
+and south. The few that bred here frequented mixed poplar and spruce.
+They seemed most numerous in the sixties and began to show signs of
+decreasing about 1869 or 1870, and by 1875 they had all disappeared and
+I have only seen an occasional bird since."
+
+Mr. William Clark of the Hudson's Bay Company, Winnipeg, informs me:
+
+"The first place I remember having seen pigeons in Manitoba was at
+White Horse Plains (St. François Xavier) in 1865, where they were very
+numerous, breeding in the oak trees in that district. Two years after
+this I went to Oak Point on Lake Manitoba, but do not remember the
+birds there then nor since."
+
+Mr. Charles A. Boultbee of Macgregor, Man., replies as follows:
+
+"I have resided in Manitoba since 1872, and have taken pigeons as far
+north as Fort Pelly in the fall of 1874, but know nothing of them
+previously. In our district they usually made their appearance in the
+fall and fed upon the grain. They continued fairly numerous until about
+1882, at which time we had to drive them from the grain stocks, but
+they then disappeared and only stragglers have been noted since."
+
+There is no doubt that many other reports could have been secured, but,
+as all seem to tend toward the one conclusion, I shall save time and
+space by summarizing the information at hand.
+
+Some months ago I made a statement in an article, written for local
+interest, to the effect that Manitoba had never been the home of the
+wild pigeon. By this I meant that, because of unfavorable breeding and
+feeding conditions within the province, only the smallest percentage
+of the enormous flocks recorded for the south and east could possibly
+exist here. The records here collected support me in this contention
+so far as that portion of the province west of the Red River is
+concerned, but the record of Sir John Richardson tends to show that
+favorable conditions must have existed immediately south of Lake
+Winnipeg, through what he calls a low-lying district, and where we can
+assume that the cranberry and blueberry were abundant, as they were
+through the district subsequently reported by Mr. McLean to the east
+and northeast of this district. There is no doubt that the difference
+in the character of the country east of the Red River from that of
+the west would present more favorable conditions for the birds, but
+not in one case has it been shown that the birds nested in colonies
+approaching the size of the famous eastern and southern roosts. Reports
+seem rather to show that those which bred within the province were more
+generally scattered over the country, at the same time being numerous
+enough to permit the shooter and the netter to make a profitable
+business of killing the birds.
+
+All evidence seems to show that large numbers passed through the
+province to and from a northern breeding ground, possibly that recorded
+by Hutchins near Hudson's Bay and to the westward, and that they were
+excessively numerous up to about 1870, when they began to decrease. As
+to the latest authenticated records, I quote from notes in my pamphlet
+on "Rare Bird Records:"
+
+"The beautiful specimen of the Passenger Pigeon that I have been able
+to secure for illustration is loaned me by Mr. Dan Smith of Winnipeg,
+who shot it in St. Boniface, southeast of the cathedral, in the fall
+of 1893; and, so far as I have been able to discover, it was the last
+bird found in the vicinity of Winnipeg, while the only specimen in the
+flesh which I was ever privileged to handle in Manitoba was killed at
+Winnipegosis on April 10, 1896, and sent me to be mounted."
+
+[Illustration: Photo by C. O. Whitman (University of Chicago)
+
+                                                  October 16, 1906.
+
+Mr. W. B. Mershon,
+
+Dear Sir:--I am much chagrined over my carelessness in overlooking
+your request for a photo of a young Passenger Pigeon. I had best of
+intentions, but crowded work threw this out of mind. I should have
+attended to it at first, had it been easy to get at the picture. I have
+been away all summer and found things misplaced on my return. I fear it
+is now too late, but send the picture to be used if you are still able
+to do so. I shall be very much interested to see your book. I still
+have two female pigeons and two hybrids between a former male pigeon
+and the common Ring-dove. The hybrids are unfortunately infertile males.
+
+                          Very truly,
+
+                                                      C. O. Whitman.]
+
+Since that time I have expended much effort in following up rumors of
+the bird's presence in various districts with a view of locating a
+breeding pair. Not only have I sought to secure a bird to mount, but
+also to get a live pair, or the eggs while fresh, to assist in the
+preservation of the pigeon in a partially domesticated state, since
+the only specimens now living in captivity are those owned by Prof.
+Whitman of the University of Chicago, who, in writing me, says: "My
+stock seems to have come to a complete standstill, having raised no
+young for the last four years. The weakness is due to long inbreeding,
+as my birds are from a single pair captured about twenty-five years
+ago in Wisconsin. I have long tried to secure new stock, but have been
+unsuccessful. A single pair would enable me to save them, for they
+breed well in confinement.
+
+"I have crossed them with ring doves, and still have three hybrids,
+but as these are infertile there is no hope of even preserving these
+half-breeds alive. Of all the wild pigeons in the world the Passenger
+Pigeon is my favorite. No other pigeon combines so many fine qualities
+in form, color, strength and perfection of wing power."
+
+I am enabled through the kindness of Prof. Whitman to exhibit a
+photograph of one of his younger birds taken in his aviary at Chicago.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+The Passenger Pigeon in Confinement
+
+(_Ectopistes migratorius_)
+
+From "The Auk," July, 1896.
+
+
+In the _American Field_ of December 5, 1895, I noticed a short
+note, stating that Mr. David Whittaker of Milwaukee, Wis., had in a
+spacious inclosure a flock of fifty genuine wild pigeons. Being much
+interested of late in this bird, I at once wrote to Mr. Whittaker,
+asking for such information in detail regarding his birds as he could
+give me, but, owing to absence from the city, he did not reply. Still
+being anxious to learn something further regarding this interesting
+subject, I recently wrote to a correspondent in Milwaukee, asking him
+to investigate the matter. In due time I received his reply, stating
+that he had seen the pigeons, but that the flock consisted of fifteen
+instead of fifty birds, and inviting me to join him and spend a few
+hours of rare pleasure.
+
+On March 1, 1896, I visited Milwaukee, and made a careful inspection of
+this beautiful flock. I am greatly indebted to Mr. Whittaker, through
+whose courtesy we saw and heard so much of value and interest, not only
+in regard to his pet birds, but also about his large experience with
+the wild pigeon in its native haunts; for, being a keen observer of
+nature, and having been a prospector for many years among the timber
+and mining regions of Wisconsin, Michigan and Canada, his opportunities
+for observation have been extensive. In the fall of 1888 Mr. Whittaker
+received from a young Indian two pairs of pigeons, one of adults and
+the other quite young. They were trapped near Lake Shawano, in Shawano
+County in northeastern Wisconsin.
+
+Shortly after being confined, one of the old birds scalped itself by
+flying against the wire netting, and died; the other one escaped. The
+young pair were, with much care and watching, successfully raised,
+and from these the flock has increased to its present number, six
+males and nine females. The inclosure, which is not large, is built
+behind and adjoining the house, situated on a high bluff overlooking
+Milwaukee River. It is built of wire netting and inclosed on the top
+and two sides with glass. There is but slight protection from the cold,
+and the pigeons thrive in zero weather as well as in summer. A few
+branches and poles are used for roosting, and two shelves, about one
+foot wide and partitioned off, though not inclosed, are where the nests
+are built and the young are raised. It was several years before Mr.
+Whittaker successfully raised the young, but, by patient experimenting
+with various kinds of food, he has been rewarded. The destruction of
+the nests and egg, at times by the female, more often by others of the
+flock, and the killing of the young birds, after they leave the nest,
+by the old males, explains in part the slow increase in the flock.
+
+When the pigeons show signs of nesting, small twigs are thrown onto
+the bottom of the inclosure; and, on the day of our visit, I was so
+fortunate as to watch the operations of nest building. There were three
+pairs actively engaged. The females remained on the shelf, and, at a
+given signal which they only uttered for this purpose, the males would
+select a twig or straw, and in one instance a feather, and fly up to
+the nest, drop it and return to the ground while the females placed the
+building material in position and then called for more.
+
+In all of Mr. Whittaker's experience with this flock he has never known
+of more than one egg being deposited. Audubon, in his article on the
+Passenger Pigeon, says: "A curious change of habits has taken place
+in England in those pigeons which I presented to the Earl of Kirby
+in 1830, that nobleman having assured me that, ever since they began
+breeding in his aviaries, they have laid only one egg." The eggs are
+usually laid from the middle of February to the middle of September,
+some females laying as many as seven or eight during the season, though
+three or four is the average.
+
+The period of incubation is fourteen days, almost to a day, and, if
+the egg is not hatched in that time, the birds desert it. As in the
+wild state, both parents assist in incubation, the females sitting
+all night, and the males by day. As soon as the young are hatched
+the parents are fed on earth worms, beetles, grubs, etc., which are
+placed in a box of earth, from which they greedily feed, afterwards
+nourishing the young, in the usual way, by disgorging the contents from
+the crop. At times the earth in the inclosure is moistened with water
+and a handful of worms thrown in, which soon find their way under the
+surface. The pigeons are so fond of these tid-bits they will often
+pick and scratch holes in their search, large enough to almost hide
+themselves.
+
+When the birds are sitting during cold weather, the egg is tucked up
+under the feathers, as though to support the egg in its position. At
+such times the pigeon rests on the side of the folded wing, instead
+of squatting on the nest. During the first few days, after the young
+is hatched, to guard against the cold, it is, like the egg, concealed
+under the feathers of the abdomen, the head always pointing forward.
+In this attitude, the parents, without changing the sitting position
+or reclining on the side, feed the squab by arching the head and neck
+down, and administering the food. The young leave the nest in about
+fourteen days, and then feed on small seeds, and later, with the old
+birds, subsist on grains, beech nuts, acorns, etc.
+
+The adults usually commence to molt in September and are but a few
+weeks in assuming their new dress, but the young in the first molt are
+much longer. At the time of my visit the birds were all in perfect
+plumage. The young in the downy state are a dark slate-color.
+
+The pigeons are always timid, and ever on the alert when being watched,
+and the observer must approach them cautiously to prevent a commotion.
+They inherit the instincts of their race in a number of ways. On the
+approach of a storm the old birds will arrange themselves side by
+side on the perch, draw the head and neck down into the feathers, and
+sit motionless for a time, then gradually resume an upright position,
+spread the tail, stretch each wing in turn, and then, as at a given
+signal, they spring from the perch and bring up against the wire
+netting with their feet as though anxious to fly before the disturbing
+elements. Mr. Whittaker has noticed this same trait while observing
+pigeons in the woods.
+
+It was with a peculiar sense of pleasure and satisfaction that I
+witnessed and heard all the facts about this flock, inasmuch as but
+few of us expect to again have such opportunities with this pigeon in
+the wild state. It is to be hoped that, if Mr. Whittaker continues to
+successfully increase these birds, he will dispose of a pair to some
+zoölogical gardens; for what would be a more valuable and interesting
+addition than an aviary of this rapidly diminishing species?
+
+
+LETTERS OF COMMENT FROM CHIEF POKAGON.
+
+                                    Hartford, Mich., Dec. 17, 1896.
+
+Ruthven Deane, Chicago, Ill.
+
+Dear Sir:--Your article on wild pigeons (_O-me-me-oo_) received and
+just read with much interest. I am now satisfied you are deeply
+interested in those strange birds, or you would not have gone to
+Milwaukee to see them. I would like to have Whittaker's full name and
+address so I can learn the come-out of that little flock. You note
+his flock stands zero weather. Many times in my life I have known
+O-me-me-oo, while nesting, to be obliged to search for food in from
+four to six inches of snow, and have seen the snow at such times
+upturned and intermixed with forest leaves for miles and miles. They
+would move out of the nesting grounds in vast columns, flying one over
+the other. I have seen them at such times reminding me of a vast flood
+of water rolling over a rocky bottom, sending the water in curved lines
+upwards and falling farther down the stream.
+
+I have seen them many times building nests by the thousand within
+sight, both male and female assisting in building the nest. I have
+counted the number of sticks used many times; they number from seventy
+to one hundred and ten, sometimes so frail I have plainly seen the eggs
+from the ground.
+
+I visited a nesting north of Kilburn City, Wis., about twenty-five
+years ago, and I there counted as high as forty nests in scrub oaks not
+over twenty-five feet high; in many places I could pick the eggs out of
+the nests, being not over five or six feet from the ground.
+
+I stopped then with the Win-a-ba-go Indians, and was much interested in
+seeing them play mog-i-cin. I had heard the fathers explain the game
+when a boy, but never saw it before. I call it a gambling game. Certain
+it is, when nesting in a wild state, the male goes out at break of day;
+returning from eight to eleven he takes the nest; the hen then goes
+out, returning from one to four, and takes the nest; then the male goes
+out, returning, according to feed, between that time and night.
+
+After the young leave their nests, I have always noticed that a few,
+both males and females, stay with them. I have seen as many as a dozen
+young ones assemble about a male, and, with drooping wings, utter the
+plaintive begging notes to be fed, and never saw them misused at such
+times by either gender. Certain it is, while feeding their young they
+are frantic for salt. I have seen them pile on top of each other, about
+salt springs, two or more deep. I wonder if your friend gives his
+birds, while brooding, salt.
+
+
+                                     Hartford, Mich., Dec. 18, 1896.
+
+Dear Sir:--Yours of December 17th at hand. It is indeed surprising to
+me that your place of business is so close to old Fort Dearborn. In
+writing you yesterday, I overlooked what you said about the Milwaukee
+man's experience with his birds just hatching. I understand they were
+young birds. Thirty-two years ago there was a big nesting between South
+Haven and St. Joseph on Lake Michigan. About one week after the main
+body commenced nesting, a new body of great size, covering hundreds of
+acres, came and joined them. I never saw nests built so thick, high
+and low. I found they were all young birds less than a year old, which
+could be easily explained from their mottled coloring. To my surprise,
+soon as nests were built, they commenced tearing them down--a few eggs
+scattered about told some had laid; within three days they all left,
+moving in a body up the lake shore north. I have had like facts told
+me by others who have witnessed the same thing; and therefore conclude
+that your friend's experience accurately portrays the habits of these
+birds in their wild state.
+
+
+                                             University of Chicago,
+
+                                                      May 30, 1904.
+
+Dear Sir:--I have ten of the wild pigeons; they are from a single pair
+obtained by Mr. Whittaker of Milwaukee about twenty years ago. Mr. W.
+bred from this pair until he had a dozen or more. I obtained a few
+pairs from him, and they bred fairly well for a few years, but lately
+have failed to accomplish anything. This season a single egg was
+obtained. It developed for about a week and then halted. The stock is
+evidently weakened by inbreeding so long. I can give no information as
+to time of disappearance. I have sought information far and near. Only
+a few birds have been reported the last three years. One was reported
+on pretty reliable grounds from Toronto last summer.
+
+Sorry I can give you no satisfactory details.
+
+                          Yours truly,
+
+                                                      C. O. Whitman.
+
+[Under date of June 6, 1905, Prof. Whitman of the University of Chicago
+wrote to me that his flock had been reduced from ten to four since he
+last wrote. He says that one pair were then beginning the maneuvers
+preceding nesting, but he doubted very much if they would accomplish
+anything.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+Nesting Habits of the Passenger Pigeon
+
+By Eugene Pericles (Dr. Morris Gibbs), from "The Oölogist, 1894."
+
+
+There are hundreds and perhaps thousands of the younger readers of
+_The Oölogist_ who have never seen a Passenger Pigeon alive. In fact,
+there are many who have never seen a skin or stuffed specimen, for the
+species is so rare now that very few of the younger collectors have had
+an opportunity of shooting a bird. And of the present generation of
+oölogists, the ones who have secured a set (one egg) are indeed very
+few.
+
+Many of the older ornithologists can remember when the birds
+appeared among us in myriads each season, and were mercilessly and
+inconsiderately trapped and shot whenever and wherever they appeared.
+I could fill a book with the accounts of their butcheries, and could
+easily cause astonishment in my readers by telling of the immense
+flocks which were seen a quarter of a century ago. But wonderful as
+these tales would appear, they would be as nothing compared to the
+stories of the earlier writers on birds in America.
+
+... Of course we know that the net and gun have been the principal
+means of destruction, but it is almost fair to assert that even with
+the net and gun under proper restrictions, the pigeon would still be
+with us in hordes, both spring and autumn. For many years hunters
+(butchers) used to shoot the birds regularly at their nesting places,
+while the netters were also found near at hand.
+
+I have seen many birds taken, by unsportsmanlike netters, for the
+market during spring migrations, and the published accounts of the
+destruction by netters is almost beyond belief. Doctor Kirtland states
+that near Circleville, Ohio, in 1850, there were taken in a single net
+in one day 1,285 live pigeons.
+
+The Passenger Pigeon was in the habit of crossing the Ohio River by
+March 1 in the spring migrations, and I have noted the birds several
+times in Michigan in February. But this was not usually the case, for
+the birds were not abundant generally before April 1, although no set
+rule could be laid down regarding their appearance or departure either
+in spring or fall. They usually came with a mighty rush. Sometimes they
+did not appear, or, at least, only very sparingly. Their nesting sites
+would remain the same for years if the birds were unmolested, but they
+generally had to change every year or two, or as soon as the roost was
+discovered by the despicable market netter.
+
+Where the mighty numbers went to when they left for the south is not
+accurately stated, and, of course, this will now never be known, but
+they were found to continue in flocks in Virginia, Kentucky and even
+Tennessee.
+
+... In the latter part of April or early May the birds began nesting.
+The nest building beginning as soon as the birds had selected a woods
+for a rookery, the scene was one of great activity. Birds were flying
+in every direction in search of twigs for their platform nests, and it
+did seem that each pair was intent on securing materials at a distance
+from the structure. Many twigs were dropped in flying, or at the nest,
+and these were never reclaimed by their bearers, but were often picked
+up by other birds from another part of the rookery. This peculiarity in
+so many species of birds in nest building I could never understand.
+
+It takes a pair of pigeons from four to six days to complete a nest,
+and any basketmaker could do a hundred per cent. better job with the
+same materials in a couple of hours. In the nest of the pigeon, man
+could certainly give the birds points for their benefit, for it is one
+of the most shiftless structures placed in trees that I have met with.
+
+The nest is always composed of slender dead twigs, so far as I have
+observed, or ever learned from others, and in comparison, though
+smaller, much resembles some of the heron's structures. In some nests
+I have observed the materials are so loosely put together that the egg
+or young bird can be seen through the latticed bottom. In fact, it has
+been my custom to always thus examine the nests before climbing the
+tree.
+
+The platform structures vary in diameter from six to twelve inches or
+more, differing in size according to the length of the sticks, but
+generally are about nine or ten inches across. An acquaintance of mine
+had tamed some wild birds, which at last bred regularly in captivity.
+These birds were well supplied with an abundance of material for their
+nests and always selected in confinement such as described above, and
+making a nest about nine inches in diameter.
+
+The breeding places are generally found in oak woods, but the great
+nesting sites in Michigan were often in timbered lands, I am informed.
+
+The height of the nest varies. It may be as low as six feet or all of
+sixty-five feet from the ground.
+
+Passenger Pigeons are always gregarious when unmolested, and hundreds
+of thousands sometimes breed in a neighborhood at one time. It is
+impossible to say how many nests were the most found in one tree, but
+there are authenticated instances of a hundred. One man, on whose
+veracity I rely, informs me that he counted 110 nests in one tree in
+Emmett County, the lower peninsula. Still this may not be correct, for
+we all know how easy it is to be deceived in correctly counting and
+keeping record of even the branches of a tree, and when these limbs are
+occupied by nests it is certainly doubly difficult, and the tendency
+to count the same nests twice is increased.
+
+The first nests that I found were in large white oak trees at the edge
+of a pond. The date was May 17, 1873. The nests were few in number and
+only one nest in a tree. There was but a single egg in a nest; in fact
+this is all I have found at any time. The last nest that I have met
+with south of the forty-third parallel was forty feet up in a tamarack
+tree in a swamp near the river, June 1, 1884. This nest was alone and
+would not have been discovered had not the birds flown to it. I have
+found several instances of pairs of pigeons building isolated nests,
+and cannot help but think that if all birds had followed this custom
+that the pigeons would still be with us in vast numbers.
+
+As late as May 9, 1880, my lamented friend, the late C. W. Gunn, found
+a rookery in a cedar woods in Cheboygan County. These nests contained
+a single egg each, and he secured about fifty fresh eggs. He did not
+think their number excessive, as the netters were killing the birds
+in every direction. But now we can look upon such a trip almost as
+devastation because the birds are so scarce.
+
+In 1885 I met with the pigeon on Mackinac Island, and have found a few
+isolated flocks in the Lower Peninsula since then, generally in the
+fall, but it is safe to say that the birds will never again appear in
+one-thousandth part of the number of former years.
+
+The places where the birds are nesting are interesting spots to visit.
+Both parents incubate and the scene is animated as the birds fly about
+in all directions. However, as the bulk of the birds must fly to quite
+a distance from an immense rookery to find food, it necessarily follows
+that the main flocks arrive and depart evening and morning. Then the
+crush is often terrific and the air is fairly alive with birds. The
+rush of their thousands of wings makes a mighty noise like the sound of
+a stiff breeze through the trees.
+
+Often when the large flocks settle at the roost the birds crowd so
+closely on the slender limbs that they bend down and sometimes crack,
+and the sound of the dead branches falling from their weight adds an
+additional likeness to a storm. Sometimes the returning birds will
+settle on a limb which holds nests and then many eggs are dashed to the
+ground, and beneath the trees of a rookery one may always find a lot of
+smashed eggs.
+
+Later in the season young birds may be seen perched all over the trees
+or on the ground, while big squabs with pin-feathers on are seen in,
+or rather on, the frail nests, or lying dead or injured on the ground.
+The frightful destruction that is sure to accompany the nesting of a
+rookery of Passenger Pigeons is bound to attract the observer's eye.
+And we cannot but understand how it is that these unprolific birds with
+many natural enemies, in addition to that unnatural enemy, man, fail
+to increase. If the pigeon deposited ten to twenty eggs like the quail
+the unequal battle of equal survival might be kept up. But even this is
+to be doubted if the bird continues to nest in colonies.
+
+Many ornithological writers have written that the wild pigeon lays two
+eggs as a rule, but these men were evidently not accurate observers,
+and probably took their records at second-hand. There is no doubt that
+two eggs are quite often found in a nest, and sometimes these eggs
+are both fresh, or else equally advanced in incubation. But these
+instances, I think, are evidences alone that two females have deposited
+in the same nest, a supposition which is not improbable with the
+gregarious species.
+
+That the wild pigeon may rear two or three young in a season, I do
+not doubt, and an old trapper and observer has offered this theory to
+explain the condition where there are found both egg and young in the
+same nest, or squabs of widely varied ages. He asserts that when an egg
+is about ready to hatch, a second egg was deposited in the nest, and
+that the squab assisted in incubating the egg when the old birds were
+both away for food, and that in time a third and last egg was laid, so
+that three young were hatched each season, if the birds are unmolested.
+
+This peculiarity may exist with the pigeon, but I can add nothing to
+further it from my own observations, except to record the finding
+of an egg in the nest with a half-grown bird--the only instance in
+my experience. From watching the ways of some captive birds kept as
+stool-pigeons, I am well satisfied that two young are not rarely
+hatched at some weeks apart, and they do fairly well in confinement.
+
+The young are fed by a process known as regurgitation, the partially
+digested contents of the birds' crops being ejected into the mouths of
+the squabs.
+
+The position of the nest varies greatly. Often the nests are well
+out on slender branches and in dangerous positions, considering the
+shiftlessness of the structure. When a rookery is visited, nests may be
+found in all manner of situation. I have found single nests built on
+small twigs next the body of an oak tree, and at a height of only ten
+feet, and again have seen nests forty feet up in thick tamaracks.
+
+The eggs do not vary much in size or color. They are white, but without
+the polish seen on the egg of the domestic pigeon. About one and
+one-half by one inch is the regulation size.
+
+By reference to old price lists of nearly a quarter of a century ago
+I find that the eggs were then listed at twenty-five cents, while it
+would be difficult to secure good specimens at present at six times the
+figure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+Miscellaneous Notes
+
+
+The earliest mention of the wild pigeon I have been able to find is the
+following, taken from _Forest and Stream_, to which it was contributed
+by F. C. Browne, Framingham, Mass. It is from an old print entitled,
+"Two Voyages to New England, Made During the Years 1638-63," by John
+Josselyn, Gent. Published in 1674. I am not so fortunate as to possess
+an original copy. This extract is from the Boston reprint of 1865, and
+is from the "Second Voyage" (1663), which has a full account of the
+wild beasts, birds and fishes of the new settlement:
+
+"The Pidgeons, of which there are millions of millions. I have seen a
+flight of Pidgeons in the Spring, and at Michaelmas when they return
+back to the South-ward, for four or five miles, that to my thinking had
+neither beginning nor ending, length nor breadth, and so thick that
+I could see no Sun. They join Nest to Nest and Tree to Tree by their
+Nests many miles together in Pine-Trees. I have bought at Boston a
+dozen Pidgeons ready pulled and garbidged for three pence. But of late
+they are much diminished, the English taking them with Nets."
+
+It will be noted that the wild pigeons began to be "much diminished"
+even at that early date.
+
+The following extract is from the journal of the voyage of Father
+Gravier in the year 1700:
+
+"Through the Country of the Illinois to the Mouth of the Mississippi."
+
+Under date of October 7th he says:
+
+"Below the mouth of the Ouabache (meaning the Wabash River), we saw
+such a great quantity of wild pigeons that the air was darkened and
+quite covered by them."
+
+The journal of Alexander Henry, the younger, written in August, 1800,
+states that large numbers of wild pigeons were seen and used for food
+by his party. This was at a point on the Red River not far north of
+what is now Grand Forks, N. D.
+
+The Passenger Pigeon found a place in a book called "Quebec and Its
+Environments; Being a Picturesque Guide to the Stranger." Printed
+by Thomas Cary & Co., Freemasons' Hall, Buade Street, 1831. A rare
+copy was found in the library of the late Charles Dean, having
+been purchased by him while visiting Quebec in 1841. It is now in
+the possession of Ruthven Deane of Chicago. I quote from this old
+guide-book as follows:
+
+[Illustration: PIGEON NET
+
+Taken from an old etching]
+
+"At one period of the year numerous and immense flights of pigeons
+visit Canada, when the population make a furious war against them both
+by guns and nets; they supply the inhabitants with a material part of
+their subsistence, and are sold in the market at Quebec remarkably
+cheap, often as low as a shilling per dozen, and sometimes even at a
+less rate. It appears that the pigeon prefers the loftiest and most
+leafless tree to settle on. In addition to the natural beauty of St.
+Ann and its environs, the process by which the inhabitants take the
+pigeons is worth remarking. Upon the loftiest tree, long bare poles are
+slantingly fixed; small pieces of wood are placed transversely across
+this pole, upon which the birds crowd; below, in ambush, the sportsman
+with a long gun enfilades the whole length of the pole, and, when he
+fires, few if any escape. Innumerable poles are prepared at St. Ann for
+this purpose. The other method they have of taking them is by nets,
+by which means they are enabled to preserve them alive, and kill them
+occasionally for their own use or for the market, when it has ceased
+to be glutted with them. Behind Madam Fontane's this sport may be seen
+in perfection. The nets, which are very large, are placed at the end
+of an avenue of trees (for it appears the pigeons choose an avenue
+to fly down); opposite a large tree, upon erect poles two nets are
+suspended, one facing the avenue, the other the tree; another is placed
+over them, which is fixed at one end, and supported by pulleys and two
+perpendicular poles at the opposite; a man is hid in a small covered
+house under the tree, with a rope leading from the pulleys in his hand.
+Directly the pigeons fly against the perpendicular nets, he pulls the
+rope, when the top net immediately falls and incloses the whole flock;
+by this process vast numbers are taken."
+
+"Tanner's Narrative," a story (authentic) of thirty years among the
+Indians, published in 1830, refers frequently to great numbers of
+pigeons, and gives their range from the Kentucky, Big Miami and Ohio
+Rivers to Lake Winnipeg, or "The Lake of Dirty Waters."
+
+Mr. Osborn further adds: "Tanner was a United States Indian interpreter
+at the Soo."
+
+William Glazier made a trip to the headwaters of the Mississippi River
+in 1881 and wrote a book entitled "Down the Mississippi River." In
+three different places in this book he mentions seeing wild pigeons.
+In one place he says that a small flock of pigeons dropped down in the
+tops of some tall pines near him.
+
+In Hayden's Survey Report, Interior Department, as given in Coues'
+"Birds of the Northwest," 1874, it is mentioned that wild pigeons
+were found on the Pacific coast, and Cooper reports them in the
+Rocky Mountains. [High authority, but it must have referred to the
+band-tailed pigeon.--W. B. M.]
+
+From the foregoing chapters I have summarized the latest reports of the
+presence of the wild pigeon in its former haunts. These instances have
+been reported as follows:
+
+N. W. Judy & Co., St. Louis, Mo., the largest dealers in poultry and
+game in that section, said, in 1895, they had had no wild pigeons for
+two years; the last they received were from Siloam Springs, Ark. This
+would mean that they were on the market during the season of 1893.
+Until 1890 frequent reports were recorded of pigeons seen singly, in
+pairs and in small flocks.
+
+In 1891 Mr. F. M. Woodruff, Assistant Curator of the Chicago Academy of
+Sciences, secured a pair at Lake Forest, Ill.
+
+A nest with two eggs and two birds were collected by C. B. Brown of
+Chicago in the spring of 1893 at English Lake, Ind.
+
+In September, 1893, three were reported in Lake County, Ill.
+
+In April of the same year, a male pigeon was reported as having been
+seen in Lincoln Park, Ill.
+
+Mr. R. W. Stafford of Chicago, Ill., reported seeing a flock in the
+latter part of September, 1894, at Marengo, Ill.
+
+Mr. John L. Stockton, Highland Park, Ill., reported that while trout
+fishing on the Little Oconto River, Wis., early in June, 1895, he saw a
+flock of ten pigeons for several consecutive days near his camp.
+
+A young female was killed at Lake Forest, Ill., in August, 1895.
+
+In October, 1895, Dr. Ernest Copeland of Milwaukee killed one in Delta,
+Northern Peninsula, Mich.
+
+On December 17, 1896, C. N. Holden, Jr., while hunting quail in Oregon
+County, Mo., observed a flock of about fifty birds.
+
+Chief Pokagon reports there was a small nesting of pigeons near the
+head waters of the Au Sable River in Michigan, during the spring of
+1896.
+
+A. Fugleburg of Oshkosh, Wis., reports that on the morning of August
+14, 1897, he saw a flock of pigeons flying over Lake Winnebago from
+Fisherman's Island to Stony Brook. This flock was followed by six more
+flocks containing from thirty-five to eighty pigeons each. The same
+observer reports that on September 2, 1897, a friend of his reported
+having seen a flock of about twenty-five near Lake Butte des Mortes,
+Wis.
+
+W. F. Rightmire reports that while driving along the highway north
+of Cook, Johnson County, Neb., August 18, 1897, he saw a flock of
+seventy-five to one hundred birds; some feeding on the ground, others
+perched in the trees.
+
+A. B. Covert of Ann Arbor, President at one time of the Michigan
+Ornithological Club, reports seeing stray birds during 1892 and 1894,
+and states also that on October 1, 1898, he saw a flock of 200 and
+watched them nearly all day.
+
+T. E. Douglas of Grayling reports seeing a flock of ten near West
+Branch, Mich., in 1895, and in 1900 he saw three on one of the branches
+of the Au Sable River in Michigan.
+
+In 1897 C. S. Osborn of Sault Ste Marie reported having seen a single
+wild bird flying with the tame pigeons around the town.
+
+In 1897 or 1898 C. E. Jennison of Bay City saw six or seven at Thunder
+Bay Island near Alpena, Mich.
+
+In 1900 Neal Brown of Wausau, Wis., killed one near Babcock, Wis., in
+September.
+
+George King of Otsego County, Mich., in 1900 saw a flock of one dozen
+or more birds on the Black River, and he says he heard two "holler" in
+1902, but was unable to find them. In May, 1905, he is certain he saw
+six near Vanderbilt, Mich.
+
+John Burroughs reports that a friend of his, Charles W. Benton, saw a
+large flock of wild pigeons near Prattsville, Greene County, N. Y., in
+April, 1906.
+
+
+EARLY LEGISLATION TO SAVE THE PIGEON
+
+Wild pigeons were used largely by trap-shooters for tournaments.
+In 1881, 20,000 of them were killed in one of these trap-shooting
+butcheries on Coney Island, N. Y. The following editorial protest
+against this outrage appeared in _Forest and Stream_, July 14, 1881:
+
+_Mr. Bergh's Anti-Pigeon Bill._--Just as we go to press we learn that
+the Senate has passed the bill prepared by Mr. Henry Bergh prohibiting
+the trap-shooting of pigeons. The bill awaits Governor Cornell's
+signature before becoming a law. Its provisions are:
+
+Section 1. Any person who shall keep or use any live pigeon, fowl,
+or other bird or animal for the purpose of a target or to be shot at
+either for amusement or as a test of skill in marksmanship, and any
+person who shall shoot at any pigeon, fowl, or other bird or animal,
+as aforesaid, or be a party to any such shooting of any pigeon, fowl
+or other bird or animal; and any person who shall rent any building,
+shed, room, yard, field, or other premises, or shall suffer or permit
+the use of any building, shed, room, yard, field, or other premises for
+the purpose of shooting any pigeon, fowl, or other bird or animal, as
+aforesaid, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
+
+Section 2. Nothing herein contained shall apply to the shooting of any
+wild game in its wild state.
+
+The bill is a direct and not wholly unexpected result of the Coney
+Island pigeon-killing tournament of the New York State Association for
+the Protection of Fish and Game. Had the sport of pigeon shooting been
+confined to individual clubs of gentlemen testing their skill at the
+traps, it is doubtful if the matter ever would have received, as it
+would not have merited, public attention. But when a society, which
+organized ostensibly for the protection of game, treats the public
+to such a spectacle as that at Coney Island, neglects the matter with
+which it should be concerned and devotes 20,000 pigeons brought from
+their nesting ground to its wholesale slaughter, its members can hardly
+look for any other public sentiment than exactly that feeling which has
+been aroused. An afternoon's shoot at a few pigeons, and a ten days'
+shoot at unlimited numbers of helpless birds--many of them squabs,
+unable to fly, and others too exhausted to do so--are regarded by the
+public as two very different things.
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Obvious punctuation and spelling errors were corrected.
+
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+  p. 155 "There are no wild pigeons in Iosco County...
+  p. 171 "In three years' time...
+
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+<h1 class="center">The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Passenger Pigeon, by Various, Edited by
+W. B. Mershon</h1>
+<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a
+href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p>
+<p>Title: The Passenger Pigeon</p>
+<p>Author: Various</p>
+<p>Editor: W. B. Mershon</p>
+<p>Release Date: January 22, 2014  [eBook #44729]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PASSENGER PIGEON***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4 class="center">E-text prepared by Tor Martin Kristiansen, Tom Cosmas,<br />
+    and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
+    from page images generously made available by<br />
+    Internet Archive<br />
+    (<a href="https://archive.org">https://archive.org</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      <a href="https://archive.org/details/passengerpigeon00mers">
+      https://archive.org/details/passengerpigeon00mers</a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="pg" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 377px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="377" height="557" alt="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+
+
+<p class="pmb2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a><br />
+<a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="caption1 pmt4 pmb4">The Passenger Pigeon</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 442px;">
+<img src="images/frontis.png" width="442" height="663" alt="" />
+<p class="fig_title">PASSENGER PIGEON (<i>Columba Migratoria</i>)</p>
+<p class="fig_caption">Upper bird, male; lower, female</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="caption1 smcap pmt2"><span class="orange">T</span>he</p>
+
+<p class="caption1 smcap"><span class="orange">P</span>assenger <span class="orange">P</span>igeon</p>
+
+<p class="caption3">BY</p>
+
+<p class="caption2 pmb2">W. B. MERSHON</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 125px;">
+<img src="images/logo.png" width="125" height="119" alt="" />
+</div>
+<p class="caption3 pmt2 pmb2">NEW YORK<br />
+<span class="orange">THE OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY</span><br />
+1907<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="caption3 pmt4 pmb4">
+Copyright, 1907, by<br />
+W B MERSHON<br />
+<br />
+THE OUTING PRESS<br />
+DEPOSIT, N. Y.<br />
+</p>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</a></p>
+
+<table class="rowsp1" summary="ToC">
+<tr>
+  <td class="smaller tdl" colspan="2">CHAPTER</td>
+  <td class="smaller tdr">PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td style="width:3em;"></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">ix</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">My Boyhood Among the Pigeons</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">1</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">The Passenger Pigeon</span><br />
+  <i>From "American Ornithology," by Alexander Wilson</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr vtop">9</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">The Passenger Pigeon</span><br />
+  <i>From "Ornithological Biography," by John James Audubon</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr vtop">25</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">As James Fenimore Cooper Saw It</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">41</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">The Wild Pigeon of North America</span><br />
+  <i>By Chief Pokagon, in "The Chautauquan"</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr vtop">48</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">The Passenger Pigeon</span><br />
+  <i>From "Life Histories of North American Birds," by Charles Bendire</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr vtop">60</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Netting the Pigeons</span><br />
+  <i>By William Brewster, in "The Auk"</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr vtop">74</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Efforts to Check the Slaughter</span><br />
+  <i>By Prof. H. B. Roney</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr vtop">77</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">The Pigeon Butcher's Defense</span><br />
+  <i>By E. T. Martin, in "American Field"</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr vtop">93</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Notes of a Vanished Industry</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">105</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Recollections of "Old Timers"</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">119</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">The Last of the Pigeons</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">141</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">What Became of the Wild Pigeon?</span><br />
+  <i>By Sullivan Cook, in "Forest and Stream"</i>
+  <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></td>
+  <td class="tdr vtop">163</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">A Novel Theory of Extinction</span><br />
+  <i>By C. H. Ames and Robert Ridgway</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr vtop">173</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">News from John Burroughs</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">179</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">The Pigeon in Manitoba</span><br />
+  <i>By George E. Atkinson</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr vtop">186</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">The Passenger Pigeon in Confinement</span><br />
+  <i>By Ruthven Deane, in "The Auk"</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr vtop">200</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Nesting Habits of the Passenger Pigeon</span><br />
+  <i>By Dr. Morris Gibbs, in "The Oölogist"</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr vtop">209</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class="tdr2 vtop"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX</a></td>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Miscellaneous Notes</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">217</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="ILLUSTRATIONS" id="ILLUSTRATIONS">ILLUSTRATIONS</a></p>
+
+
+<table class="rowsp1" summary="LoI">
+<tr>
+  <td></td>
+  <td class="smaller tdr">FACING PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">The Passenger Pigeon</span><br />
+  <i>By Louis Agassiz Fuertes</i></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_ii"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Audubon Plate</span> (<i>color</i>)</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#fp24">24</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Passenger Pigeon and Mourning Dove</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#fp88">88</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Fac-simile of "Among the Pigeons"</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#fp92">92</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">H. T. Phillip's Store</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#fp104">104</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Band-tailed Pigeon</span> (<i>color</i>)</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#fp130">130</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Comparative Size of Pigeon and Dove</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#fp156">156</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Young Passenger Pigeon</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#fp198">198</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span class="smcap">Pigeon Net</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#fp218">218</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a><br />
+<a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</a></p>
+
+<div class="dropcap">F</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">F</span>OR the last three years I have spent most of my
+leisure time in collecting as much material as
+possible which might help to throw light on the
+oft-repeated query, "What has become of the wild
+pigeons?" The result of this labor of love is scarcely
+more than a compilation, and I am under many obligations
+to those who have so cheerfully assisted me. I
+have given them credit by name in connection with their
+various contributions, but I wish that I might have
+been able to give them the more finished and literary setting
+that would have been within the reach of a trained
+writer or scientist. I am merely a business man who is
+interested in the Passenger Pigeon because he loves the
+outdoors and its wild things, and sincerely regrets the
+cruel extinction of one of the most interesting natural
+phenomena of his own country. If I have been able to
+make a compilation that otherwise would not have been
+available for the interested reader, I need make no
+further apologies for the imperfect manner of my treatment
+of this subject.</p>
+
+<p>It is hard for us of an older generation to realize that
+as recently as 1880 the Passenger Pigeon was thronging
+in countless millions through large areas of the Middle
+West, and that in our boyhood we could find no exaggeration
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span>
+in the records of such earlier observers as
+Alexander Wilson, the ornithologist, who said that
+these birds associated in such prodigious numbers as
+almost to surpass belief, and that their numbers had no
+parallel among any other feathered tribes on the face
+of the earth; or that one of their "roosts" would kill
+the trees over thousands of acres as completely as if
+the whole forest had been girdled with an ax.</p>
+
+<p>Audubon estimated that an average flock of these
+pigeons contained a billion and a quarter of birds, which
+consumed more than eight and a half million bushels of
+mast in a day's feeding. They were slain by millions
+during the middle of the last century, and from one
+region in Michigan in one year three million Passenger
+Pigeons were killed for market, while in that roost alone
+as many more perished because of the barbarous
+methods of hunting them. They supplied a means of
+living for thousands of hunters, who devastated their
+flocks with nets and guns, and even with fire. Yet so
+vast were their numbers that after thirty years of
+observation Audubon was able to say that "even in the
+face of such dreadful havoc nothing but the diminution
+of our forests can accomplish their decrease."</p>
+
+<p>Many theories have been advanced to account for the
+disappearance of the wild pigeons, among them that
+their migration may have been overwhelmed by some
+cyclonic disturbance of the atmosphere which destroyed
+their myriads at one blow. The big "nesting" of 1878
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span>
+in Michigan was undoubtedly the last large migration,
+but the pigeons continued to nest infrequently in Michigan
+and the North for several years after that, and
+until as late as 1886 they were trapped for market or
+for trap-shooting. Therefore the pigeons did not
+become extinct in a day; nor did one tremendous catastrophe
+wipe them from the face of the earth. They
+gradually became fewer and existed for twenty years
+or more after the date set as that of the final extermination.</p>
+
+<p>At one time the wild pigeons covered the entire north
+from the Gaspé Peninsula to the Red River of the
+North. Separate nestings and flights were of regular
+yearly occurrence over this vast eastern and northern
+expanse. Gradually civilization, molestation and warfare
+drove them from the Atlantic seaboard west, until
+Michigan was their last grand rendezvous, in which
+region their mighty hosts congregated for the final
+grand nesting in 1878. As late as 1845 they were quite
+numerous on the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec, but disappeared
+from there about that time.</p>
+
+<p>The habits of the birds were such that they could
+not thrive singly nor in small bodies, but were dependent
+upon one another, and vast communities were necessary
+to their very existence, while an enormous quantity of
+food was necessary for their sustenance. The cutting
+off of the forests and food supply interfered with their
+plan of existence and drove them into new localities,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span>
+and the ever increasing slaughter could not help but
+lessen their once vast numbers.</p>
+
+<p>The Passenger Pigeon laid only one egg in its nest,
+rarely two, and although it bred three or four times a
+year it could not replenish the numbers slaughtered by
+the professional netters. Undoubtedly millions of the
+birds perished at various periods along the Great Lakes
+country, becoming confused in foggy weather and dropping
+from exhaustion into the water, while snow and
+sleet storms at times caused great mortality among the
+young birds, and even among the old ones, which often
+arrived in the North before winter had passed.</p>
+
+<p>The history of the buffalo is repeated in that of the
+wild pigeon, the extermination of which was inspired
+by the same motive: the greed of man and the pursuit
+of the almighty dollar. We lock the barn door after
+the horse is stolen. Our white pine forests and timber
+lands in general have been wantonly destroyed with no
+thought for the future. The American people are
+wasteful. They are just beginning to learn the need of
+economy in the use of that which Nature has flung at
+their feet. When one recalls the destruction of that
+noble animal, the buffalo, frequently for nothing else
+than so-called sport, or the removal of a robe; when
+one thinks of the burning of forest trees which took
+centuries to grow, merely to clear a piece of land to
+raise crops, it is not to be wondered at that the wild
+pigeon, insignificant, and not even classed as a game
+bird, so soon became extinct.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p class="pmb4"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="caption1 pmb2">The Passenger Pigeon</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2 pmb2">My Boyhood Among the Pigeons</p>
+
+<div class="dropcap">M</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">M</span>Y boyhood was made active and wholesome
+by a love for outdoor pastimes that had been
+bred in me by generations of sport-loving
+ancestors. From which side of the genealogical tree
+this ardor for field and forest and open sky had come
+with stronger influence I cannot say. While my father
+was the one to use the fowling-piece and cast the fly
+for the glorious speckled trout, my mother was a willing
+conspirator, for it was she who packed the lunch basket,
+often called us for the start in the gray morning, and
+went along to "hold the horse" while we shot pigeons.
+And when we were bent on a day in the woods in bracing
+October weather she drove old Dolly sedately along the
+winding trail, while I hunted one side of the woods and
+father hunted the other. On such days we were after
+partridges, of course, ruffed grouse, the king of all
+game birds. Often mother marked them down and
+told us just where they had crossed the road, or whether
+the bird was hit, for the cloud of smoke from the
+old black powder made seeing guesswork on our part.
+She loved the dogs, too, those good old friends and
+workers, Sport, Bob, and Ranger.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I remember calling my mother to a window early one
+morning and shouting: "See there! a flock of pigeons!
+Ah, ha! April fool!" This time I did not deceive her
+with the threadbare trick. The joke was "on me" for
+once. There was a flight of pigeons that morning, the
+first one of the season, and behind the foremost flock
+another and another came streaming. Away from the
+east side of the river at the north of the town, from near
+Crow Island, they swept like a cloud. Crossing the
+river to the west they reached the woods near Jerome's
+mill and skirted the clearings or passed in waves over
+the tree tops, back of John Winter's farm, and then
+wheeled to the south. Out of the tongue of woodland,
+just back of the Hermansau Church, they poured, thence
+over the fields, too high to be shot, and then away to the
+evergreens and stately pines of Pine Hill; on, on, on
+across the Tittabawassee, to some feeding ground we
+knew not how far away.</p>
+
+<p>Now that the pigeons had come they would "fly"
+every morning. This we knew from years of observation
+in the great migration belt of Michigan. They
+would fly lower to-morrow morning, and in a day or two
+more sweep low enough for the sixteen-gauge and the
+number eight shot to reach them. Sometimes, even now,
+forty years after the last of the great passenger pigeon
+flights, I fall to day-dreaming and seem to hear myself
+saying in the eager, piping tones of those golden boyhood
+days:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Mother, I am going for pigeons to-morrow morning!
+Do call me if I oversleep. I must be awake by
+four o'clock. We'll have pigeon pot-pie to-morrow.
+I'm going to bed early so as to be sure to be up by daybreak.
+Old Sport is going along to 'fetch' dead birds."</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, dad," cries a voice in my ear, "what are you
+up to? What are you hustling around so for with your
+old shot pouch and powder-flask? There's nothing to
+shoot this time of the year."</p>
+
+<p>The spell is broken; my own boy fetches his daddy out
+of his dream, and I am fairly caught in the act of
+making an old fool of myself. My youngsters are
+counting the days before May first when I have
+promised to take them trout-fishing, and the smallest
+boy found his first gun in his stocking last Christmas.
+But they can know nothing at all about the joys and
+excitement of pigeon shooting in the vanished days
+when these birds fairly darkened the sky above our old
+homestead. But I try to tell them what we used to do
+and my story sounds something like this:</p>
+
+<p>"It is early in the spring, so early that a bunch of
+snow may yet be found on the north side of the largest
+of the fallen trees in the woods. Puddles that the melting
+snow left in the hollows of the clearing are fringed
+with ice this morning, and we look around and tell each
+other, 'There was a frost last night.' The mud in the
+road has stiffened, and the rutted cattle tracks are also
+streaked and barred with ice. Yet winter has gone and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
+spring is here, for the buds are swelling on the twigs of
+the elms and the pussy willows show their dainty, silvery
+signals to tell us that the vernal equinox has come and
+gone.</p>
+
+<p>"If the springtime is still young, so is the day. Light
+is breaking in the gray sky of dawn as we hurry along
+the slippery, sticky road. We must make haste to the
+point of woods, by John Winter's clearing, before full
+daybreak or the pigeons will be flying and we will miss
+the early flocks which always keep nearest the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"You may be curious to know what we look like as
+we trudge along in Indian file, eagerly chatting about
+a kind of sport which this later generation knows nothing
+about. I am a chunk of a country lad, topped by a
+woolen cap with ear-tabs pulled down over my ears, a
+tippet around my neck, yarn mittens on my hands, which
+are sure to be badly skinned and chapped this time of
+year from playing 'knuckle-down-tight.'</p>
+
+<p>"My 'every-day pants' are tucked into a pair of calf-skin
+boots with square pieces of red leather for the tops,
+an old-fashioned adornment dear to Young America of
+my day. My old Irish water spaniel 'Sport' is tagging
+behind or charging frantically ahead; my gun is a sixteen-gauge
+muzzle loader, stub and twist barrels, with
+dogs' heads for the hammers.</p>
+
+<p>"Dangling from one shoulder is a leather shot pouch
+that cuts off one ounce of number eights for a load.
+The sides of this pouch are embossed, on the one a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+group of English woodcock, on the other a setter rampant.
+Hanging at my left side by a green cord with a
+tassel or two is my fluted copper powder flask, ready
+to measure out two and three-fourths drams of coarse
+Dupont or Curtis &amp; Harvey powder.</p>
+
+<p>"My pockets are full of Ely's black-edged wads, for
+I am a young nabob of sportsmen, let me tell you, and
+I scorn to use tow or bits of newspaper for wadding.
+My vest pocket holds the caps, G. D.'s or Ely's again,
+for didn't I tell you that I was a nabob. The <i>pièce de
+résistance</i> of this outfit is the game bag, the pride of my
+eye, for it was a Christmas present, and this is its maiden
+shooting trip. Suspended over the left shoulder so that
+it will hang well back of the right hip, the strap that carries
+it is broad and with many holes for the wondrous
+buckle which can be shifted to hang it in the most comfortable
+place, wherever that is, for when it is loaded
+with game it will choke me almost to death, no matter
+how I adjust it. This noble bag has two pockets, one
+of them for luncheon, and on the outside is a netted
+pocket, easy to get into and keeping the birds cool. I
+nearly forgot to mention its magnificent fringe, which
+hangs down from both sides and the bottom like the
+war-bags of an Indian chief.</p>
+
+<p>"My companions are rigged out in much the same
+fashion. They are grown men, however, for I don't
+remember any other boys who shot pigeons with me.
+Holabird or khaki hunting suits are as yet unknown, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+even corduroy coats are rare. The powder horn is seen
+as often as the copper flask, and one hunter has a shot
+belt with two compartments instead of the English
+pouch. Of guns the assortment is as varied as the number
+of hunters, but the old, hard-kicking army musket
+with its iron ramrod is more popular than any other arm.</p>
+
+<p>"We reach the edge of the clearing not a minute too
+soon. Now and then a distant shot tells us that we are
+not the first hunters out afield this morning. The guns
+are cracking everywhere along the road that skirts the
+woodland, and back in, close to the 'chopping,' some
+better wing-shots are posted by the openings into the
+woods where the birds fly lower, but where the shooting
+is more difficult. It is largely of the 'pick your bird'
+style, for the flight of a pigeon is very swift, and when
+they are darting among the tree-tops of a small forest
+opening, rare skill is required to bag one's birds.</p>
+
+<p>"I prefer to take the flocks, even though they offer
+me more distant targets, and soon my gun-barrels are
+as hot as those of the rest of the skirmishers. Sometimes
+two or three birds drop from a flock at a single
+discharge, and then several shots may not fetch from
+on high more than one or two of the long tail-feathers
+spinning and twisting to the ground. It is fascinating
+to watch the whirling, shining descent of one of these
+feathers, and I pick up one and stick it in my cap as a
+matter of habit.</p>
+
+<p>"This kind of pigeon shooting takes a good gun and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
+ammunition to kill a big bag as we bang away at long
+range at the birds on their way to the morning feeding-ground.
+The flight is over by half-past six o'clock and
+I am home by seven o'clock ready for breakfast and
+then to scamper off to school.</p>
+
+<p>"The pigeons in this particular locality have followed
+the same routine as long as I have known them. They
+only fly in the morning, always going in the same direction,
+and I can't recall seeing them coming back again,
+or flying later in the day. This habit holds until the
+young squabs are in the nests in June, after which we are
+likely to find pigeons almost anywhere, for their feeding
+grounds become scattered and local.</p>
+
+<p>"One thing that annoys me in these brave days of
+youth and sport is the poacher, the low-down fellow who
+steals my birds. I am reckoned a pretty good shot, and
+I have a first-rate gun, but I am only a boy, so the pigeon
+thief thinks I am fair picking, and he saves his ammunition
+by claiming every bird that drops anywhere near
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Another smart dodge of his is to fire into a flock
+ahead or behind the one I am shooting at and then claim
+whatever birds fall as the quarry of both our guns. If
+he is not too big I try to lick him, but generally I have to
+submit to the rascality unless I can persuade a grown-up
+friend to take my part. Sometimes these villains hang
+around my shooting ground without any guns at all,
+and pick up as many birds as I do. Then I hunt around
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+for a father or an uncle to reinforce my protests and
+there is a pretty row which ends in the interloper taking
+to his heels to wait for a more propitious occasion.</p>
+
+<p>"When we are ready to carry our birds home we
+pull out the four long tail-feathers and knot them
+together at the tips. Then the quill ends are stuck
+through the soft part of the lower mandible, and the
+birds are strung together, eight or ten in a string.
+These strings are bunched together by tying the quill
+ends of the feathers, and we have our game festooned
+in compact shape for the triumphal march homeward
+bound."</p>
+
+<p>Alas, the pigeons and the frosty morning hunts and
+the delectable pigeon-pie are gone, no more to return.
+They are numbered with those recollections which help
+to convince me that the boys of to-day don't have as
+good times as we youngsters did in the prime of our
+busy outdoor world.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p class="pmb4"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2">The Passenger Pigeon</p>
+
+<p class="caption2">(<i>Columba Migratoria</i>)</p>
+
+<p class="caption3 pmb2">From "American Ornithology," by Alexander Wilson</p>
+
+<div class="dropcap">T</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">T</span>HIS remarkable bird merits a distinguished
+place in the annals of our feathered tribes&mdash;a
+claim to which I shall endeavor to do justice;
+and, though it would be impossible, in the bounds
+allotted to this account, to relate all I have seen and
+heard of this species, yet no circumstance shall be
+omitted with which I am acquainted (however extraordinary
+some of these may appear) that may tend to
+illustrate its history.</p>
+
+<p>The wild pigeon of the United States inhabits a wide
+and extensive region of North America, on this side of
+the Great Stony Mountains, beyond which, to the westward,
+I have not heard of their being seen. According
+to Mr. Hutchins, they abound in the country around
+Hudson's Bay, where they usually remain as late as
+December, feeding, when the ground is covered with
+snow, on the buds of the juniper. They spread over the
+whole of Canada; were seen by Captain Lewis and his
+party near the Great Falls of the Missouri, upwards
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+of two thousand five hundred miles from its mouth,
+reckoning the meanderings of the river; were also met
+with in the interior of Louisiana by Colonel Pike; and
+extend their range as far south as the Gulf of Mexico,
+occasionally visiting or breeding in almost every quarter
+of the United States.</p>
+
+<p>But the most remarkable characteristic of these birds
+is their associating together, both in their migrations,
+and also during the period of incubation, in such prodigious
+numbers, as almost to surpass belief; and which
+has no parallel among any other of the feathered tribes
+on the face of the earth, with which all naturalists are
+acquainted. These migrations appear to be undertaken
+rather in quest of food, than merely to avoid the cold
+of the climate, since we find them lingering in the northern
+regions, around Hudson's Bay, so late as December;
+and since their appearance is so casual and irregular,
+sometimes not visiting certain districts for several years
+in any considerable numbers, while at other times they
+are innumerable. I have witnessed these migrations in
+the Genesee country, often in Pennsylvania, and also
+in various parts of Virginia, with amazement; but all
+that I had then seen of them were mere straggling
+parties, when compared with the congregated millions
+which I have since beheld in our Western forests, in the
+States of Ohio, Kentucky, and the Indiana territory.
+These fertile and extensive regions abound with the
+nutritious beechnut, which constitutes the chief food of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+the wild pigeon. In seasons when these nuts are abundant,
+corresponding multitudes of pigeons may be confidently
+expected. It sometimes happens that, having
+consumed the whole produce of the beech trees, in an
+extensive district, they discover another, at the distance
+perhaps of sixty or eighty miles, to which they regularly
+repair every morning, and return as regularly in
+the course of the day, or in the evening, to their place of
+general rendezvous, or as it is usually called, the roosting
+place. These roosting places are always in the
+woods, and sometimes occupy a large extent of forest.
+When they have frequented one of these places for
+some time the appearance it exhibits is surprising. The
+ground is covered to the depth of several inches with
+their dung; all the tender grass and underwood destroyed;
+the surface strewed with large limbs of trees,
+broken down by the weight of the birds clustering one
+above another; and the trees themselves, for thousands
+of acres, killed as completely as if girdled with an ax.
+The marks of this desolation remain for many years on
+the spot; and numerous places could be pointed out,
+where, for several years after, scarcely a single vegetable
+made its appearance.</p>
+
+<p>When these roosts are first discovered, the inhabitants,
+from considerable distances, visit them in the
+night with guns, clubs, long poles, pots of sulphur, and
+various other engines of destruction. In a few hours
+they fill many sacks, and load their horses with them.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+By the Indians, a pigeon roost, or breeding place, is considered
+an important source of national profit and dependence
+for the season; and all their active ingenuity
+is exercised on the occasion. The breeding place differs
+from the former in its greater extent. In the western
+countries above mentioned, these are generally in
+beech woods, and often extend, in nearly a straight line
+across the country for a great way. Not far from
+Shelbyville, in the State of Kentucky, about five years
+ago, there was one of these breeding places, which
+stretched through the woods in nearly a north and south
+direction; was several miles in breadth, and was said
+to be upwards of forty miles in extent! In this tract
+almost every tree was furnished with nests, wherever the
+branches could accommodate them. The pigeons made
+their first appearance there about the 10th of April,
+and left it altogether, with their young, before the
+29th of May.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the young were fully grown, and before
+they left the nests, numerous parties of the inhabitants
+from all parts of the adjacent country came with wagons,
+axes, beds, cooking utensils, many of them accompanied
+by the greater part of their families, and encamped for
+several days at this immense nursery. Several of them
+informed me that the noise in the woods was so great
+as to terrify their horses, and that it was difficult for
+one person to hear another speak without bawling in
+his ear. The ground was strewed with broken limbs
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+of trees, eggs, and young squab pigeons, which had
+been precipitated from above, and on which herds of
+hogs were fattening. Hawks, buzzards, and eagles
+were sailing about in great numbers, and seizing the
+squabs from their nests at pleasure; while from twenty
+feet upwards to the tops of the trees the view through
+the woods presented a perpetual tumult of crowding
+and fluttering multitudes of pigeons, their wings roaring
+like thunder, mingled with the frequent crash of falling
+timber; for now the ax-men were at work cutting down
+those trees that seemed to be most crowded with nests,
+and contrived to fell them in such a manner that, in their
+descent, they might bring down several others; by which
+means the falling of one large tree sometimes produced
+two hundred squabs, little inferior in size to the old
+ones, and almost one mass of fat. On some single trees
+upwards of one hundred nests were found, each containing
+<i>one</i> young only; a circumstance in the history
+of this bird not generally known to naturalists. It was
+dangerous to walk under these flying and fluttering
+millions, from the frequent fall of large branches,
+broken down by the weight of the multitudes above, and
+which, in their descent, often destroyed numbers of the
+birds themselves; while the clothes of those engaged
+in traversing the woods were completely covered with
+the excrements of the pigeons.</p>
+
+<p>These circumstances were related to me by many of
+the most respectable part of the community in that
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+quarter, and were confirmed, in part, by what I myself
+witnessed. I passed for several miles through this same
+breeding place, where every tree was spotted with nests,
+the remains of those above described. In many instances
+I counted upwards of ninety nests on a single
+tree, but the pigeons had abandoned this place for
+another, sixty or eighty miles off towards Green River,
+where they were said at that time to be equally
+numerous. From the great numbers that were constantly
+passing overhead to or from that quarter, I had
+no doubt of the truth of this statement. The mast
+had been chiefly consumed in Kentucky, and the pigeons,
+every morning a little before sunrise, set out for the
+Indiana territory, the nearest part of which was about
+sixty miles distant. Many of these returned before ten
+o'clock, and the great body generally appeared on their
+return a little after noon.</p>
+
+<p>I had left the public road to visit the remains of the
+breeding place near Shelbyville, and was traversing the
+woods with my gun, on my way to Frankfort, when,
+about one o'clock, the pigeons, which I had observed
+flying the greater part of the morning northerly, began
+to return in such immense numbers as I never before
+had witnessed. Coming to an opening by the side of
+a creek called the Benson, where I had a more uninterrupted
+view, I was astonished at their appearance.
+They were flying with great steadiness and rapidity at
+a height beyond gunshot in several strata deep, and so
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+close together that could shot have reached them one
+discharge could not have failed of bringing down
+several individuals. From right to left, far as the eye
+could reach, the breadth of this vast procession extended,
+seeming everywhere equally crowded. Curious
+to determine how long this appearance would continue,
+I took out my watch to note the time, and sat down to,
+observe them. It was then half-past one. I sat for
+more than an hour, but, instead of a diminution of this
+prodigious procession, it seemed rather to increase both
+in numbers and rapidity, and, anxious to reach Frankfort
+before night, I rose and went on. About four
+o'clock in the afternoon I crossed the Kentucky River
+at the town of Frankfort, at which time the living torrent
+above my head seemed as numerous and as extensive
+as ever. Long after this I observed them in
+large bodies that continued to pass for six or eight
+minutes, and these again were followed by other detached
+bodies, all moving in the same southeast direction,
+till after six in the evening. The great breadth
+of front which this mighty multitude preserved would
+seem to intimate a corresponding breadth of their breeding
+place, which, by several gentlemen who had lately
+passed through part of it, was stated to me at several
+miles. It was said to be in Green County, and that
+the young began to fly about the middle of March.
+On the seventeenth of April, forty-nine miles beyond
+Danville, and not far from Green River, I crossed this
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+same breeding place, where the nests, for more than
+three miles, spotted every tree; the leaves not being yet
+out I had a fair prospect of them, and was really
+astonished at their numbers. A few bodies of pigeons
+lingered yet in different parts of the woods, the roaring
+of whose wings were heard in various quarters
+around me.</p>
+
+<p>All accounts agree in stating that each nest contains
+only one young squab. These are so extremely fat that
+the Indians, and many of the whites, are accustomed to
+melt down the fat for domestic purposes as a substitute
+for butter and lard. At the time they leave the nest
+they are nearly as heavy as the old ones, but become
+much leaner after they are turned out to shift for
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>It is universally asserted in the western countries that
+the pigeons, though they have only one young at a time,
+breed thrice, and sometimes four times in the same
+season; the circumstances already mentioned render this
+highly probable. It is also worthy of observation that
+this takes place during the period when acorns, beechnuts,
+etc., are scattered about in the greatest abundance
+and mellowed by the frost. But they are not confined
+to these alone; buckwheat, hempseed, Indian corn,
+hollyberries, hackberries, huckleberries, and many
+others furnish them with abundance at almost all
+seasons. The acorns of the live oak are also eagerly
+sought after by these birds, and rice has been frequently
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+found in individuals killed many hundred miles
+to the northward of the nearest rice plantation. The
+vast quantity of mast which these multitudes consume
+is a serious loss to the bears, pigs, squirrels, and other
+dependents on the fruits of the forest. I have taken
+from the crop of a single wild pigeon a good handful of
+the kernels of beechnuts, intermixed with acorns and
+chestnuts. To form a rough estimate of the daily consumption
+of one of these immense flocks let us first
+attempt to calculate the numbers of that above mentioned,
+as seen in passing between Frankfort and the
+Indiana territory. If we suppose this column to have
+been one mile in breadth (and I believe it to have been
+much more), and that it moved at the rate of one mile
+in a minute, four hours, the time it continued passing,
+would make its whole length two hundred and forty
+miles. Again, supposing that each square yard of this
+moving body comprehended three pigeons, the square
+yards in the whole space, multiplied by three, would
+give two thousand two hundred and thirty millions, two
+hundred and seventy-two thousand pigeons!&mdash;an almost
+inconceivable multitude, and yet probably far below the
+actual amount. Computing each of these to consume
+half a pint of mast daily, the whole quantity at this rate
+would equal seventeen millions, four hundred and
+twenty-four thousand bushels per day! Heaven has
+wisely and graciously given to these birds rapidity of
+flight and a disposition to range over vast uncultivated
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+tracts of the earth, otherwise they must have perished
+in the districts where they resided, or devoured up the
+whole productions of agriculture, as well as those of
+the forests.</p>
+
+<p>A few observations on the mode of flight of these
+birds must not be omitted. The appearance of large
+detached bodies of them in the air and the various evolutions
+they display are strikingly picturesque and interesting.
+In descending the Ohio by myself in the
+month of February I often rested on my oars to contemplate
+their aërial man&oelig;uvres. A column, eight or
+ten miles in length, would appear from Kentucky, high
+in air, steering across to Indiana. The leaders of this
+great body would sometimes gradually vary their course
+until it formed a large bend of more than a mile in
+diameter, those behind tracing the exact route of their
+predecessors. This would continue sometimes long
+after both extremities were beyond the reach of sight,
+so that the whole, with its glittery undulations, marked
+a space on the face of the heavens resembling the windings
+of a vast and majestic river. When this bend became
+very great the birds, as if sensible of the unnecessary
+circuitous course they were taking, suddenly
+changed their direction, so that what was in column
+before, became an immense front, straightening all its
+indentures, until it swept the heavens in one vast and
+infinitely extended line. Other lesser bodies also
+united with each other as they happened to approach
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+with such ease and elegance of evolution, forming new
+figures, and varying these as they united or separated,
+that I never was tired of contemplating them. Sometimes
+a hawk would make a sweep on a particular part
+of the column from a great height, when, almost as
+quick as lightning, that part shot downwards out of the
+common track, but soon rising again, continued advancing
+at the same height as before. This inflection was
+continued by those behind, who, on arriving at this
+point, dived down, almost perpendicularly, to a great
+depth, and rising, followed the exact path of those that
+went before. As these vast bodies passed over the river
+near me, the surface of the water, which was before
+smooth as glass, appeared marked with innumerable
+dimples, occasioned by the dropping of their dung, resembling
+the commencement of a shower of large drops
+of rain or hail.</p>
+
+<p>Happening to go ashore one charming afternoon, to
+purchase some milk at a house that stood near the river,
+and while talking with the people within doors, I was
+suddenly struck with astonishment at a loud rushing
+roar, succeeded by instant darkness, which, on the first
+moment, I took for a tornado about to overwhelm the
+house and everything around in destruction. The people,
+observing my surprise, coolly said: "It is only the
+pigeons"; and on running out I beheld a flock, thirty or
+forty yards in width, sweeping along very low between
+the house and the mountain, or height, that formed the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+second bank of the river. These continued passing for
+more than a quarter of an hour, and at length varied
+their bearing so as to pass over the mountain, behind
+which they disappeared before the rear came up.</p>
+
+<p>In the Atlantic States, though they never appear in
+such unparalleled multitudes, they are sometimes very
+numerous, and great havoc is then made amongst them
+with the gun, the clap net, and various other implements
+of destruction. As soon as it is ascertained in a
+town that the pigeons are flying numerously in the
+neighborhood, the gunners rise <i>en masse</i>, the clap nets
+are spread out on suitable situations, commonly on an
+open height in an old buckwheat field; four or five live
+pigeons, with their eyelids sewed up, are fastened on a
+movable stick&mdash;a small hut of branches is fitted up for
+the fowler at the distance of forty or fifty yards&mdash;by
+the pulling of a string the stick on which the pigeons
+rest is alternately elevated and depressed, which produces
+a fluttering of their wings similar to that of birds
+just alighting; this being perceived by the passing flocks
+they descend with great rapidity, and, finding corn,
+buckwheat, etc., strewed about, begin to feed, and are
+instantly, by the pulling of a cord, covered by the net.
+In this manner ten, twenty, and even thirty dozen have
+been caught at one sweep. Meantime the air is
+darkened with large bodies of them moving in various
+directions; the woods also swarm with them in search of
+acorns; and the thundering of musketry is perpetual on
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+all sides from morning to night. Wagon loads of them
+are poured into market, where they sell from fifty to
+twenty-five and even twelve cents per dozen; and
+pigeons become the order of the day at dinner, breakfast
+and supper, until the very name becomes sickening.
+When they have been kept alive and fed for some time
+on corn and buckwheat their flesh acquires great superiority;
+but, in their common state, they are dry and
+blackish and far inferior to the full grown young ones
+or squabs.</p>
+
+<p>The nest of the wild pigeon is formed of a few dry
+slender twigs, carelessly put together, and with so little
+concavity that the young one, when half grown, can
+easily be seen from below. The eggs are pure white.
+Great numbers of hawks, and sometimes the bald eagle
+himself, hover above those breeding places, and seize
+the old or the young from the nest amidst the rising
+multitudes, and with the most daring effrontery. The
+young, when beginning to fly, confine themselves to the
+under part of the tall woods where there is no brush,
+and where nuts and acorns are abundant, searching
+among the leaves for mast, and appear like a prodigious
+torrent rolling through the woods, every one
+striving to be in the front. Vast numbers of them are
+shot while in this situation. A person told me that he
+once rode furiously into one of these rolling multitudes
+and picked up thirteen pigeons which had been trampled
+to death by his horse's feet. In a few minutes they will
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+beat the whole nuts from a tree with their wings, while
+all is a scramble, both above and below, for the same.
+They have the same cooing notes common to domestic
+pigeons, but much less of their gesticulations. In some
+flocks you will find nothing but young ones, which are
+easily distinguishable by their motley dress. In others
+they will be mostly females, and again great multitudes
+of males with few or no females. I cannot account for
+this in any other way than that, during the time of incubation,
+the males are exclusively engaged in procuring
+food, both for themselves and their mates, and the
+young, being yet unable to undertake these extensive
+excursions, associate together accordingly. But even in
+winter I know of several species of birds who separate
+in this manner, particularly the red-winged starling,
+among whom thousands of old males may be found
+with few or no young or females along with them.</p>
+
+<p>Stragglers from these immense armies settle in
+almost every part of the country, particularly among
+the beech woods and in the pine and hemlock woods of
+the eastern and northern parts of the continent. Mr.
+Pennant informs us that they breed near Moose Fort,
+at Hudson's Bay, in N. latitude 51 degrees, and I
+myself have seen the remains of a large breeding place
+as far south as the country of the Choctaws, in latitude
+32 degrees. In the former of these places they are said
+to remain until December; from which circumstance it
+is evident that they are not regular in their migrations
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+like many other species, but rove about as scarcity of
+food urges them. Every spring, however, as well as
+fall, more or less of them are seen in the neighborhood
+of Philadelphia; but it is only once in several years that
+they appear in such formidable bodies; and this commonly
+when the snows are heavy to the north, the winter
+here more than usually mild, and acorns, etc., abundant.</p>
+
+<p>The passenger pigeon is sixteen inches long, and
+twenty-four inches in extent; bill, black; nostril, covered
+by a high rounding protuberance; eye, brilliant fiery
+orange; orbit, or space surrounding it, purplish flesh-colored
+skin; head, upper part of the neck and chin, a
+fine slate blue, lightest on the chin; throat, breast, and
+sides, as far as the thighs, a reddish hazel; lower part
+of the neck and sides of the same, resplendent changeable
+gold, green, and purplish crimson, the last named
+most predominant; the ground color, slate; the plumage
+of this part is of a peculiar structure, ragged at the ends;
+belly and vent, white; lower part of the breast, fading
+into a pale vinaceous red; thighs, the same; legs and
+feet, lake, seamed with white; back, rump, and tail-coverts,
+dark slate, spotted on the shoulders with a few
+scattered marks of black; the scapulars, tinged with
+brown; greater coverts, light slate; primaries and secondaries,
+dull black, the former tipped and edged with
+brownish white; tail, long, and greatly cuneiform, all
+the feathers tapering towards the point, the two middle
+ones plain deep black, the other five, on each side,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+hoary white, lightest near the tips, deepening into bluish
+near the bases, where each is crossed on the inner vane
+with a broad spot of black, and nearer the root with
+another of ferruginous; primaries edged with white;
+bastard wing, black.</p>
+
+<p>The female is about half an inch shorter, and an inch
+less in extent; breast, cinerous brown; upper part of
+the neck, inclining to ash; the spot of changeable gold,
+green, and carmine, much less, and not so brilliant;
+tail coverts, brownish slate; naked orbits, slate colored;
+in all other respects like the male in color, but less
+vivid and more tinged with brown; the eye not so
+brilliant an orange. In both the tail has only twelve
+feathers.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<div id="fp24" class="figcenter" style="width: 452px;">
+<img src="images/fp_024.png" width="452" height="579" alt="" />
+<p class="fig_title">PASSENGER PIGEON<br />(<i>Columba Migratoria</i>)</p>
+
+<p class="fig_caption">Upper bird, female; lower, male<br />
+<br />
+<i>Reproduced from the John J. Audubon Plate</i></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<p class="pmb4"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2">The Passenger Pigeon</p>
+
+<p class="caption3 pmb2">From "Ornithological Biography," by John James Audubon</p>
+
+<div class="dropcap">T</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">T</span>HE Passenger Pigeon, or, as it is usually named
+in America, the Wild Pigeon, moves with extreme
+rapidity, propelling itself by quickly
+repeated flaps of the wings, which it brings more or less
+near to the body, according to the degree of velocity
+which is required. Like the domestic pigeon, it often
+flies, during the love season, in a circling manner, supporting
+itself with both wings angularly elevated, in
+which position it keeps them until it is about to alight.
+Now and then, during these circular flights, the tips
+of the primary quills of each wing are made to strike
+against each other, producing a smart rap, which may
+be heard at a distance of thirty or forty yards. Before
+alighting, the wild pigeon, like the Carolina parrot and
+a few other species of birds, breaks the force of its
+flight by repeated flappings, as if apprehensive of receiving
+injury from coming too suddenly into contact
+with the branch or the spot of ground on which it
+intends to settle.</p>
+
+<p>I have commenced my description of this species with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+the above account of its flight, because the most important
+facts connected with its habits relate to its migrations.
+These are entirely owing to the necessity of procuring
+food, and are not performed with the view of
+escaping the severity of a northern latitude, or of seeking
+a southern one for the purpose of breeding. They
+consequently do not take place at any fixed period or
+season of the year. Indeed, it sometimes happens that
+a continuance of a sufficient supply of food in one district
+will keep these birds absent from another for years.
+I know, at least, to a certainty, that in Kentucky they
+remained for several years constantly, and were nowhere
+else to be found. They all suddenly disappeared
+one season when the mast was exhausted and did
+not return for a long period. Similar facts have been
+observed in other States.</p>
+
+<p>Their great power of flight enables them to survey
+and pass over an astonishing extent of country in a very
+short time. This is proved by facts well-known in
+America. Thus, pigeons have been killed in the
+neighborhood of New York, with their crops full of
+rice, which they must have collected in the fields of
+Georgia and Carolina, these districts being the nearest
+in which they could possibly have procured a supply of
+that kind of food. As their power of digestion is so
+great that they will decompose food entirely in twelve
+hours, they must in this case have traveled between three
+hundred and four hundred miles in six hours, which
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+shows their power of speed to be at an average about
+one mile in a minute. A velocity such as this would
+enable one of these birds, were it so inclined, to visit the
+European continent in less than three days.</p>
+
+<p>This great power of flight is seconded by as great a
+power of vision, which enables them, as they travel at
+that swift rate, to inspect the country below, discover
+their food with facility, and thus attain the object for
+which their journey has been undertaken. This I have
+also proved to be the case, by having observed them,
+when passing over a sterile part of the country, or one
+scantily furnished with food suited to them, keep high
+in the air, flying with an extended front, so as to enable
+them to survey hundreds of acres at once. On the contrary,
+when the land is richly covered with food, or the
+trees abundantly hung with mast, they fly low, in order
+to discover the part most plentifully supplied.</p>
+
+<p>Their body is of an elongated oval form, steered by a
+long, well-plumed tail, and propelled by well-set wings,
+the muscles of which are very large and powerful for
+the size of the bird. When an individual is seen gliding
+through the woods and close to the observer, it
+passes like a thought, and on trying to see it again, the
+eye searches in vain; the bird is gone.</p>
+
+<p>The multitudes of wild pigeons in our woods are
+astonishing. Indeed, after having viewed them so
+often, and under so many circumstances, I even now
+feel inclined to pause, and assure myself that what I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+am going to relate is fact. Yet I have seen it all, and
+that, too, in the company of persons who, like myself,
+were struck with amazement.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1813, I left my house at Henderson,
+on the banks of the Ohio, on my way to Louisville.
+In passing over the Barrens a few miles beyond
+Hardensburgh, I observed the pigeons flying from
+northeast to southwest, in greater numbers than I
+thought I had ever seen them before, and feeling an
+inclination to count the flocks that might pass within
+the reach of my eye in one hour, I dismounted, seated
+myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my
+pencil, making a dot for every flock that passed. In a
+short time, finding the task which I had undertaken impracticable,
+as the birds poured in in countless multitudes,
+I rose, and counting the dots then put down,
+found that one hundred and sixty-three had been made
+in twenty-one minutes. I traveled on, and still met more
+the farther I proceeded. The air was literally filled
+with pigeons; the light of noonday was obscured as by
+an eclipse; the dung fell in spots, not unlike melting
+flakes of snow; and the continued buzz of wings had a
+tendency to lull my senses to repose.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst waiting for dinner at Young's Inn, at the confluence
+of Salt River with the Ohio, I saw, at my leisure,
+immense legions still going by, with a front reaching
+far beyond the Ohio on the west, and the beechwood
+forests directly on the east of me. Not a single bird
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+alighted; for not a nut or acorn was that year to be
+seen in the neighborhood. They consequently flew so
+high, that different trials to reach them with a capital
+rifle proved ineffectual; nor did the reports disturb them
+in the least. I cannot describe to you the extreme
+beauty of their aërial evolutions, when a hawk chanced
+to press upon the rear of the flock. At once, like a torrent,
+and with a noise like thunder, they rushed into a
+compact mass, pressing upon each other towards the
+center. In these almost solid masses, they darted forward
+in undulating and angular lines, descended and
+swept close over the earth with inconceivable velocity,
+mounted perpendicularly so as to resemble a vast column,
+and, when high, were seen wheeling and twisting
+within their continued lines, which then resembled the
+coils of a gigantic serpent.</p>
+
+<p>Before sunset I reached Louisville, distant from Hardensburgh
+fifty-five miles. The pigeons were still passing
+in undiminished numbers, and continued to do so
+for three days in succession. The people were all in
+arms. The banks of the Ohio were crowded with men
+and boys, incessantly shooting at the pilgrims, which
+there flew lower as they passed the river. Multitudes
+were thus destroyed. For a week or more, the population
+fed on no other flesh than that of pigeons, and
+talked of nothing but pigeons. The atmosphere, during
+this time, was strongly impregnated with the peculiar
+odor which emanates from the species.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It is extremely interesting to see flock after flock performing
+exactly the same evolutions which had been
+traced as it were in the air by a preceding flock. Thus,
+should a hawk have charged on a group at a certain
+spot, the angles, curves and undulations that have been
+described by the birds, in their efforts to escape from
+the dreaded talons of the plunderer, are undeviatingly
+followed by the next group that comes up. Should the
+bystander happen to witness one of these affrays, and,
+struck with the rapidity and elegance of the motions
+exhibited, feel desirous of seeing them repeated, his
+wishes will be gratified if he only remain in the place
+until the next group comes up.</p>
+
+<p>It may not, perhaps, be out of place to attempt an
+estimate of the number of pigeons contained in one of
+those mighty flocks, and of the quantity of food daily
+consumed by its members. The inquiry will tend to
+show the astonishing beauty of the great Author of
+Nature in providing for the wants of His creatures.
+Let us take a column of one mile in breadth, which is
+far below the average size, and suppose it passing over
+us without interruption for three hours, at the rate
+mentioned above of one mile in a minute. This will
+give a parallelogram of one hundred and eighty by
+one, covering one hundred and eighty square miles.
+Allowing two pigeons to the square yard, we have one
+billion, one hundred and fifty millions, one hundred and
+thirty-six thousand pigeons in one flock. As every
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+pigeon daily consumes fully half a pint of food, the
+quantity necessary for supplying this vast multitude
+must be eight millions, seven hundred and twelve thousand
+bushels per day.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the pigeons discover a sufficiency of food
+to entice them to alight, they fly around in circles, reviewing
+the country below. During their evolutions,
+on such occasions, the dense mass which they form exhibits
+a beautiful appearance, as it changes its direction,
+now displaying a glistening sheet of azure, when the
+backs of the birds come simultaneously into view, and
+anon, suddenly presenting a mass of rich deep purple.
+They then pass lower, over the woods, and for a
+moment are lost among the foliage, but again emerge,
+and are seen gliding aloft. They now alight, but the
+next moment, as if suddenly alarmed, they take to wing,
+producing by the flapping of their wings a noise like
+the roar of distant thunder, and sweep through the
+forests to see if danger is near. Hunger, however, soon
+brings them to the ground. When alighted, they are
+seen industriously throwing up the withered leaves in
+quest of the fallen mast. The rear ranks are continually
+rising, passing over the main body, and alighting
+in front, in such rapid succession, that the whole
+flock seems still on the wing. The quantity of ground
+thus swept is astonishing, and so completely has it been
+cleared, that the gleaner who might follow in their rear
+would find his labor completely lost. Whilst feeding,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+their avidity is at times so great that in attempting to
+swallow a large acorn or nut, they are seen gasping for
+a long while, as if in agonies of suffocation.</p>
+
+<p>On such occasions, when the woods are filled with
+these pigeons, they are killed in immense numbers,
+although no apparent diminution ensues. About the
+middle of the day, after their repast is finished, they
+settle on the trees, to enjoy rest, and digest their food.
+On the ground they walk with ease, as well as on the
+branches, frequently jerking their beautiful tail, and
+moving the neck backwards and forwards in the most
+graceful manner. As the sun begins to sink beneath the
+horizon, they depart <i>en masse</i> for the roosting place,
+which not infrequently is hundreds of miles distant, as
+has been ascertained by persons who have kept an
+account of their arrivals and departures.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now, kind reader, inspect their place of nightly
+rendezvous. One of these curious roosting places, on
+the banks of the Green River in Kentucky, I repeatedly
+visited. It was, as is always the case, in a portion of
+the forest where the trees were of great magnitude, and
+where there was little underwood. I rode through it
+upwards of forty miles, and, crossing it in different
+parts, found its average breadth to be rather more than
+three miles. My first view of it was about a fortnight
+subsequent to the period when they had made choice of
+it, and I arrived there nearly two hours before sunset.
+Few pigeons were then to be seen, but a great number
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+of persons, with horses and wagons, guns and ammunition,
+had already established encampments on the
+borders.</p>
+
+<p>Two farmers from the vicinity of Russelsville, distant
+more than a hundred miles, had driven upwards
+of three hundred hogs to be fattened on the pigeons
+which were to be slaughtered. Here and there, the
+people employed in plucking and salting what had
+already been procured, were seen sitting in the midst
+of large piles of these birds. The dung lay several
+inches deep, covering the whole extent of the roosting
+place, like a bed of snow. Many trees two feet in
+diameter, I observed, were broken off at no great distance
+from the ground; and the branches of many of the
+largest and tallest had given way, as if the forest had
+been swept by a tornado. Everything proved to me
+that the number of birds resorting to this part of the
+forest must be immense beyond conception. As the
+period of their arrival approached, their foes anxiously
+prepared to receive them. Some were furnished with
+iron pots containing sulphur, others with torches of pine
+knots, many with poles, and the rest with guns. The
+sun was lost to our view, yet not a pigeon had arrived.
+Everything was ready, and all eyes were gazing on the
+clear sky, which appeared in glimpses amidst the tall
+trees. Suddenly there burst forth a general cry of
+"Here they come!" The noise which they made,
+though yet distant, reminded me of a hard gale at sea
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+passing through the rigging of a close-reefed vessel. As
+the birds arrived and passed over me, I felt a current
+of air that surprised me. Thousands were seen
+knocked down by the pole-men. The birds continued
+to pour in. The fires were lighted, and a magnificent,
+as well as wonderful and almost terrifying sight presented
+itself. The pigeons, arriving by thousands,
+alighted everywhere, one above another, until solid
+masses as large as hogsheads were formed on the
+branches all round. Here and there the perches gave
+way under the weight with a crash, and, falling to the
+ground destroyed hundreds of the birds beneath, forcing
+down the dense groups with which every stick was
+loaded. It was a scene of uproar and confusion. I
+found it quite useless to speak, or even to shout to those
+persons who were nearest to me. Even the reports of
+the guns were seldom heard, and I was made aware of
+the firing only by seeing the shooters reloading.</p>
+
+<p>No one dared venture within the line of devastation.
+The hogs had been penned up in due time, the picking
+up of the dead and wounded being left for the next
+morning's employment. The pigeons were constantly
+coming, and it was past midnight before I perceived a
+decrease in the number of those that arrived. The
+uproar continued the whole night; and as I was anxious
+to know to what distance the sound reached, I sent off
+a man, accustomed to perambulate the forest, who, returning
+two hours afterwards, informed me he had
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+heard it distinctly when three miles distant from the
+spot. Toward the approach of day, the noise in some
+measure subsided, long before objects were distinguishable,
+the pigeons began to move off in a direction quite
+different from that in which they had arrived the evening
+before, and at sunrise all that were able to fly had
+disappeared. The howlings of the wolves now reached
+our ears, and the foxes, lynxes, cougars, bears, raccoons,
+opossums, and pole-cats were seen sneaking off,
+whilst eagles and hawks of different species, accompanied
+by a crowd of vultures, came to supplant them
+and enjoy their share of the spoil.</p>
+
+<p>It was then that the authors of all this devastation
+began their entry amongst the dead, the dying and the
+mangled. The pigeons were picked up and piled in
+heaps, until each had as many as he could possibly dispose
+of, when the hogs were let loose to feed on the
+remainder.</p>
+
+<p>Persons unacquainted with these birds might naturally
+conclude that such dreadful havoc would soon put
+an end to the species. But I have satisfied myself, by
+long observation, that nothing but the gradual diminution
+of our forests can accomplish their decrease, as they
+not infrequently quadruple their numbers yearly, and
+always at least double it. In 1805 I saw schooners
+loaded in bulk with pigeons caught up the Hudson
+River, coming into the wharf at New York, when the
+birds sold for a cent apiece. I knew a man in Pennsylvania,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+who caught and killed upward of five hundred
+dozens in a clap net in one day, sweeping sometimes
+twenty dozens or more at a single haul. In the
+month of March, 1830, they were so abundant in the
+markets of New York, that piles of them met the eye
+in every direction. I have seen the negroes at the
+United States' Salines or Saltworks of Shawnee Town,
+wearied with killing pigeons, as they alighted to drink
+the water issuing from the leading pipes, for weeks
+at a time; and yet in 1826, in Louisiana, I saw congregated
+flocks of these birds as numerous as ever I had
+seen them before, during a residence of nearly thirty
+years in the United States.</p>
+
+<p>The breeding of the wild pigeons, and the places
+chosen for that purpose, are points of great interest.
+The time is not much influenced by season, and the place
+selected is where food is most plentiful and most attainable,
+and always at a convenient distance from water.
+Forest trees of great height are those in which the
+pigeons form their nests. Thither the countless myriads
+resort, and prepare to fulfill one of the great laws of
+nature. At this period the note of the pigeon is a soft
+coo-coo-coo-coo much shorter than that of the domestic
+species. The common notes resemble the monosyllables
+kee-kee-kee-kee, the first being the loudest, the others
+gradually diminishing in power. The male assumes a
+pompous demeanor, and follows the female whether on
+the ground or on the branches, with spread tail and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
+drooping wings, which it rubs against the part over
+which it is moving. The body is elevated, the throat
+swells, the eyes sparkle. He continues his notes, and
+now and then rises on the wing, and flies a few yards to
+approach the fugitive and timorous female. Like the
+domestic pigeon and other species, they caress each other
+by billing, in which action, the bill of the one is introduced
+transversely into that of the other, and both parties
+alternately disgorge the contents of their crops by
+repeated efforts. These preliminary affairs are soon settled,
+and the pigeons commence their nests in general
+peace and harmony. They are composed of a few dry
+twigs, crossing each other, and are supported by forks
+of the branches. On the same tree from fifty to a hundred
+nests may frequently be seen: I might say a much
+greater number, were I not anxious, kind reader, that
+however wonderful my account of the wild pigeons is,
+you may not feel disposed to refer it to the marvelous.
+The eggs are two in number, of a broadly
+elliptical form, and pure white. During incubation, the
+male supplies the female with food. Indeed, the tenderness
+and affection displayed by these birds toward
+their mates, are in the highest degree striking. It is a
+remarkable fact that each brood generally consists of a
+male and a female.</p>
+
+<p>Here again, the tyrant of the creation, man, interferes,
+disturbing the harmony of this peaceful scene.
+As the young birds grow up, their enemies armed with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+axes, reach the spot, to seize and destroy all they can.
+The trees are felled, and made to fall in such a way
+that the cutting of one causes the overthrow of another,
+or shakes the neighboring trees so much, that the young
+pigeons, or squabs, as they are named, are violently
+hurled to the ground. In this manner, also, immense
+quantities are destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>The young are fed by the parents in the manner described
+above; in other words, the old bird introduces
+its bill into the mouth of the young one in a transverse
+manner, or with the back of each mandible opposite the
+separations of the mandibles of the young bird, and disgorges
+the contents of its crop. As soon as the young
+birds are able to shift for themselves, they leave their
+parents, and continue separate until they attain maturity.
+By the end of six months they are capable of
+reproducing their species.</p>
+
+<p>The flesh of the wild pigeon is of a dark color, but
+affords tolerable eating. That of young birds from the
+nest is much esteemed. The skin is covered with small
+white filmy scales. The feathers fall off at the least
+touch, as has been remarked to be the case in the Carolina
+Turtle. I have only to add that this species, like
+others of the same genus, immerses its head up to the
+eyes while drinking.</p>
+
+<p>In March, 1830, I bought about three hundred and
+fifty of these birds in the market of New York, at four
+cents apiece. Most of these I carried alive to England,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+and distributed among several noblemen, presenting
+some at the same time to the Zoölogical Society.</p>
+
+
+<p class="caption3">ADULT MALE</p>
+
+<p>Bill&mdash;straight, of ordinary length, rather slender,
+broader than deep at the base, with a tumid, fleshy
+covering above, compressed toward the end, rather
+obtuse; upper mandible slightly declinate at the tip,
+edges inflected. Head&mdash;small; neck, slender; body,
+rather full. Legs&mdash;short and strong; tarsus, rather
+rounded; anteriorly scutellate; toes, slightly webbed at
+the base; claws, short, depressed, obtuse.</p>
+
+<p>Plumage&mdash;blended on the neck and under parts, compact
+on the back. Wings&mdash;long, the second quill longest.
+Tail&mdash;graduated, of twelve tapering feathers.</p>
+
+<p>Bill&mdash;black. Iris&mdash;bright red. Feet&mdash;carmine purple,
+claws blackish. Head&mdash;above and on the sides light
+blue. Throat, fore-neck, breast, and sides&mdash;light
+brownish-red, the rest of the under parts white. Lower
+part of the neck behind, and along the sides, changing
+to gold, emerald green, and rich crimson. The general
+color of the upper parts is grayish-blue, some of the
+wing-coverts marked with a black spot. Quills and
+larger wing-coverts blackish, the primary quills bluish
+in the outer web, the larger coverts whitish at the tip.
+The two middle feathers of the tail black, the rest pale
+blue at the base, becoming white toward the end.</p>
+
+<p>Length, 16-1/4 inches; extent of wings, 25; bill, along
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+the ridge, 5/6, along the gap, 1-1/12; tarsus, 1-1/4 middle
+toe, 1-1/3.</p>
+
+
+<p class="caption3">ADULT FEMALE</p>
+
+<p>The colors of the female are much duller than those
+of the male, although their distribution is the same.
+The breast is light grayish-brown, the upper parts pale
+reddish-brown, tinged with blue. The changeable spot
+on the neck is of less extent, and the eye of a somewhat
+duller red, as are the feet.</p>
+
+<p>Length, 15 inches; extent of wings, 23; bill, along the
+ridge, 3/4; along the gap, 5/6.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2 pmb2">As James Fenimore Cooper Saw It</p>
+
+<div class="dropcap">O</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">O</span>NE of the most graphic descriptions ever
+written of a pigeon flight and slaughter is to
+be found in Cooper's novel, "The Pioneers,"
+from which I make the following extracts:</p>
+
+<p>"See, cousin Bess! see, Duke, the pigeon-roosts of
+the south have broken up! They are growing more
+thick every instant. Here is a flock that the eye cannot
+see the end of. There is food enough in it to keep the
+army of Xerxes for a month and feathers enough to
+make beds for the whole country.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. The reports
+of the firearms became rapid, whole volleys rising
+from the plain, as flocks of more than ordinary numbers
+darted over the opening, shadowing the field like
+a cloud; and then the light smoke of a single piece
+would issue from among the leafless bushes on the mountain,
+as death was hurled on the retreat of the affrighted
+birds, who were rising from a volley, in a vain effort to
+escape. Arrows and missiles of every kind were in the
+midst of the flocks; and so numerous were the birds,
+and so low did they take their flight, that even long
+poles, in the hands of those on the sides of the mountain,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+were used to strike them to the earth.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. So
+prodigious was the number of the birds, that the scattering
+fire of the guns, with the hurtling missiles, and the
+cries of the boys, had no other effect than to break off
+small flocks from the immense masses that continued to
+dart along the valley, as if the whole of the feathered
+tribe were pouring through that one pass. None pretended
+to collect the game, which lay scattered over the
+fields in such profusion as to cover the very ground with
+the fluttering victims."</p>
+
+<p>The slaughter described finally ended with a grand
+finale when an old swivel gun was "loaded with handsful
+of bird-shot," and fired into the mass of pigeons
+with such fatal effect that there were birds enough
+killed and wounded on the ground to feed the whole
+settlement.</p>
+
+<p>The following description is from "The Chainbearer,"
+also by J. Fenimore Cooper. The region of
+which he writes is in Central New York.</p>
+
+<p>"I scarce know how to describe the remarkable
+scene. As we drew near to the summit of the hill,
+pigeons began to be seen fluttering among the branches
+over our heads, as individuals are met along the roads
+that lead into the suburbs of a large town. We had
+probably seen a thousand birds glancing around among
+the trees, before we came in view of the roost itself.
+The numbers increased as we drew nearer, and presently
+the forest was alive with them.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The fluttering was incessant, and often startling as
+we passed ahead, our march producing a movement in
+the living crowd, that really became confounding.
+Every tree was literally covered with nests, many having
+at least a thousand of these frail tenements on their
+branches, and shaded by the leaves. They often touched
+each other, a wonderful degree of order prevailing
+among the hundreds of thousands of families that were
+here assembled.</p>
+
+<p>"The place had the odor of a fowl-house, and squabs
+just fledged sufficiently to trust themselves in short
+flights, were fluttering around us in all directions, in
+tens of thousands. To these were to be added the parents
+of the young race endeavoring to protect them and
+guide them in a way to escape harm. Although the
+birds rose as we approached, and the woods just around
+us seemed fairly alive with pigeons, our presence produced
+no general commotion; every one of the feathered
+throng appearing to be so much occupied with its own
+concerns, as to take little heed of the visit of a party of
+strangers, though of a race usually so formidable to
+their own.</p>
+
+<p>"The masses moved before us precisely as a crowd of
+human beings yields to a pressure or a danger on any
+given point; the vacuum created by its passage filling
+in its rear as the water of the ocean flows into the track
+of the keel.</p>
+
+<p>"The effect on most of us was confounding, and I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+can only compare the sensation produced on myself by
+the extraordinary tumult to that a man experiences at
+finding himself suddenly placed in the midst of an excited
+throng of human beings. The unnatural disregard
+of our persons manifested by the birds greatly heightened
+the effect, and caused me to feel as if some unearthly
+influence reigned in the place. It was strange,
+indeed, to be in a mob of the feathered race, that scarce
+exhibited a consciousness of one's presence. The
+pigeons seemed a world of themselves, and too much
+occupied with their own concerns to take heed of matters
+that lay beyond them.</p>
+
+<p>"Not one of our party spoke for several minutes.
+Astonishment seemed to hold us all tongue-tied, and we
+moved slowly forward into the fluttering throng, silent,
+absorbed, and full of admiration of the works of the
+Creator. It was not easy to hear each others' voices
+when we did speak, the incessant fluttering of wings
+filling the air. Nor were the birds silent in other
+respects.</p>
+
+<p>"The pigeon is not a noisy creature, but a million
+crowded together on the summit of one hill, occupying a
+space of less than a mile square, did not leave the forest
+in its ordinary impressive stillness. As we advanced,
+I offered my arm, almost unconsciously again to Dus,
+and she took it with the same abstracted manner as that
+in which it had been held forth for her acceptance. In
+this relation to each other, we continued to follow the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+grave-looking Onondago, as he moved, still deeper and
+deeper, into the midst of the fluttering tumult.</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:3em">* * * * *</p>
+
+<p>"While standing wondering at the extraordinary
+scene around us, a noise was heard rising above that of
+the incessant fluttering which I can only liken to that
+of the trampling of thousands of horses on a beaten
+road. This noise at first sounded distant, but it increased
+rapidly in proximity and power, until it came
+rolling in upon us, among the tree-tops, like a crash of
+thunder. The air was suddenly darkened, and the place
+where we stood as somber as a dusky twilight. At the
+same instant, all the pigeons near us, that had been on
+their nests, appeared to fall out of them, and the space
+immediately above our heads was at once filled with
+birds.</p>
+
+<p>"Chaos itself could hardly have represented greater
+confusion, or a greater uproar. As for the birds, they
+now seemed to disregard our presence entirely; possibly
+they could not see us on account of their own numbers,
+for they fluttered in between Dus and myself, hitting
+us with their wings, and at times appearing as if
+about to bury us in avalanches of pigeons. Each of us
+caught one at least in our hands, while Chainbearer and
+the Indian took them in some numbers, letting one prisoner
+go as another was taken. In a word, we seemed to
+be in a world of pigeons. This part of the scene may
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+have lasted a minute, when the space around us was suddenly
+cleared, the birds glancing upward among the
+branches of the trees, disappearing among the foliage.
+All this was the effect produced by the return of the
+female birds, which had been off at a distance, some
+twenty miles at least, to feed on beechnuts, and which
+now assumed the places of the males on the nests; the
+latter taking a flight to get their meal in their turn.</p>
+
+<p>"I have since had the curiosity to make a sort of an
+estimate of the number of the birds that must have
+come in upon the roost, in that, to us, memorable
+moment. Such a calculation, as a matter of course, must
+be very vague, though one may get certain principles
+by estimating the size of a flock by the known rapidity
+of the flight, and other similar means; and I remember
+that Frank Malbone and myself supposed that a
+million of birds must have come in on that return, and
+as many departed! As the pigeon is a very voracious
+bird, the question is apt to present itself, where food
+is obtained for so many mouths; but, when we remember
+the vast extent of the American forests, this difficulty
+is at once met. Admitting that the colony we visited
+contained many millions of birds, and, counting old and
+young, I have no doubt it did, there was probably a
+fruit-bearing tree for each, within an hour's flight from
+that very spot!</p>
+
+<p>"Such is the scale on which Nature labors in the
+wilderness! I have seen insects fluttering in the air at
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+particular seasons, and at particular places, until they
+formed little clouds; a sight every one must have witnessed
+on many occasions; and as those insects appeared,
+on their diminished scale, so did the pigeons appear to
+us at the roost of Mooseridge."</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2">The Wild Pigeon of North America</p>
+
+<p class="caption3">By Chief Pokagon,<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> from "The Chautauquan," November, 1895.
+Vol. 22. No. 20.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote pmb2">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Simon Pokagon, of Michigan, is a full-blooded Indian, the last Pottawattomie
+chief of the Pokagon band. He is author of the "Red Man's
+Greeting," and has been called by the press the "Redskin poet, bard, and
+Longfellow of his race." His father, chief before him, sold the site of
+Chicago and the surrounding country to the United States in 1833 for three
+cents an acre. He was the first red man to visit President Lincoln after his
+inauguration. In a letter written home at the time he said: "I have met
+Lincoln, the great chief; he is very tall, has a sad face, but he is a good man,
+I saw it in his eyes and felt it in his hand-shaking. He will help us get
+payment for Chicago land." Soon after $39,000 was paid. In 1874 he
+visited President Grant. He said of him: "I expected he would put on
+military importance, but he treated me kindly, give me a cigar, and we
+smoked the pipe of peace together." In 1893 he procured judgment
+against the United States for over $100,000 still due on the sale of the
+Chicago land by his father. He was honored on Chicago Day at the
+World's Fair by first ringing the new Bell of Liberty and speaking in behalf
+of his race to the greatest crowd ever assembled on earth. After his
+speech "Glory Hallelujah" was sung before the bell for the first time on
+the Fair grounds.</p></div>
+
+<div class="dropcap">T</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">T</span>HE migratory or wild pigeon of North America
+was known by our race as <i>O-me-me-wog</i>.
+Why the European race did not accept that
+name was, no doubt, because the bird so much resembled
+the domesticated pigeon; they naturally called it a
+wild pigeon, as they called us wild men.</p>
+
+<p>This remarkable bird differs from the dove or domesticated
+pigeon, which was imported into this country,
+in the grace of its long neck, its slender bill and legs,
+and its narrow wings. Its tail is eight inches long, having
+twelve feathers, white on the under side. The two
+center feathers are longest, while five arranged on either
+side diminished gradually each one-half inch in length,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+giving to the tail when spread an almost conical appearance.
+Its back and upper part of the wings and head
+are a darkish blue, with a silken velvety appearance. Its
+neck is resplendent in gold and green with royal purple
+intermixed. Its breast is reddish-brown, fading toward
+the belly into white. Its tail is tipped with white, intermixed
+with bluish-black. The female is one inch shorter
+than the male, and her color less vivid.</p>
+
+<p>It was proverbial with our fathers that if the Great
+Spirit in His wisdom could have created a more elegant
+bird in plumage, form, and movement, He never did.
+When a young man I have stood for hours admiring
+the movements of these birds. I have seen them fly in
+unbroken lines from the horizon, one line succeeding
+another from morning until night, moving their unbroken
+columns like an army of trained soldiers pushing
+to the front, while detached bodies of these birds
+appeared in different parts of the heavens, pressing forward
+in haste like raw recruits preparing for battle. At
+other times I have seen them move in one unbroken column
+for hours across the sky, like some great river,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+ever varying in hue; and as the mighty stream, sweeping
+on at sixty miles an hour, reached some deep valley,
+it would pour its living mass headlong down hundreds
+of feet, sounding as though a whirlwind was abroad in
+the land. I have stood by the grandest waterfall of
+America and regarded the descending torrents in wonder
+and astonishment, yet never have my astonishment, wonder,
+and admiration been so stirred as when I have witnessed
+these birds drop from their course like meteors
+from heaven.</p>
+
+<p>While feeding, they always have guards on duty, to
+give alarm of danger. It is made by the watch-bird as
+it takes its flight, beating its wings together in quick
+succession, sounding like the rolling beat of a snare
+drum. Quick as thought each bird repeats the alarm
+with a thundering sound, as the flock struggles to rise,
+leading a stranger to think a young cyclone is then being
+born.</p>
+
+<p>.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp; About the middle of May, 1850, while in the
+fur trade, I was camping on the head waters of the
+Manistee River in Michigan. One morning on leaving
+my wigwam I was startled by hearing a gurgling, rumbling
+sound, as though an army of horses laden with
+sleigh bells was advancing through the deep forests
+towards me. As I listened more intently I concluded
+that instead of the tramping of horses it was distant
+thunder; and yet the morning was clear, calm and
+beautiful. Nearer and nearer came the strange commingling
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+sounds of sleigh bells, mixed with the rumbling
+of an approaching storm. While I gazed in wonder and
+astonishment, I beheld moving toward me in an unbroken
+front millions of pigeons, the first I had seen that
+season. They passed like a cloud through the branches
+of the high trees, through the underbrush and over the
+ground, apparently overturning every leaf. Statue-like
+I stood, half-concealed by cedar boughs. They fluttered
+all about me, lighting on my head and shoulders; gently
+I caught two in my hands and carefully concealed them
+under my blanket.</p>
+
+<p>I now began to realize they were mating, preparatory
+to nesting. It was an event which I had long hoped to
+witness; so I sat down and carefully watched their movements,
+amid the greatest tumult. I tried to understand
+their strange language, and why they all chatted in concert.
+In the course of the day the great on-moving mass
+passed by me, but the trees were still filled with them
+sitting in pairs in convenient crotches of the limbs, now
+and then gently fluttering their half-spread wings and
+uttering to their mates those strange, bell-like wooing
+notes which I had mistaken for the ringing of bells in
+the distance.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day after, this chattering ceased and all
+were busy carrying sticks with which they were building
+nests in the same crotches of the limbs they had occupied
+in pairs the day before. On the morning of the
+fourth day their nests were finished and eggs laid. The
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+hen birds occupied the nests in the morning, while the
+male birds went out into the surrounding country to
+feed, returning about ten o'clock, taking the nests, while
+the hens went out to feed, returning about three o'clock.
+Again changing nests, the male birds went out the second
+time to feed, returning at sundown. The same routine
+was pursued each day until the young ones were hatched
+and nearly half grown, at which time all the parent
+birds left the brooding grounds about daylight. On the
+morning of the eleventh day, after the eggs were laid, I
+found the nesting grounds strewn with egg shells, convincing
+me that the young were hatched. In thirteen
+days more the parent birds left their young to shift for
+themselves, flying to the east about sixty miles, when
+they again nested. The female lays but one egg during
+the same nesting.</p>
+
+<p>Both sexes secrete in their crops milk or curd with
+which they feed their young, until they are nearly ready
+to fly, when they stuff them with mast and such other
+raw material as they themselves eat, until their crops
+exceed their bodies in size, giving to them an appearance
+of two birds with one head. Within two days after the
+stuffing they become a mass of fat&mdash;"a squab." At this
+period the parent bird drives them from the nests to
+take care of themselves, while they fly off within a day
+or two, sometimes hundreds of miles, and again nest.</p>
+
+<p>It has been well established that these birds look after
+and take care of all orphan squabs whose parents have
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+been killed or are missing. These birds are long-lived,
+having been known to live twenty-five years caged.
+When food is abundant they nest each month in the
+year.</p>
+
+<p>Their principal food is the mast of the forest, except
+when curd is being secreted in their crops, at which
+time they denude the country of snails and worms for
+miles around the nesting grounds. Because they nest
+in such immense bodies, they are frequently compelled
+to fly from fifty to one hundred miles for food.</p>
+
+<p>During my early life I learned that these birds in
+spring and fall were seen in their migrations from the
+Atlantic to the Mississippi River. This knowledge,
+together with my personal observation of their countless
+numbers, led me to believe they were almost as inexhaustible
+as the great ocean itself. Of course I had witnessed
+the passing away of the deer, buffalo, and elk, but I
+looked upon them as local in their habits, while these
+birds spanned the continent, frequently nesting beyond
+the reach of cruel man.</p>
+
+<p>Between 1840 and 1880 I visited in the States of
+Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan many brooding places that
+were from twenty to thirty miles long and from three
+to four miles wide, every tree in its limits being spotted
+with nests. Yet, notwithstanding their countless numbers,
+great endurance, and long life, they have almost
+entirely disappeared from our forests. We strain our
+eyes in spring and autumn in vain to catch a glimpse of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+these pilgrims. White men tell us they have moved
+in a body to the Rocky Mountain region, where they
+are as plenty as they were here, but when we ask red
+men, who are familiar with the mountain country, about
+them, they shake their heads in disbelief.</p>
+
+<p>A pigeon nesting was always a great source of revenue
+to our people. Whole tribes would wigwam in the
+brooding places. They seldom killed the old birds,
+but made great preparation to secure their young, out
+of which the squaws made squab butter and smoked
+and dried them by thousands for future use. Yet,
+under our manner of securing them, they continued to
+increase.</p>
+
+<p>White men commenced netting them for market
+about the year 1840. These men were known as professional
+pigeoners, from the fact that they banded
+themselves together, so as to keep in telegraphic communication
+with these great moving bodies. In this
+they became so expert as to be almost continually on
+the borders of their brooding places. As they were
+always prepared with trained stool-pigeons and flyers,
+which they carried with them, they were enabled to
+call down the passing flocks and secure as many by net
+as they were able to pack in ice and ship to market. In
+the year 1848 there were shipped from Catteraugus
+County, N. Y., eighty tons of these birds; and from
+that time to 1878 the wholesale slaughter continued
+to increase, and in that year there were shipped from
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+Michigan not less than three hundred tons of birds.
+During the thirty years of their greatest slaughter there
+must have been shipped to our great cities 5,700 tons
+of these birds; allowing each pigeon to weigh one-half
+pound would show twenty-three millions of birds.
+Think of it! And all these were caught during their
+brooding season, which must have decreased their numbers
+as many more. Nor is this all. During the same
+time hunters from all parts of the country gathered at
+these brooding places and slaughtered them without
+mercy.</p>
+
+<p>In the above estimate are not reckoned the thousands
+of dozens that were shipped alive to sporting clubs for
+trap-shooting, as well as those consumed by the local
+trade throughout the pigeon districts of the United
+States.</p>
+
+<p>These experts finally learned that the birds while
+nesting were frantic after salty mud and water, so they
+frequently made, near the nesting places, what were
+known by the craft as mud beds, which were salted,
+to which the birds would flock by the million. In
+April, 1876, I was invited to see a net over one of these
+death pits. It was near Petoskey, Mich. I think I
+am correct in saying the birds piled one upon another
+at least two feet deep when the net was sprung, and
+it seemed to me that most of them escaped the trap,
+but on killing and counting, there were found to be
+over one hundred dozen, all nesting birds.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When squabs of a nesting became fit for market,
+these experts, prepared with climbers, would get into
+some convenient place in a tree-top loaded with nests,
+and with a long pole punch out the young, which would
+fall with a thud like lead on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>In May, 1880, I visited the last known nesting
+place east of the Great Lakes. It was on Platt River
+in Benzie County, Mich. There were on these
+grounds many large white birch trees filled with nests.
+These trees have manifold bark, which, when old, hangs
+in shreds like rags or flowing moss, along their trunks
+and limbs. This bark will burn like paper soaked in
+oil. Here, for the first time, I saw with shame and pity
+a new mode for robbing these birds' nests, which I look
+upon as being devilish. These outlaws to all moral
+sense would touch a lighted match to the bark of the
+trees at the base, when with a flash&mdash;more like an explosion&mdash;the
+blast would reach every limb of the tree, and
+while the affrighted young birds would leap simultaneously
+to the ground, the parent birds, with plumage
+scorched, would rise high in air amid flame and smoke.
+I noticed that many of these squabs were so fat and
+clumsy they would burst open on striking the ground.
+Several thousand were obtained during the day by this
+cruel process.</p>
+
+<p>That night I stayed with an old man on the highlands
+just north of the nesting. In the course of the evening
+I explained to him the cruelty that was being shown to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+the young birds in the nesting. He listened to me in
+utter astonishment, and said, "My God, is that possible!"
+Remaining silent a few moments with bowed
+head, he looked up and said, "See here, old Indian, you
+go out with me in the morning and I will show you a
+way to catch pigeons that will please any red man and
+the birds, too."</p>
+
+<p>Early the next morning I followed him a few rods
+from his hut, where he showed me an open pole pen,
+about two feet high, which he called his bait bed. Into
+this he scattered a bucket of wheat. We then sat in
+ambush, so as to see through between the poles into the
+pen. Soon they began to pour into the pen and gorge
+themselves. While I was watching and admiring them,
+all at once to my surprise they began fluttering and
+falling on their sides and backs and kicking and quivering
+like a lot of cats with paper tied over their feet.
+He jumped into the pen, saying, "Come on, you red-skin."</p>
+
+<p>I was right on hand by his side. A few birds flew out
+of the pen apparently crippled, but we caught and caged
+about one hundred fine birds. After my excitement
+was over I sat down on one of the cages, and thought
+in my heart, "Certainly Pokagon is dreaming, or this
+long-haired white man is a witch." I finally said, "Look
+here, old fellow, tell me how you did that." He gazed
+at me, holding his long white beard in one hand, and
+said with one eye half shut and a sly wink with the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+other, "That wheat was soaked in whisky." His answer
+fell like lead upon my heart. We had talked
+temperance together the night before, and the old man
+wept when I told him how my people had fallen before
+the intoxicating cup of the white man like leaves before
+the blast of autumn. In silence I left the place, saying
+in my heart, "Surely the time is now fulfilled, when
+false prophets shall show signs and wonders to seduce,
+if it were possible, even the elect."</p>
+
+<p>I have read recently in some of our game-sporting
+journals, "A warwhoop has been sounded against some
+of our western Indians for killing game in the mountain
+region." Now, if these red men are guilty of a
+moral wrong which subjects them to punishment, I
+would most prayerfully ask in the name of Him who
+suffers not a sparrow to fall unnoticed, what must be
+the nature of the crime and degree of punishment awaiting
+our white neighbors who have so wantonly butchered
+and driven from our forests these wild pigeons, the
+most beautiful flowers of the animal creation of North
+America.</p>
+
+<p>In closing this article I wish to say a few words
+relative to the knowledge of things about them that
+these birds seem to possess.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1866 there were scattered throughout
+northern Indiana and southern Michigan vast numbers
+of these birds. On April 10, in the morning, they
+commenced moving in small flocks in diverging lines
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+toward the northwest part of Van Buren County,
+Mich. For two days they continued to pour into that
+vicinity from all directions, commencing at once to build
+their nests. I talked with an old trapper who lived
+on the brooding grounds, and he assured me that the
+first pigeons he had seen that season were on the day
+they commenced nesting and that he had lived there
+fifteen years and never known them to nest there
+before.</p>
+
+<p>From the above instance and hundreds of others I
+might mention, it is well established in my mind beyond
+a reasonable doubt, that these birds, as well as many
+other animals, have communicated to them by some
+means unknown to us, a knowledge of distant places,
+and of one another when separated, and that they act
+on such knowledge with just as much certainty as if
+it were conveyed to them by ear or eye. Hence we
+conclude it is possible that the Great Spirit in His
+wisdom has provided them a means to receive electric
+communications from distant places and with one another.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2">The Passenger Pigeon</p>
+
+<p class="caption3">From "Life Histories of North American Birds,"<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a>
+<a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption3">by Charles Bendire</p>
+
+<div class="footnote pmb2">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> The first volume of Captain Bendire's monumental work was published
+in 1892, by which time the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon was
+foretold as a matter of a few more years. His contribution to the subject
+therefore deals with a much later period in the history of the bird and links
+the studies of Wilson and Audubon with the present day.</p></div>
+
+<div class="dropcap">G</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">G</span>EOGRAPHICAL Range: Deciduous forest
+regions of eastern North America; west, casually,
+to Washington and Nevada; Cuba.</p>
+
+<p>The breeding range of the Passenger Pigeon to-day
+is to be looked for principally in the thinly settled and
+wooded region along our northern border, from northern
+Maine westward to northern Minnesota; in the
+Dakotas, as well as in similar localities in the eastern
+and middle portions of the Dominion of Canada, and
+north at least to Hudson's Bay. Isolated and scattering
+pairs probably still breed in the New England States,
+northern New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin,
+Minnesota, and a few other localities further
+south, but the enormous breeding colonies, or pigeon
+roosts, as they were formerly called, frequently covering
+the forest for miles, and so often mentioned by naturalists
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+and hunters in former years, are, like the immense
+herds of the American bison which roamed over the
+great plains of the West in countless thousands but a
+couple of decades ago, things of the past, probably
+never to be seen again.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, the extermination of the Passenger Pigeon
+has progressed so rapidly during the past twenty years
+that it looks now as if their total extermination might
+be accomplished within the present century. The only
+thing which retards their complete extinction is that it
+no longer pays to net these birds, they being too scarce
+for this now, at least in the more settled portions of the
+country, and also, perhaps, that from constant and unremitting
+persecution on their breeding grounds they
+have changed their habits somewhat, the majority no
+longer breeding in colonies, but scattering over the
+country and breeding in isolated pairs.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. William Brewster, in his article "On the Present
+Status of the Wild Pigeon," etc., writes as follows: "In
+the spring of 1888 my friend, Captain Bendire, wrote
+me that he had received news from a correspondent in
+central Michigan to the effect that wild pigeons had
+arrived there in great numbers and were preparing to
+nest. Acting on this information, I started at once, in
+company with Mr. Jonathan Dwight, Jr., to visit the
+expected 'nesting' and learn as much as possible about
+the habits of the breeding birds, as well as to secure
+specimens of their skins and eggs.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"On reaching Cadillac, Michigan, May 8, we found
+that large flocks of pigeons had passed there late in
+April, while there were reports of similar flights from
+almost every county in the southern part of the State.
+Although most of the birds had passed on before our
+arrival, the professional pigeon netters, confident that
+they would finally breed somewhere in the southern peninsula,
+were busily engaged getting their nets and other
+apparatus in order for an extensive campaign against
+the poor birds.</p>
+
+<p>"We were assured that as soon as the breeding
+colony became established the fact would be known all
+over the State, and there would be no difficulty in ascertaining
+its precise location. Accordingly, we waited
+at Cadillac about two weeks, during which time we were
+in correspondence with netters in different parts of the
+region. No news came, however, and one by one the
+netters lost heart, until finally most of them agreed that
+the pigeons had gone to the far north, beyond the reach
+of mail and telegraphic communication. As a last hope,
+we went, on May 15, to Oden, in the northern part of
+the southern peninsula, about twenty miles south of the
+Straits of Mackinac. Here we found that there had
+been, as elsewhere in Michigan, a heavy flight of birds
+in the latter part of April, but that all had passed on.
+Thus our trip proved a failure as far as actually seeing
+a pigeon 'nesting' was concerned; but partly by observation,
+partly by talking with the netters, farmers, sportsmen,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+and lumbermen, we obtained much information
+regarding the flight of 1888, and the larger nestings
+that have occurred in Michigan within the past decade,
+as well as many interesting details, some of which appear
+to be new about the habits of the birds.</p>
+
+<p>"Our principal informant was Mr. S. S. Stevens, of
+Cadillac, a veteran pigeon netter of large experience,
+and, as we were assured by everyone whom we asked
+concerning him, a man of high reputation for veracity
+and carefulness of statement. His testimony was as
+follows: 'Pigeons appeared that year in numbers near
+Cadillac, about the 20th of April. He saw fully sixty
+in one day, scattered about in beech woods near the
+head of Clam Lake, and on another occasion about one
+hundred drinking at the mouth of the brook, while a
+flock that covered at least 8 acres was observed by a
+friend, a perfectly reliable man, flying in a north-easterly
+direction. Many other smaller flocks were reported."</p>
+
+<p>"The last nesting of any importance in Michigan was
+in 1881, a few miles west of Grand Traverse. It was
+only of moderate size, perhaps 8 miles long. Subsequently,
+in 1886, Mr. Stevens found about fifty dozen
+pairs nesting in a swamp near Lake City. He does
+not doubt that similar small colonies occur every year,
+besides scattered pairs. In fact, he sees a few pigeons
+about Cadillac every summer, and in the early autumn
+young birds, barely able to fly, are often met with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+singly or in small parties in the woods. Such stragglers
+attract little attention, and no one attempts to net them,
+although many are shot.</p>
+
+<p>"The largest nesting he ever visited was in 1876 or
+1877. It began near Petoskey, and extended northeast
+past Crooked Lake for 28 miles, averaging 3 or 4 miles
+wide. The birds arrived in two separate bodies, one
+directly from the south by land, the other following
+the east coast of Wisconsin, and crossing at Manitou
+Island. He saw the latter body come in from the lake
+at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It was a compact
+mass of pigeons, at least 5 miles long by 1 mile wide.
+The birds began building when the snow was 12 inches
+deep in the woods, although the fields were bare at the
+time. So rapidly did the colony extend its boundaries
+that it soon passed literally over and around the place
+where he was netting, although when he began, this
+point was several miles from the nearest nest. Nestings
+usually start in deciduous woods, but during their progress
+the pigeons do not skip any kind of trees they
+encounter. The Petoskey nesting extended 8 miles
+through hardwood timber, then crossed a river bottom
+wooded with arborvitæ, and thence stretched through
+white pine woods about 20 miles. For the entire distance
+of 28 miles every tree of any size had more or
+less nests, and many trees were filled with them. None
+were lower than about 15 feet above the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Pigeons are very noisy when building. They make
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+a sound resembling the croaking of wood frogs. Their
+combined clamor can be heard 4 or 5 miles away when
+the atmospheric conditions are favorable. Two eggs
+are usually laid, but many nests contain only one. Both
+birds incubate, the females between 2 o'clock <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> and
+9 o'clock or 10 o'clock the next morning; the males
+from 9 or 10 o'clock <span class="smcap">A.M.</span> to 2 o'clock <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> The
+males feed twice each day, namely, from daylight to
+about 8 o'clock <span class="smcap">A.M.</span> and again late in the afternoon.
+The females feed only during the forenoon. The
+change is made with great regularity as to time, all the
+males being on the nest by 10 o'clock <span class="smcap">A.M.</span></p>
+
+<p>"During the morning and evening no females are
+ever caught by the netters; during the forenoon no
+males. The sitting bird does not leave the nest until
+the bill of its incoming mate nearly touches its tail,
+the former slipping off as the latter takes it place.</p>
+
+<p>"Thus the eggs are constantly covered, and but few
+are ever thrown out despite the fragile character of the
+nests and the swaying of the trees in the high winds.
+The old birds never feed in or near the nesting, leaving
+all the beech mast, etc., there for their young. Many
+of them go 100 miles each day for food. Mr. Stevens
+is satisfied that pigeons continue laying and hatching
+during the entire summer. They do not, however, use
+the same nesting place a second time in one season, the
+entire colony always moving from 20 to 100 miles after
+the appearance of each brood of young. Mr. Stevens,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+as well as many of the other netters with whom we
+talked, believes that they breed during their absence
+in the South in the winter, asserting as proof of this
+that young birds in considerable numbers often accompany
+the earlier spring flights.</p>
+
+<p>"Five weeks are consumed by a single nesting. Then
+the young are forced out of their nests by the old
+birds. Mr. Stevens has twice seen this done. One
+of the pigeons, usually the male, pushes the young off
+the nest by force. The latter struggles and squeals precisely
+like a tame squab, but is finally crowded out along
+the branch, and after further feeble resistance flutters
+down to the ground. Three or four days elapse before
+it is able to fly well. Upon leaving the nest it is often
+fatter and heavier than the old birds; but it quickly
+becomes much thinner and lighter, despite the enormous
+quantity of food it consumes.</p>
+
+<p>"On one occasion an immense flock of young birds
+became bewildered in a fog while crossing Crooked
+Lake, and descending struck the water and perished by
+thousands. The shore for miles was covered a foot
+or more deep with them. The old birds rose above the
+fog, and none were killed.</p>
+
+<p>"At least five hundred men were engaged in netting
+pigeons during the great Petoskey nesting of 1881. Mr.
+Stevens thought that they may have captured on the
+average 20,000 birds apiece during the season. Sometimes
+two carloads were shipped south on the railroad
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+each day. Nevertheless he believed that not one bird
+in a thousand was taken. Hawks and owls often
+abound near the nesting. Owls can be heard hooting
+there all night long. The cooper's hawk often catches
+the stool-pigeon. During the Petoskey season Mr.
+Stevens lost twelve stool birds in this way.</p>
+
+<p>"There has been much dispute among writers and
+observers, beginning with Audubon and Wilson, and
+extending down to the present day, as to whether the
+wild pigeon has two eggs or one. I questioned Mr.
+Stevens closely on this point. He assured me that he
+had frequently found two eggs or two young in the
+same nest, but that fully half the nests which he had
+examined contained only one.</p>
+
+<p>"Our personal experience with the pigeon in Michigan
+was as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"During our stay at Cadillac we saw them daily,
+sometimes singly, usually in pairs, never more than two
+together. Nearly every large tract of old growth
+mixed woods seemed to contain at least one pair. They
+appeared to be settled for the season, and we were
+convinced that they were preparing to breed. In fact,
+the oviduct of a female, killed May 10, contained an
+egg nearly ready for the shell.</p>
+
+<p>"At Oden we had a similar experience, although there
+were perhaps fewer pigeons there than about Cadillac.</p>
+
+<p>"On May 24, Mr. Dwight settled any possible question
+as to their breeding in scattered pairs, by finding
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+a nest on which he distinctly saw a bird sitting. The
+following day I accompanied him to this nest, which
+was at least 50 feet above the ground, on the horizontal
+branch of a large hemlock, about 20 feet out from the
+trunk. As we approached the spot an adult male
+pigeon started from a tree near that on which the nest
+was placed, and a moment later a young bird, with
+stub tail and barely able to fly, fluttered feebly after
+it. This young pigeon was probably the bird seen the
+previous day on the nest, for on climbing to the latter,
+Mr. Dwight found it empty, but fouled with excrement,
+some of which was perfectly fresh. A thorough investigation
+of the surrounding woods, which were a hundred
+acres or more in extent, and composed chiefly of
+beeches, with a mixture of white pines and hemlocks
+of the largest size, convinced us that no other pigeons
+were nesting in them.</p>
+
+<p>"All the netters with whom we talked believe firmly
+that there are just as many pigeons in the West as there
+ever were. They say the birds have been driven from
+Michigan and the adjoining States, partly by persecution,
+and partly by the destruction of the forests, and
+have retreated to uninhabited regions, perhaps north
+of the Great Lakes in British North America. Doubtless
+there is some truth in this theory; for, that the
+pigeon is not, as has been asserted so often recently,
+on the verge of extinction, is shown by the flight which
+passed through Michigan in the Spring of 1888. This
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+flight, according to the testimony of many reliable observers,
+was a large one, and the birds must have
+formed a nesting of considerable extent in some region
+so remote that no news of its presence reached the ears
+of the vigilant netters. Thus it is probable that enough
+Pigeons are left to restock the West, provided that laws
+sufficiently stringent to give them fair protection be at
+once enacted. The present laws of Michigan and Wisconsin
+are simply worse than useless, for, while they
+prohibit disturbing the birds <i>within</i> the nesting, they
+allow unlimited netting only a few miles beyond its outskirts
+<i>during the entire breeding season</i>. The theory
+is, that they are so infinitely numerous that their ranks
+are not seriously thinned by catching a few millions of
+breeding birds in a summer, and that the only danger
+to be guarded against is that of frightening them away
+by the use of guns or nets in the woods where their
+nests are placed. The absurdity of such reasoning is
+self-evident, but, singularly enough, the netters, many
+of whom struck me as intelligent and honest men, seem
+really to believe in it. As they have more or less local
+influence, and, in addition, the powerful backing of the
+large game dealers in the cities, it is not likely that any
+really effectual laws can be passed until the last of our
+Passenger Pigeons are preparing to follow the great
+auk and the American bison."</p>
+
+<p>In order to show a little more clearly the immense
+destruction of the Passenger Pigeon <i>in a single year</i>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+<i>and at one roost</i> only, I quote the following extract
+from an interesting article "On the Habits, Methods of
+Capture, and Nesting of the Wild Pigeon," with an
+account of the Michigan nesting of 1878, by Prof. H. B.
+Roney, in the Chicago <i>Field</i> (Vol. X, pp. 345-347):</p>
+
+<p>"The nesting area, situated near Petoskey, covered
+something like 100,000 acres of land, and included not
+less than 150,000 acres within its limits, being in length
+about 40 miles by 3 to 10 in width. The number of
+dead birds sent by rail was estimated at 12,500 daily,
+or 1,500,000 for the summer, besides 80,352 live birds;
+an equal number was sent by water. We have," says
+the writer, "adding the thousands of dead and wounded
+ones not secured, and the myriads of squabs left dead
+in the nest, at the lowest possible estimate, a grand
+total of one billion pigeons sacrificed to Mammon
+during the nesting of 1878."</p>
+
+<p>The last mentioned figure is undoubtedly far above
+the actual number killed during that or any other year,
+but even granting that but a million were killed at this
+roost, the slaughter is enormous enough, and it is not
+strange that the number of these pigeons are now few,
+compared with former years.</p>
+
+<p>Capt. B. F. Goss, of Peewaukee, Wisconsin, writes
+me: "Ten years ago the wild pigeon bred in great
+roosts in the northern parts of Wisconsin, and it also
+bred singly in this vicinity; up to six or eight years ago
+they were plenty. The nest was a small, rough platform
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+of twigs, from 10 to 15 feet from the ground. I
+have often found two eggs in a nest, but one is by far
+the more common. These single nests have been
+thought by some accidental, but for years they bred in
+this manner all over the county, as plentifully as any of
+our birds. I also found them breeding singly in Iowa.
+These single nests have not attracted attention like the
+great roosts, but I think it is a common manner of building
+with this species."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Frank J. Thompson, in charge of the Zoölogical
+Gardens at Cincinnati, Ohio, gives the following
+account of the breeding of the wild pigeon in confinement:
+"During the spring of 1877, the society purchased
+three pairs of trapped birds, which were placed
+in one of the outer aviaries. Early in March, 1878,
+I noticed that they were mating, and procuring some
+twigs, I wove three rough platforms, and fastened them
+up in convenient places, at the same time throwing a
+further supply of building material on the floor.
+Within twenty-four hours two of the platforms were
+selected; the male carrying the material, whilst the
+female busied herself in placing it. A single egg was
+soon laid in each nest and incubation commenced. On
+March 16, there was quite a heavy fall of snow, and on
+the next morning I was unable to see the birds on their
+nests on account of the accumulation of the snow piled
+on the platforms around them. Within a couple of
+days it had all disappeared, and for the next four or
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+five nights a self-registering thermometer, hanging in
+the aviary, marked from 14° to 10°. In spite of these
+drawbacks both of the eggs were hatched and the young
+ones reared. They have since continued to breed regularly,
+and now I have twenty birds, having lost several
+eggs from falling through their illy-contrived nests
+and one old male."</p>
+
+<p>The Passenger Pigeon has been found nesting in
+Wisconsin and Iowa during the first week in April,
+and as late as June 5 and 12 in Connecticut and Minnesota.
+Their food consists of beech nuts, acorns, wild
+cherries, and berries of various kinds, as well as different
+kinds of grain. They are said to be very fond of, and
+feed extensively on, angle worms, vast numbers of
+which frequently come to the surface after heavy rains,
+also on hairless caterpillars.</p>
+
+<p>Their movements, at all seasons, seem to be very
+irregular, and are greatly affected by the food supply.
+They may be exceedingly common at one point one
+year, and almost entirely wanting the next. They generally
+winter south of latitude 36°.</p>
+
+<p>Their notes during the mating season are said to be
+a short "coo-coo," and the ordinary call note is a "kee-kee-kee,"
+the first syllable being louder and the last
+fainter than the middle one.</p>
+
+<p>Opinions differ as to the number of broods in a season;
+while the majority of observers assert that but one,
+a few others say that two, are usually raised. The eggs
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+vary in number from one to two in a set, and incubation
+lasts from eighteen to twenty days, both sexes assisting.
+These eggs are pure white in color, slightly glossy, and
+usually elliptical oval in shape; some may be called
+broad elliptical oval.</p>
+
+<p>The average measurements of twenty specimens in
+the U. S. National Museum collection is 37.5 by 26.5
+millimetres. The largest egg measures 39.5 by 28.5,
+the smallest 33.5 by 26 millimetres.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2">Netting the Pigeons</p>
+
+<p class="caption3 pmb2">By William Brewster, from "The Auk,"<br />
+a Quarterly Journal of Ornithology, October, 1889.</p>
+
+<div class="dropcap">I</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">I</span>N the spring of 1888 my friend, Captain Bendire,
+wrote to me that he had received news from a
+correspondent in central Michigan to the effect
+that wild pigeons had arrived there in large numbers
+and were preparing to nest. Acting on this information
+I started at once, in company with Mr. Jonathan
+Dwight, Jr., to visit the expected "nesting" and
+learn as much as possible about the habits of the
+breeding birds, as well as to secure specimens of their
+skins and eggs.</p>
+
+<p>.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Pigeon netting in Michigan is conducted as
+follows: Each netter has three beds; at least two, and
+sometimes as many as ten "strikes" are made on a single
+bed in one day, but the bed is often allowed to "rest"
+for a day or two. Forty or fifty dozen birds are a good
+haul for one "strike." Often only ten or twelve dozen
+are taken. Mr. Stevens' highest "catch" is eighty-six
+dozen, but once he saw one hundred and six dozen captured
+at a single "strike." If too large a number are
+on the bed, they will sometimes raise the net bodily and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
+escape. Usually about one-third are too quick for the
+net and fly out before it falls. Two kinds of beds are
+used, the "mud" bed and the "dry" bed. The former
+is the most killing in Michigan, but, for unknown reason,
+it will not attract birds in Wisconsin.</p>
+
+<p>It is made of mud, kept in a moist condition and
+saturated with a mixture of saltpeter and anise seed.
+Pigeons are very fond of salt and resort to salt springs
+wherever they occur. The dry bed is simply a level
+space of ground carefully cleared of grass, weeds, etc.,
+and baited with corn or other grain. Pigeons are peculiar,
+and their habits must be studied by the netter if
+he would be successful. When they are feeding on
+beech mast, they often will not touch grain of any kind,
+and the mast must be used for bait.</p>
+
+<p>A stool bird is an essential part of the netter's outfit.
+It is tied on a box, and by an ingenious arrangement
+of cords, by which it can be gently raised or lowered,
+is made to flap its wings at intervals. This attracts the
+attention of passing birds which alight on the nearest
+tree, or on a perch which is usually provided for that
+purpose. After a portion of the flock has descended
+to the bed, they are started up by "raising" the stool
+bird, and fly back to the perch. When they fly down a
+second time all or nearly all the others follow or
+accompany them and the net is "struck."</p>
+
+<p>The usual method of killing pigeons is to break
+their necks with a small pair of pincers, the ends of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+which are bent so that they do not quite meet. Great
+care must be taken not to shed blood on the bed, for
+the pigeons notice this at once and are much alarmed
+by it. Young birds can be netted in wheat stubble
+in the autumn, but this is seldom attempted. When
+just able to fly, however, they are caught in enormous
+numbers near the "nestings" in pens made of slats. A
+few dozen old pigeons are confined in the pens as decoys,
+and a net is thrown over the mouth of the pen when a
+sufficient number of young birds have entered it.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Stevens has known over four hundred dozen
+young pigeons to be taken at once by this method. The
+first birds sent to market yield the netter about one
+dollar a dozen. At the height of the season the price
+sometimes falls as low as twelve cents a dozen. It
+averages about twenty-five cents.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2">Efforts to Check the Slaughter</p>
+
+<p class="caption3 pmb2">By Prof. H. B. Roney, East Saginaw, Mich.</p>
+
+<p class="smaller">The following article appeared in "American Field," of Chicago, Jan.
+11, 1879. Parts omitted here referred to an ineffectual attempt on the part
+of the Saginaw and Bay City Game Protection Clubs to put a stop to the
+illegal netting and shooting of pigeons. The Michigan law was a bungling
+piece of business, working rather in the interest of the netters than of the
+birds. Prof. Roney and Mr. McLean accompanied the two representatives
+of the Game Protective Clubs sent North on this mission. I make this
+explanation as certain parts of the article I reproduce would otherwise not
+be as well understood.</p>
+
+
+<div class="dropcap">F</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">F</span>OR many years Passenger Pigeon nestings have
+been established in Michigan, and by a noticeable
+concurrence, only in even alternate years,
+as follows: 1868, 1870, 1872, 1874, 1876, 1878. In
+1876 there were no less than three nestings in the State,
+one each in Newaygo, Oceana, and Grand Traverse
+counties.</p>
+
+<p>Large numbers of professional "pigeoners," as they
+term themselves, devote their whole time to the business
+of following up and netting wild pigeons for gain and
+profit. These men carefully study the habits and direction
+of flight of the birds, and in the spring of the
+year can tell with considerable accuracy in about what
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+locality a nesting is to form. The indications are soon
+known throughout the fraternity and the gathering of
+the clans commences. The netters follow up the pigeons
+in their flight for hundreds of miles. The past year
+there have been nestings in Pennsylvania, Ohio and
+Michigan, though in the former two States they were of
+short duration, as they soon broke up and the birds
+turned their flight to the northwest. The flight of a
+pigeon is, under favorable conditions, sixty to ninety
+miles an hour, and these birds of passage leaving the
+Pennsylvania forests at daybreak can reach the Michigan
+nesting grounds by sunset.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the little travellers came from the westward,
+crossing the stormy waters of the lake with the speed
+of a dart. From the four quarters of the globe, seemingly,
+they gather. Over the mountains, lakes, rivers,
+and prairies they speed their aërial flight, through
+storm, in sunshine and rain. Actuated as if by a common
+impulse toward the same object, their swift wings
+soon reach the summer nursery, to which they are
+drawn from points hundreds of miles distant by an instinct
+which surpasses human comprehension.</p>
+
+<p>No less remarkable is the wisdom with which the
+nesting places are chosen, they being always in the
+densest woods, not in large and heavy timber, but generally
+in smaller trees with many branches, cedars, and
+saplings. The presence of large quantities of mast,
+which is the principal food of these birds, especially
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+beech nuts, is a prominent consideration in the selection
+of a nesting ground. As the feed in the vicinity of the
+nesting becomes exhausted, the birds are compelled to
+go daily farther and farther for food, even as high
+as seventy-five or one hundred miles, and these trips,
+which are taken twice a day, are known as the morning
+and evening flights.</p>
+
+<p>The apparatus for the capture of wild pigeons consists
+of a net about six feet wide and twenty to thirty
+feet long. The operator first chooses the location for
+setting his net, which, it is needless to add, is in utter
+disregard of the State law, which prescribes certain
+limits within which nets must not be placed. A bed of
+a creek or low marshy spot is chosen, if possible at a
+natural salt lick, or a bed of muck, upon which the
+birds feed. The ground is cleared of grass and weeds,
+and to allure the birds the bed is "baited" with salt and
+sulphur several days before the net is to be placed. A
+bough house is made about twenty feet from the end of
+the bed, and all is ready for the net and its victims. A
+bird discovers the tempting spot, and with the instinct
+of the honey-bee, returns and brings several others,
+while these in turn bring a multitude, and in less than
+two days the bed is fairly blue with birds feeding on
+the seasoned muck.</p>
+
+<p>The net is then set by an adjustment of ropes and a
+powerful spring pole, the net being laid along one side
+of the bed, and the operator retires to his bough house,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+through which the ropes run, where he waits concealed
+for the flights.</p>
+
+<p>Many trappers use two nets ranged along opposite
+sides of the bed, which are thrown toward each other
+and meet in the center. When enough birds are gathered
+upon the beds to make a profitable throw, the
+operator gives a quick jerk upon the rope, the net flies
+over in an instant, while in its meshes struggle hundreds
+of unwilling prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>After pinching their necks the trapper removes the
+dead victims, resets the trap, and is ready for another
+haul. To lure down the birds from their flight overhead,
+most netters use "fliers" or "stool-pigeons." The
+former are birds held captive by a cord, tied to the leg,
+being thrown up into the air when a flight is observed
+approaching, and drawn fluttering down when the
+"flier" has reached its limit. The latter is a live pigeon
+tied to a small circular framework of wood or wire
+attached to the end of a slender and elastic pole, which
+is raised and lowered by the trapper from his place of
+concealment by a stout cord and which causes constant
+fluttering. A good stool-pigeon (one which will stay
+upon the stool) is rather difficult to obtain, and is worth
+from $5 to $25. Many trappers use the same birds
+for several years in succession.</p>
+
+<p>The number of pigeons caught in a day by an expert
+trapper will seem incredible to one who has not witnessed
+the operation. A fair average is sixty to ninety
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+dozen birds per day per net and some trappers will
+not spring a net upon less than ten dozen birds. Higher
+figures than these are often reached, as in the case of
+one trapper who caught and delivered 2,000 dozen
+pigeons in ten days, being 200 dozen, or about 2,500
+birds per day. A double net has been known to catch
+as high as 1,332 birds at a single throw, while at natural
+salt licks, their favorite resort, 300 and 400 dozen, or
+about 5,000 birds have been caught in a single day by
+one net.</p>
+
+<p>The prices of dead birds range from thirty-five cents
+to forty cents per dozen at the nesting. In Chicago
+markets fifty to sixty cents. Squabs twelve cents per
+dozen in the woods, in metropolitan markets sixty cents
+to seventy cents. In fashionable restaurants they are
+served as a delicious tid-bit at fancy prices. Live birds
+are worth at the trapper's net forty cents to sixty cents
+per dozen; in cities $1 to $2. It can thus be easily seen
+that the business, when at all successful, is a very profitable
+one, for from the above quotations a pencil will
+quickly figure out an income of $10 to $40 per day for
+the "poor and hard-working pigeon trapper." One
+"pigeoner" at the Petoskey nesting was reported to be
+worth $60,000, all made in that business. He must
+have slain at least three million pigeons to gain this
+amount of money.</p>
+
+<p>For several years violations of the laws protecting
+pigeons in brooding time have been notorious in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>
+Michigan nestings. Professional "pigeoners" did not
+for an instant pretend to observe the law, and a lax and
+indifferent public opinion permitted the illegal slaughter
+to go on without let or hindrance, while itinerant
+pigeon trappers from all parts of the United States,
+grew rich at the expense of the commonwealth, and in
+intentional violation of its laws. Each succeeding year
+the news has been spread far and wide until it became
+useless to conceal the fact that pigeon trapping was a
+profitable business, the year of 1876 witnessing a magnitude
+in the traffic which exceeded anything heretofore
+known in the country.</p>
+
+<p>In the early part of March last, a pigeon nesting
+formed just north of Petoskey, Michigan. Not many
+days had passed before information was conveyed to
+the game protection clubs of East Saginaw and Bay
+City, that enormous quantities of pigeons were being
+killed in open and defiant violation of the law. On
+reaching Petoskey we found the condition of affairs had
+not been magnified; indeed, it exceeded our gravest
+fears. Here, a few miles north, was a pigeon nesting
+of irregular dimensions, estimated by those best qualified
+to judge, to be forty (40) miles in length, by three
+to ten in width, probably the largest nesting that has
+ever existed in the United States, covering something
+like 100,000 acres of land, and including not less than
+150,000 acres within its limits.</p>
+
+<p>At the hotel we met one we were glad to see, in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+person of "Uncle Len" Jewell, of Bay City, an old
+woodsman and "land-looker." Len had for several
+weeks been looking land in the upper peninsula, and was
+on his return home. At our solicitation he agreed to
+remain for two or three days, and co-operate with us.
+In the village nothing else seemed to be thought of but
+pigeons. It was the one absorbing topic everywhere.
+The "pigeoners" hurried hither and thither, comparing
+market reports, and soliciting the latest quotations on
+"squabs." A score of hands in the packing-houses were
+kept busy from daylight until dark. Wagon load after
+wagon load of dead and live birds hauled up to the
+station, discharged their freight, and returned to the
+nesting for more. The freight house was filled with
+the paraphernalia of the pigeon hunter's vocation, while
+every train brought acquisitions to their numbers, and
+scores of nets, stool-pigeons, etc.</p>
+
+<p>The pigeoners were everywhere. They swarmed in
+the hotels, postoffice, and about the streets. They
+were there, as careful inquiry and the hotel registers
+showed, from New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania,
+Michigan, Maryland, Iowa, Virginia, Ohio, Texas,
+Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, and Missouri.</p>
+
+<p>Hiring a team, we started on a tour of investigation
+through the nesting. Long before reaching it our course
+was directed by the birds over our heads, flying back
+and forth to their feeding grounds. After riding about
+fifteen miles, we discovered a wagon-track leading into
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+the woods, in the direction of the bird sounds which
+came to our ears. Three of the party left the wagon
+and followed it; the twittering grew louder and louder,
+the birds more numerous, and in a few minutes we were
+in the midst of that marvel of the forest and Nature's
+wonderland&mdash;the pigeon nesting.</p>
+
+<p>We stood and gazed in bewilderment upon the scene
+around and above us. Was it indeed a fairyland we
+stood upon, or did our eyes deceive us. On every hand,
+the eye would meet these graceful creatures of the forest,
+which, in their delicate robes of blue, purple and
+brown, darted hither and thither with the quickness of
+thought. Every bough was bending under their weight,
+so tame one could almost touch them, while in every
+direction, crossing and recrossing, the flying birds drew
+a network before the dizzy eyes of the beholder, until
+he fain would close his eyes to shut out the bewildering
+scene.</p>
+
+<p>This portion of the nesting was the first formed, and
+the young birds were just ready to leave the nests.
+Scarcely a tree could be seen but contained from five
+to fifty nests, according to its size and branches.
+Directed by the noise of chopping and falling trees,
+we followed on, and soon came upon the scene of
+action.</p>
+
+<p>Here was a large force of Indians and boys at work,
+slashing down the timber and seizing the young birds
+as they fluttered from the nest. As soon as caught, the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+heads were jerked off from the tender bodies with the
+hand, and the dead birds tossed into heaps. Others
+knocked the young fledglings out of the nests with long
+poles, their weak and untried wings failing to carry them
+beyond the clutches of the assistant, who, with hands
+reeking with blood and feathers, tears the head off the
+living bird, and throws its quivering body upon the
+heap.</p>
+
+<p>Thousands of young birds lay among the ferns and
+leaves dead, having been knocked out of the nests by
+the promiscuous tree-slashing, and dying for want of
+nourishment and care, which the parent birds, trapped
+off by the netter, could not give. The squab-killers
+stated that "about one-half of the young birds in the
+nests they found dead," owing to the latter reason.
+Every available Indian, man and boy, in the neighborhood
+was in the employ of buyers and speculators, killing
+squabs, for which they received a cent apiece.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the morning, Len, with his land-looker's
+pack and half-ax, and the writer, started out to "look
+land." Taking the course indicated by the obliging
+small boy, we soon struck into an old Indian trail which
+led us through another portion of the nesting, where
+the birds for countless numbers surpassed all calculation.
+The chirping and noise of wings were deafening and
+conversation, to be audible, had to be carried on at the
+top of our voices. On the shores of the lake where
+the birds go to drink, when flushed by an intruder, the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+rush of wings of the gathered millions was like the roar
+of thunder and perfectly indescribable. An hour's
+walk brought us to a ravine which we cautiously
+approached.</p>
+
+<p>Directed by the commotion in the air, we soon discovered
+the bough house and net of the trapper. Evidence
+being what we sought, we stood concealed behind
+some bushes to await the spring of the trap. The
+black muck bed soon became blue and purple with
+pigeons lured by the salt and sulphur, when suddenly
+the net was sprung over with a "whiz," retaining hundreds
+of birds beneath it, while those outside its limits
+flew to adjacent trees. We now descended from the
+brink of the hill to the net, and there beheld a sickening
+sight not soon forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>On one side of the bed of a little creek was spread
+the net, a double one, covering an area when thrown,
+of about ten by twenty feet. Through its meshes were
+stretched the heads of the fluttering captives vainly
+struggling to escape. In the midst of them stood a
+stalwart pigeoner up to his knees in the mire and
+bespattered with mud and blood from head to foot.
+Passing from bird to bird, with a pair of blacksmith's
+pincers, he gave the neck of each a cruel grip with his
+remorseless weapon, causing the blood to burst from
+the eyes and trickle down the beak of the helpless captive,
+which slowly fluttered its life away, its beautiful
+plumage besmeared with filth and its bed dyed with its
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+crimson blood. When all were dead, the net was raised,
+many still clinging to its meshes with beak and claws in
+their death grip and were shaken off. They were then
+gathered, counted, deposited behind a log with many
+others and covered with bushes, and the death trap set
+for another harvest.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely able to conceal our indignation, we sat upon
+the bank and questioned this hero, learning that he had
+pursued the business for years, and had caught as high
+as 87 dozen in one day, learning later that he caught
+and killed upon that day, 82 dozen, or 984 birds. This
+outrage was perpetrated within 100 rods of the nests
+and in plain hearing of the nesting sounds, instead of
+two miles away, as the law prescribes. After gaining
+some further information, the old gray-headed land-looker
+and his companion withdrew, bidding the pigeon
+pirate good-day, and leaving him none the wiser for
+the visit. Out of sight we worked our way back to
+the road, overtook the stage and returned to Petoskey.
+The next day the writer swore out a warrant and caused
+the arrest of the offender, who could not do otherwise
+than plead guilty, and had the satisfaction of seeing
+him pay over his fine of $50 for his poor knowledge
+of distances.</p>
+
+<p>The shooting done at the nesting was in the most
+flagrant violation of the protective laws. The five-mile
+limit was a dead letter. The shotgun brigade went
+where they listed, and shot the birds in the nesting as
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+they sat in rows on the trees or passed in clouds overhead.
+Before we arrived, a party of four men shot
+826 birds in one day and then only stopping from sheer
+fatigue. Other parties continued the fusillade until the
+guns became so foul they could not be used, and would
+return to the village with a wagon-box full of birds.
+Scores of dead pigeons were left on the grounds to
+decay, and the woods were full of wounded ones. H.
+Frayer, a justice of the peace, informed us that a few
+days previously he had picked up fifteen maimed birds,
+his neighbor, a Mr. Green, twenty, and a Mr. Crossman,
+thirty-six, all in one day, after a shooting party
+had passed through.</p>
+
+<p>The news of the formation of the nesting was not
+long in reaching the various Indian settlements near
+Petoskey, and the aborigines came in tens and fifties and
+in hordes. Some were armed with guns, but the
+majority were provided with powerful bows, and arrows
+with round, flat heads two or three inches in diameter.
+With these they shot under or into the nests, knocked
+out the squabs to the ground, and raked the old birds
+which loaded the branches. For miles the roads leading
+to the nesting were swarming with Indians, big and little,
+old and young, squaws, pappooses, bucks and young
+braves, on ponies, in carts and on foot. Each family
+brought its kit of cooking utensils, axes, a stock of provisions,
+tubs, barrels and firkins to pack the birds in, and
+came intending to carry on the business until the nesting
+broke up. In some sections the woods were literally
+full of them.</p>
+
+<div id="fp88" class="figcenter" style="width: 385px;">
+<img src="images/fp_088.png" width="385" height="561" alt="" />
+<p class="fig_title">UPPER SPECIMEN, PASSENGER PIGEON (<i>Ectopistes Migratoria</i>)<br />
+LOWER SPECIMEN, MOURNING DOVE (<i>Zenaidura Macroura</i>)</p>
+
+<p class="fig_caption">Frequently mistaken for Passenger Pigeon</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>With the aid of Sheriff Ingalls, who spoke their language
+like a native, we one day drove over 400 Indians
+out of the nesting, and their retreat back to their farms
+would have rivaled Bull Run. Five hundred more
+were met on the road to the nesting and turned back.
+The number of pigeons these two hordes would have
+destroyed would have been incalculable. Noticing a
+handsome bow in the hands of a young Indian, who
+proved to a son of the old chief, Petoskey, a piece of
+silver caused its transfer to us, with the remark, "Keene,
+kensau, mene sic" (now you can go and shoot pigeons),
+which dusky joke seemed to be appreciated by the rest
+of the young chief's companions.</p>
+
+<p>There are in the United States about 5,000 men who
+pursue pigeons year after year as a business. Pigeon
+hunters with whom we conversed incognito stated that
+of this number there were between 400 and 500 at the
+Petoskey nesting plying their vocation with as many
+nests, and more arriving upon every train from all parts
+of the United States. When it is remembered that
+the village was alive with pigeoners, that nearly every
+house in the vast area of territory covered by the nesting
+sheltered one to six pigeon men, and that many
+camped out in the woods, the figures will not seem
+improbable. Every homesteader in the country who
+owned or could hire an ox team or pair of horses, was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+engaged in hauling birds to Petoskey for shipment, for
+which they received $4 per wagon load. To "keep
+peace in the family" and avoid complaint, the pigeon
+men fitted up many of the settlers with nets, and instructed
+them in the art of trapping.</p>
+
+<p>Added to these were the buyers, shippers, packers,
+Indians and boys, making not less than 2,000 persons
+(some placed it at 2,500) engaged in the traffic at this
+one nesting. Fully fifty teams were engaged in hauling
+birds to the railroad station. The road was carpeted
+with feathers, and the wings and feathers from the
+packing-houses were used by the wagon load to fill up
+the mud holes in the road for miles out of town. For
+four men to attempt to effect a work, having for opponents
+the entire country, residents and non-residents
+included, was no slight task.</p>
+
+<p>The majority of the pigeoners were a reckless, hard
+set of men, but their repeated threats that they would
+"buckshot us" if we interfered with them in the woods
+failed to inspire the awe that was intended. It was
+four against 2,000. What was accomplished against
+such fearful odds may be seen by the following:</p>
+
+<p>The regular shipments by rail before the party commenced
+operations were sixty barrels per day. On the
+16th of April, just after our arrival, they fell to thirty-five
+barrels, and on the 17th down to twenty barrels
+per day, while on the 22d the shipments were only eight
+barrels of pigeons. On the Sunday previous there were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+shipped by steamer to Chicago 128 barrels of dead birds
+and 108 crates of live birds. On the next Sabbath
+following our arrival the shipments were only forty-three
+barrels and fifty-two crates. Thus it will be seen
+that some little good was accomplished, but that little
+was included in a very few days of the season, for the
+treasury of the home clubs would not admit of keeping
+their representatives longer at the nesting, the State
+clubs, save one, did not respond to the call for assistance,
+and the men were recalled, after which the Indians
+went back into the nesting, and the wanton crusade was
+renewed by pigeoners and all hands with an energy which
+indicated a determination to make up for lost time.</p>
+
+<p>The first shipment of birds from Petoskey was upon
+March 22, and the last upon August 12, making over
+twenty weeks, or five months, that the bird war was
+carried on. For many weeks the railroad shipments
+averaged fifty barrels of dead birds per day&mdash;thirty
+to forty dozen old birds and about fifty dozen squabs
+being packed in a barrel. Allowing 500 birds to a
+barrel, and averaging the entire shipments for the
+season at twenty-five barrels per day, we find the rail
+shipments to have been 12,500 dead birds daily, or
+1,500,000 for the summer. Of live birds there were
+shipped 1,116 crates, six dozen per crate, or 80,352
+birds.</p>
+
+<p>These were the rail shipments only, and not including
+the cargoes by steamers from Petoskey, Cheboygan,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+Cross Village and other lake ports, which were as many
+more. Added to this were the daily express shipments
+in bags and boxes, the wagon loads hauled away by the
+shotgun brigade, the thousands of dead and wounded
+ones not secured, and the myriads of squabs dead in the
+nest by trapping off of the parent birds soon after hatching
+(for a young pigeon will surely die if deprived of
+its parents during the first week of its life), and we
+have at the lowest possible estimate a grand total of
+1,000,000,000 pigeons sacrificed to Mammon during
+the nesting of 1878.</p>
+
+<p>The task undertaken in behalf of justice and humanity
+was a Herculean one, but backed up by such true
+sportsmen as A. H. Mershon and Wm. J. Loveland,
+of East Saginaw, and Judge Holmes, S. A. Van Dusen,
+D. H. Fitzhugh, Jr., and others of Bay City, as well
+as by the sentiment of every humane citizen of the State,
+we could not do other than follow the advice of Davy
+Crockett, and being sure we were right, we decided to
+"go ahead." The question of a wise protection to the
+game and fish of our State is one in which the writer
+holds a deep and fervent interest, and in serving this
+cause, he will swerve from no duty, nor shrink from
+consequences in the discharge of that duty.</p>
+
+<p>The foregoing article is the result of an honest conviction
+that the best interests of the State demanded a
+full exposure of the methods by which the pigeon is
+threatened with extinction.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<div id="fp92" class="figcenter" style="width: 391px;">
+<img src="images/fp_092.png" width="391" height="633" alt="" />
+
+<p class="center smaller"><a href="#Transcription">Click here for tanscription.</a></p>
+
+<p class="center">Fac-simile reproduction of circular, issued 1879, showing E. T. Martin's pigeon
+headquarters at Boyne Falls, Mich.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2">The Pigeon Butcher's Defense</p>
+
+<p class="caption3 pmb2">By E. T. Martin, from the "American Field,"<br />
+Chicago, January 25, 1879.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>The preceding chapter by Prof. H. B. Roney in <i>American Field</i>, was
+answered by E. T. Martin, a game dealer of Chicago, who afterwards issued
+a pamphlet, the first page of which is herewith reproduced, and I make
+quite extensive extracts from the body of the circular, which incidentally
+advertises Martin as "the largest dealer in live pigeons for trap shooting
+in the world, also a dealer in guns, glass balls, traps, nets, etc."</p>
+
+<p>I call the reader's attention to the following:</p>
+
+<p>In the table given of the shipments from Petoskey and Boyne Falls,
+etc., during 1878, Martin estimates the number shipped alive from
+Cheboygan as 89,730, yet H. T. Phillips of Detroit, shows from his
+records that he alone shipped from that point 175,000 that year. So if
+Martin's estimates are all as far wrong as this one, he should account for
+a total shipment of over 2,000,000 pigeons.</p>
+
+<p>In Martin's circular, he seems to take offense at some remarks Prof.
+Roney has made in this article that reflect upon the character of these
+netters, for Martin uses in quotation marks the following: "A reckless,
+hard set of men, pirates, etc.," which seems to have some foundation in fact,
+as Martin says: "In proof of the pigeons feeding squab indiscriminately,
+I may mention the fact that one of the men in my employ this year, while
+at the Shelby nesting in 1876 in one afternoon shot and killed six hen
+pigeons that came to feed the one squab in the same nest." Further
+comment is unnecessary.&mdash;W. B. M.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="dropcap">A</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">A</span> LITTLE after the middle of March a body
+of birds began nesting some twelve miles north
+of Petoskey, near Pickerel Lake. About April
+8 another and larger body "set in" along Maple and
+Indian Rivers, and Burt Lake, and near Cross Village,
+there being in all some seven or eight distinct nestings,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+covering perhaps, of territory actually occupied by the
+nesting, a tract some fifteen miles long and three of
+average width, or forty-five square miles.</p>
+
+<p>The principal catch was made from the Crooked
+and Maple rivers nestings, and when the former
+"broke," which was about May 25, the pigeoners
+pulled up and left, many going home, and others to
+the Boyne Falls nesting, some thirty miles south, which
+"set in" at about the same time. This gave a duration of
+two and one-third months to the Petoskey nesting proper,
+though it is true that, feed being abundant, some very
+few birds remained around, roosting for a little longer.</p>
+
+<p>The Boyne Falls nesting lasted something over a
+month and broke early in July; from this the catch was
+very light. After that, the only catch was a few young
+birds taken "on bait."</p>
+
+<p>Besides these nestings, there was one further south
+on the Manistee River, some twenty-six miles long by
+five average width, or 130 square miles, in which the
+birds hatched three times, and from which not a bird
+was caught, as it was an impenetrable swamp, and the
+putting of birds on the market would be attended with
+such expense as to destroy the profit. There were also
+one or two smaller ones, east of this one. These comprised
+the Michigan nestings, in addition to which, at
+Sheffield, Pa., there was fully as large a body, and
+fully as large a catch as at the Crooked and Maple
+nestings, the birds hatching there, I think, three times,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+each hatching taking four weeks, from the beginning of
+nest building to the time the old birds leave the young.</p>
+
+<p>It is true, however, that birds were shipped from
+Petoskey the middle of August, but they were birds
+belonging to me that I was holding there for a market,
+my Chicago pens being full. Every bird of them had
+been in my possession for a month previous, and many
+for six weeks. So the actual pigeon business lasted not
+five months, as Prof. Roney says, but about three; part
+of which time the total catch was not fifty dozen per
+day.</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:3em">* * * * *</p>
+
+<p>They (Prof. Roney et al.) came to Petoskey with a
+great flourish of trumpets, hired expensive livery rigs
+to ride around the country in, made one or two arrests,
+secured one conviction by default, were defeated in
+every case that came to trial, had one of the party play
+the rôle of "terrible example" in the trout case, and
+then went home, and in the face of the fact that they
+had eaten, or known of having been eaten, hundreds of
+pigeons, and of the certainty that the report was false,
+had published in the Saginaw paper a report that the
+pigeons then being caught in Michigan were feeding on
+poisoned berries, and the using them for food had
+caused much sickness, and in one or two instances loss
+of life.</p>
+
+<p>This was not only published in the home papers, but
+was telegraphed to New York, Boston, Chicago, St.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+Louis and Cincinnati, and marked copies of the notice
+sent to the press of neighboring cities, the avowed object
+being to cause such a decline in price as to force the
+netters to quit. It was based on the idea that most of
+them were men of small means, and that unless ready
+market offered for their birds, they must give out. The
+effect was to cause a drop in price of fifty cents a dozen
+in New York and Boston in a single day, to cause the
+price in Chicago to decline to twenty cents per dozen,
+and to take the last cent out of the pockets of a hundred
+netters, leaving many who became discouraged and had
+to walk long distances to their homes, dependent on
+chance for even a mouthful to eat. Many, though,
+held out. Telegrams of denial were sent, and the market
+in a week or two rallied somewhat, though it was a
+month before prices in the East touched the same figure
+as when the "poison-berry" telegrams were received.
+During the week when prices were lowest I refused to
+buy many dead birds offered me at five cents per dozen,
+preferring to lend the netter money, or to advance it
+on his next catch to be saved alive.</p>
+
+<p>And, by the way, let me say that killing the pigeons
+by pincers is an instantaneous and painless death, the
+neck being broken by a single movement, and the fluttering
+spoken of being the same seen in any bird shot
+through the head, or with the head cut off. But had
+the market remained unbroken, had this infamous poisoned
+berry story never been started, no such net results
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+in way of profit would have been reached as Prof.
+Roney says. Under very favorable circumstances, a
+good netter in such a season as we had in 1878, would
+make from $100 to $200, but by far the larger portion
+would not reach $100 over expenses.</p>
+
+<p>At the Crooked and Maple nestings day in and day
+out the average catch was about twenty dozen per day to
+each net and two men. These sold, except immediately
+after the "poisoned berry story," at from twenty to
+thirty cents per dozen head, at the net, or if the catcher
+was saving alive, in which case his catch would be one-third
+smaller, owing to the trouble of handling the live
+birds, he would get from thirty-five to forty-five cents.</p>
+
+<p>The principal object in saving them alive was that no
+birds spoiled from warm weather, and at my pens close
+by the nesting they would be received at any hour, while
+to sell dead birds it was necessary to depend on some
+chance buyer or to haul to Petoskey, fourteen miles distant.
+At Boyne Falls prices were a little higher, say
+twenty-five for dead and fifty cents for live, but the
+average catch was not five dozen per day to each net.
+There were exceptions both ways, which went of course
+to make up the average, the most notable being that of
+the 2,000 dozen caught by one party, not in ten days,
+but in twenty, employing two nets and six men. This
+I know, for I was at the net and saw part of the catching,
+while Prof. Roney never got that far. This 2,000
+dozen was shipped East and netted the catchers just
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+fifteen cents a dozen at the net, or $300 for twenty days'
+work for six men and two nets, while on the other
+hand, during the same time, many better catchers who
+had not been lucky in location hadn't made enough to
+pay for board. Names, locations, etc., can be furnished
+if Prof. Roney desires.</p>
+
+<p>The Professor then goes on to lament his failure
+before our Emmett County jury. The reason why is
+very simple, <i>he never proved his case</i>. This whole
+pigeon trade was a perfect Godsend to a large portion
+of Emmett County. The land outside of Petoskey is
+taken up by homesteaders, who, between clearing their
+land, scanty crops, poor soil, large families, and small
+capital, are poorer than Job's turkey's prodigal son,
+and in years past have had all they could do fighting
+famine and cold, and but a year or so since all Michigan
+was sending relief to keep them from starving, thousands
+of dollars being contributed, and then most harrowing
+tales being told of need and destitution.</p>
+
+<p>The "pirates and bummers" left some $35,000 in
+good greenbacks right among the most needy of these
+people. Many were enabled to buy a team, others to
+clear more land, more to increase their crops, and all
+to lay in provisions and clothing to meet the bitter
+winter we are now passing through, and this money did
+more to open up Emmett County than years of ordinary
+work. It put scores of honest, hard-working homesteaders
+on their feet; it increased trade, and, if sent
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+by a special act of Providence, could not have done
+more good. Such being the case, can any blame be
+given an Emmett County jury if they required evidence
+direct and to the point before convicting? And in no
+case that came to trial was direct evidence given. So
+the four true "sportsmen" there in behalf of justice and
+humanity, had such a cold reception from all, that they
+concluded strategy beat that kind of work all to death,
+pulled up stakes and hurried home, and worked up the
+poisoned berry business.</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:3em">* * * * *</p>
+
+<p>Now, about the merciless slaughter. Prof. Roney
+estimates 1,500,000 dead and 80,000 live birds as the
+shipments, and then goes on to say that <i>one billion</i>
+birds have been destroyed! What logic.</p>
+
+<p>I have official figures before me, and they show that
+the shipments from Petoskey and Boyne Falls were:</p>
+
+<table summary="bird shipments">
+<tr>
+  <td style="width:18em">Petoskey, dead, by express</td>
+  <td class="tdr">490,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Petoskey, alive, by express</td>
+  <td class="tdr">86,400</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Boyne Falls, dead</td>
+  <td class="tdr">47,100</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Boyne Falls, alive</td>
+  <td class="tdr">42,696</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Petoskey, dead, by boat, estimated</td>
+  <td class="tdr">110,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Petoskey, alive, by boat, estimated</td>
+  <td class="tdr">33,640</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Cheboygan, dead, by boat, estimated</td>
+  <td class="tdr">108,300</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Cheboygan, alive, by boat, estimated</td>
+  <td class="tdr">89,730</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td>Other points, dead and alive, estimated</td>
+  <td class="bdb tdr">100,000</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td><span style="padding-left:4em;">Total</span></td>
+  <td class="tdr">1,107,866</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This may be set down as accurate or nearly so, and
+1,500,000 will cover the total destruction of birds by
+net, gun and Indians. The total number of nesting
+squabs taken by the Indians would not reach 100,000
+and not over fifty barrels of these ever reached a market,
+the Indians smoking the remainder for winter use. No
+one knows how many birds 1,500,000 are until they
+see them, and handle a few. As an illustration: To buy
+and sell 125,000 birds in four months, it took myself,
+two men and a boy all our time, working from daylight
+until after dark every day.</p>
+
+<p>I doubt if there were a billion birds in all the
+Crooked and Maple nestings. I am certain that there
+were not at any one time. I am also certain that more
+than double as many young birds left those nestings
+than all the birds caught, killed or destroyed. The
+morning that the Crooked nesting broke, I was out at
+daylight, and at the net to see and help one of my men
+make a strike; for an hour and a half a continuous
+body of birds half a mile wide and very thick was
+going out; our strike was twenty-nine dozen, twenty-five
+dozen young and four dozen old, about the same
+proportion as the other catchers. This showed that of
+the immense body over five-sixths were young birds,
+barely old enough ones remaining to guide the body of
+young, and this was out of the nesting from which the
+bulk of the birds had been caught, where the destruction
+had been the greatest. When it is considered that the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
+Manistee birds hatched three times unmolested, that
+there was a body several times larger there, than at
+the Crooked and Maple, and that many from each body
+went further north entirely out of reach and nested
+at least once, possibly twice again, some idea may be
+formed of the immense addition to the army of pigeons
+from the Michigan nestings of 1878. Many more
+young birds left the Crooked River nesting alone, than
+all, old or young, destroyed during the entire season's
+pigeoning.</p>
+
+<p>Prof. Roney's lament about the young dying when
+deprived of the parent bird, and his addition to the
+number "sacrificed to Mammon" from that source,
+compares favorably with the poisoned berry story,
+or the attack on Turner. Admitting that 1,500,000
+birds were caught and killed, not more than half of
+these would be old birds, some of which would not be
+nesting, and from some of which the young had left
+the nest. If for every one of the 750,000 old birds
+caught and killed, the squab had died, this would make
+a total slaughter of 2,250,000, or about one four hundred
+and fiftieth of the number he says.</p>
+
+<p>I don't believe Prof. Roney knows what a billion is.
+However, there were not 750,000, no, nor 100,000
+squabs killed by losing their parents. It is a well-proved
+fact that the old bird coming in will stop and
+feed any squab heard crying for food, that in this way
+they look out for one another's young, and the orphans
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+or half-orphans are cared for. It is rare, however, for
+both old birds to be caught or killed, since the toms
+and hens when nesting always fly separately, and the
+chance of both the parents of the squab falling a "victim
+to Mammon," particularly in a large nesting, is small.
+As proof of the pigeons feeding squabs indiscriminately,
+I may mention that one of the men in my employ this
+year, at the Shelby nesting in 1876, in one afternoon
+shot and killed six hen pigeons that came to <i>feed</i> the
+<i>one squab</i> in the <i>same nest</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:3em">* * * * *</p>
+
+<p>Why, Prof. Roney, the catch went on all the same,
+your party made no difference of note, but the weather
+was rough and somewhat stormy; the birds didn't
+"stool" well, and during the days mentioned the catch
+was very small, hence the decrease in shipments. Now,
+regarding the law, it is well enough as it is; one shotgun
+near a nesting is more destructive than a dozen
+nets; the report of the gun causes the birds to rise in
+thousands, and, when repeated, to leave in a body,
+regardless of nest or squab, and never to return; as an
+example, may be mentioned, the Minnesota nesting of
+1877, when the birds were driven entirely away.</p>
+
+<p>The net is silent; its work occasions no alarm; it
+makes no cripples, consequently it can be admitted
+nearer to the nests than its more noisy partner. Protect
+the pigeons entirely, and a law forbidding catching during
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
+nesting time is equivalent to entire protection, and
+you have northern Michigan overrun with a pest that
+will destroy the farmer's seed as fast as sown, and when
+harvest time approaches, pounce upon a wheat field
+ready for the reaper and in an hour not leave even
+enough for the gleaner. Their increase would be more
+rapid, their stay longer, and in four years not only
+would the law be repealed, but inducements to slaughter
+would be held out to rid the State of the rapidly increasing
+and destructive pests.</p>
+
+<p>The pigeon never will be exterminated so long as
+forests large enough for their nestings and mast enough
+for their food remain.</p>
+
+<p>In conclusion, the pigeons are as much an article of
+commerce as wheat, corn, hogs, beeves, or sheep. It
+is no more cruel to kill them for market by the thousand,
+than it is to countenance the killing at the stock yards
+in this or any other large commercial center. The paper
+to-night shows that in six cities over four million hogs
+have been killed since Nov. 1, 1878, or two and a
+half months, a larger slaughter than, during the same
+time, of pigeons at the nestings by nearly threefold.
+Yet this is not "sacrificing to Mammon." A farmer
+can market his poultry dead or alive at any time of
+the year, and the slaughter, the country over, is larger
+than that of pigeons, yet no one in the interest of "justice
+and humanity" interferes.</p>
+
+<p>The pigeon is migratory, it can care for itself. It
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+nests in the impenetrable wilds of Arkansas, the Indian
+Territory, Canada and British America, as often as in
+the land of civilization where it can be reached for
+market. It is a source of profit to the poor, or pleasure
+to the rich. Its benefits to the Emmett County homesteaders,
+as felt through the cold of this winter alone,
+are enough to compensate for evils even as black as our
+Prof. Roney paints, and Emmett County is but a sample
+of whatever location the birds may settle in.</p>
+
+<p>Let the law, in regard to distance, stand as it is.
+Enforce it against all alike; make no exceptions; let
+the rule of supply and demand govern the catchings, and
+you will have something better than all the professors
+in Michigan suggest. Let the supply be so large that
+prices are low and wages can't be made, and law or no
+law, the catching will stop. But don't make a law that
+will take bread out of the homesteader's mouth, and
+work from hundreds of poor and honest men; no, not
+even if the birds should be sacrificed, to a certain extent,
+for man is above the beasts, and the "beasts of the field
+and the birds of the air" are given unto him for his
+benefit and his profit.</p>
+
+<div id="fp104" class="figcenter" style="width: 629px;">
+<img src="images/fp_104.png" width="629" height="493" alt="" />
+<p class="fig_title">H. T. PHILLIPS' STORE</p>
+<p class="fig_caption">A typical game store of the early 70's</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2 pmb2">Notes of a Vanished Industry</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>I have corresponded with many men who were actively interested in
+hunting and observing the Passenger Pigeon when its flocks still numbered
+uncounted millions of birds. Some of the data supplied in kind response
+to my queries is in the form of hastily jotted notes, which, when they are
+brought together, include more or less repetition of personal experiences.
+They have a certain value, however, when taken <i>en masse</i>, for they are the
+testimony of eye-witnesses who will soon be gone, after which the Passenger
+Pigeon will become as much a matter of written history and tradition
+as the auk or the buffalo.</p>
+
+<p>I am under obligation to Mr. Henry T. Phillips, of Detroit, for much
+practical information regarding the capture of pigeons, and the business of
+marketing them as he knew it in those earlier days. There follows a
+portion of a letter written me by Mr. Phillips in October, 1904.&mdash;W. B. M.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="dropcap">I</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">I</span> AM in receipt of your letter asking for information
+about the wild pigeon, but I do not know
+that I can be of much benefit to you, though I will
+give you what information I can.</p>
+
+<p>I began business in Cheboygan, Mich., in May,
+1862, as a dealer in groceries and produce and added
+the commission business a little later, as I was fond of
+shooting, and I began advertising the sale of game. I
+have been credited by dealers in New York with being
+the largest shipper of venison in the United States. In
+1864 (I think it was) I had a shipment of live wild
+pigeons which we brought down the Cheboygan River
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+from Black Lake in crates holding six dozen each. All
+of these crates were made by hand by one E. Osborn,
+who was then one of the traveling pigeon catchers, the
+firm being Osborn &amp; Thompson, well known by all men
+who traveled then. From that time I have handled live
+pigeons in quantities up to 175,000 per year until they
+left the country. The last nesting in Michigan was up
+on Crooked Lake near Petoskey in 1878, I believe, from
+which I shipped 150,000.</p>
+
+<p>In 1866, they nested in the town of Vassar, Tiscola
+County, Mich., and usually each alternate year, as
+the mast crop was every second season, beech nuts being
+their choice food. The other years they nested in Wisconsin
+on acorns, or in Minnesota, feeding on spring
+wheat. New York sometimes held them, and Pennsylvania
+often, for a nesting; but being a hard place they
+never caught many there, Michigan being the favorite
+trapping ground. 1874 there was a nesting at Shelby,
+Oceana County, Mich., on which it was estimated they
+made the heaviest catches I have ever known of: 100
+barrels daily on an average of thirty days of dead birds,
+besides the live ones, of which I shipped 175,000.</p>
+
+<p>There were five nestings that year in the State, three
+going on at the same time, but all not heavily worked.
+That year I shipped by the steamer <i>Fountain City</i>, from
+Frankfort, 478 coops, six dozen each, one shipment
+going to Oswego, N. Y., for the Leather Stocking Club
+Tournament.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I bought from Dr. Slyfield 600 dozen at $1 per
+dozen, agreeing to pay only in one-hundred-dollar bills.
+He traveled two days to get twelve dozen to make up
+the shortage. The pigeons at that time wintered in
+southern Missouri and the Indian Nation, and were
+shot at night by natives and marketed in St. Louis. As
+they fed on pine-oak acorns, which tainted the meat,
+the market was poor and prices low. The traveling
+netters usually worked at something else while South.</p>
+
+<p>The pigeons started north about the last of March,
+and usually located the last of May, according to
+weather. If food was plentiful they nested in large
+bodies; if not, they divided and nested in fewer numbers.
+In Wisconsin I have seen a continual nesting for
+100 miles, with from one to possibly fifty nests on every
+oak scrub.</p>
+
+<p>In Michigan usually the feeding grounds were across
+the straits, where blueberries were abundant, until fall,
+when the birds scattered back in small bodies, feeding
+on stubble and elm seed. Frequently they would
+go into a roosting place, and make it a home for weeks
+before leaving for the South. Traveling north, they
+usually flew until about ten or eleven in the morning
+and again in the evening. I have known of large quantities
+being drowned in Lake Huron, crossing from
+Canada on the way north, and have had lake captains
+tell me of passing for three hours through dead birds,
+which had been caught in a fog.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In 1874 there were over six hundred professional netters,
+and when the pigeons nested north, every man and
+woman was either a catcher or a picker. They used
+to catch them in different ways. What was known as
+flight-catching was in the early morning and evening, a
+spot being cleared of usually twelve to sixteen feet wide
+and twenty to twenty-four feet long, large enough for a
+net. This was known as the bed. About fifty feet from
+the bed a brush house was built and the net was staked
+down, two spring poles were set to spring the net out
+straight, but loose enough to fall easy and cover the
+full size of the bed. The front line of the net was tied
+to these stakes and they were sprung or set back as if
+all of the net was in a roll. A short stake with a line
+attached to the outside edge ran to the bough house, a
+stick about three feet long was placed under a catch
+called the hub, and the other end of this stick was placed
+against another peg driven in the ground. When the
+short stick was pulled from underneath the crotch, the
+spring poles forced the net over the bed; the short
+sticks raised the net about three feet; and of course it
+was all done very quickly.</p>
+
+<p>Another method was employed later in the season;
+a place was baited with buckwheat, sometimes with
+broomcorn seed, or wheat, for a week or two, and, when
+a large body of birds was collected, the net was set.
+A much larger net is used now. Then is when we got
+our live birds for shooting matches. In the spring
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+time is money, and the netters could save many more
+dead than alive.</p>
+
+<p>I knew of a man paying $300 for the privilege of
+netting on one salt spring near White River. It was a
+spring dug for oil, boarded up sixteen feet square. He
+cut it down a little and built a platform, and caught
+once or twice each week. He got 300 dozen at one
+haul in this house. He said they were piled there three
+feet deep.</p>
+
+<p>I once pulled a net on a bait bed and we saved
+132 dozen alive, but many got out from underneath the
+net, there being too many on the bed. The net used
+was 28 × 36 feet. I have lost 3,000 birds in one day
+because the railroad did not have a car ready on the
+date promised. I threw away what cost me $250 in
+eight hours, fat birds, because the weather was too
+hot. I have bought carloads in Wisconsin at 15 and 25
+cents per dozen, but in Michigan we usually paid from
+50 cents to $1 a dozen. I have fed thirty bushels of
+shelled corn daily at $1.20 per bushel, and paid out
+from $300 to $600 per day for pigeons.</p>
+
+<p>I never allowed game to be shipped to me out of
+season; if it came, I never paid for it.</p>
+
+<p>About two years ago I was told by a man who just
+got back from the Northwest, Calgary, that the birds
+were so thick in the north that they darkened the sun.
+They were probably nesting, as he said they were seen
+every morning.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Up to ten years ago I was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+shooting on the Mississippi bayous for twenty-five years,
+and used to see and kill some pigeons nearly every
+spring, from the middle of March to the middle of
+April. We have shot seventy-two pounds of powder in
+my camp in thirty days, the party consisting of three
+men; and two of us have killed twelve barrels of ducks
+(Mallards) in four days. On the Detroit River I have
+shot, in one week, mostly redheads, the following on
+different days: 102, 119, 142, 155.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</p>
+
+<p>[I have quoted from the latter part of Mr. Phillips'
+letter to show how plentiful other kinds of birds were
+in the old days.]</p>
+
+<p>Under date of Nov. 1, 1904, Mr. Phillips writes
+as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"In regard to dates, would say that the last nesting
+of birds set in at about 5 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span>, May 5, 1878, on the
+southeast side of Crooked Lake. Express charges on
+barrels to New York from Michigan were $6.50, from
+Wisconsin $8; on live birds $3 per cwt."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Phillips also incloses a letter written to him by
+Mr. Osborn, of Alma, Mich., under date of February
+23, 1898, which reads:</p>
+
+<p class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Alma, Mich.</span>, February 23, 1898.</p>
+
+<p class="smcap p0">Friend H. T. Phillips:</p>
+
+<p>Yours with the questions to be answered received,
+and will say:</p>
+
+<p>.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. There have been several bodies nesting in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+Michigan at the same time, and I will give the years
+and places that I was out. In 1861 a large body of
+birds were in Ohio roosting in the Hocking Hills, my
+first year out. We were at Circleville, and my company
+shipped over 225 barrels, mostly to New York and
+Boston. The birds fed on the corn fields. In 1862
+the birds nested at Monroe, Wis. We commenced
+in May and remained until the last of August.
+The several companies put up some ten thousand dozen
+for stall feeding after the freight shipment. Express
+charges on each barrel were from $7 to $9. In the
+fall of 1862 we had fine sport shooting birds in the roost
+at Johnstown, Ohio (now Ada), some four weeks.
+Then the birds moved to Logan County. After two
+weeks the birds skipped South, it being December and
+snow on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>In 1863 the birds nested in Pennsylvania. We had
+some fine sport at Smith Port and at Sheffield. We
+located at Cherry Grove, six miles from Sheffield. The
+birds fed on hemlock mast. There were other nestings
+in Pennsylvania at the same time. In 1864, at St.
+Charles, Minn., we had some fine sport, but our freights
+were high to New York, so we came to Leon, Wis. A
+heavy body was nesting in the Kickapoo woods, and several
+companies of hunters located here. In 1865 a
+heavy nesting was in Canada, near Georgian Bay. We
+were at Angus Station on the Northern Railroad, and
+the snow was two feet under the nesting. We next went
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+to Wisconsin, where a heavy snowstorm broke up the
+roosts. We were at Afton, Brandon and Appleton.
+We then went to Rochester, Minn., the end of the railroad.
+At that time birds nested in the Chatfield timber.
+We then went to Marquette in the Upper Peninsula and
+camped on Dead River. A heavy body had got through
+nesting, but worlds of birds were feeding on blueberries.</p>
+
+<p>This was the year the <i>Pewabic</i> sunk. Mr. George
+Snook had 1,400 barrels of trout and whitefish on her.
+We went up on the <i>Old Traveler</i> and came down on the
+<i>Meteor</i>. In 1866 the birds nested in a heavy body
+near Martinsville, Ind. We caught some birds at Cartersburg.
+After we closed up in Indiana we went to
+Pennsylvania. There was a heavy nesting near Wilcox,
+at Highlands. In gathering squabs five of us got a
+barrel apiece, which netted us $75 to $100 per barrel
+in New York. They struck a bare market.</p>
+
+<p>In July we had a big time with young birds at Fort
+Gratiot, near Port Huron, from the Forestville nesting.
+Mr. H. T. Phillips of Detroit was chief of a
+party which had fine shooting on a Mr. Palmer's place.
+In six days I shipped thirteen barrels to Tremain &amp;
+Summer, New York, and received a check for over
+$400. They returned me about one-half what they
+sold for.</p>
+
+<p>In 1867 we were in Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota,
+and caught more or less birds on bait. The birds were
+broken up by shooting and deep snow. In 1868 there
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+was a large nesting near Manistee, and we did some big
+catching, shipped by steamer to Grand Haven, then
+via rail. In April and May was also at Mackinac and
+North Port and in June did some catching at Cheboygan,
+and here I made our crates of split cedar and
+floated the birds down the river six miles on two canoes
+lashed together, and had to transfer over the dam before
+reaching the little steamer to Mackinac, twelve
+miles, and then transferred to the Detroit boat. The
+birds were shipped to H. T. Phillips &amp; Co. At Cheboygan
+I fed over one hundred bushels of corn and
+wheat for bait.</p>
+
+<p>In 1869 the birds were in Canada, Michigan, Indiana
+and Wisconsin, all at the same time, and shooters
+broke them up. We located a body at Oakfield, Wis.,
+and had a big catch until the farmers broke them up.
+The birds were pulling wheat badly; other feed was
+gone. The birds nested in Michigan, up from Mt.
+Pleasant, but too far inland to get them out. In 1870
+the birds nested near Goderich, Can. Did not do much
+there. We then went to Glen Haven and caught some
+birds. Then we went to Cheboygan; sent more or less
+live birds to H. T. Phillips &amp; Co., of Detroit. In
+1871 we located a large body at Tomah, Wis., and did
+some heavy shipping. We used three tiers of ice from
+a large icehouse, and the express per barrel was $12 to
+New York and Boston. We also shipped from Augusta,
+Wis., express, $13.50 per barrel. A nesting at
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+Eau Claire, but we could not get to do much with them
+there. In 1872 a large nesting near South Haven,
+Mich. We located at Bangor and had a big catch in
+some big snowstorms. Another body near Clam Lake,
+end of railroad. In 1873 we did baiting in Ohio and
+Wisconsin, but located no nesting. In 1874 the birds
+nested at Shelby in two different locations and another
+at Stanton, Mich.; small body at Stanton. We did
+heavy shipping at Shelby, from one to three cars per
+day, both alive and dead. The birds nested this year
+at Shelby, two places, and at Stanton, and one at Mill
+Brook and at Frankfort and at Leeland, and probably
+at other points we did not learn of. In 1875 was not
+out, only baiting near St. Johns, Mich. In 1876 a
+heavy nesting at Shelby, Mich., and at Frankfort. I
+caught at Shelby and at Glen Haven heavy shipments.
+In 1877 was not out, but did some baiting at Eureka.
+In 1878 a heavy nesting between Petoskey and Cheboygan.
+H. T. Phillips located at Cheboygan. I caught
+at several points between the two cities.</p>
+
+<p>The above is part of my experience with the birds,
+since which time I have kept no record of the movements,
+but will say that during the winter season birds
+have nested in large numbers in the southern States;
+in Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri. For
+a great many years the birds have been moving west.
+Last winter I was in Southern California, and a body
+of pigeons were west of Los Angeles, among the acorn
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+timber. There are worlds of feed in the foothills, for
+thousands of miles, to feed the birds. They are a
+greedy bird and will eat everything from a hemlock
+seed to an acorn. I have known them to nest on hemlock
+mast alone in Pennsylvania, and in Michigan on
+the pine mast after the beech mast was gone. Most
+of the nesting in Michigan happens March to July,
+and then they skip farther north and return in wheat
+seeding.</p>
+
+
+<p class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Alma, Mich.</span>, February 24, 1898.</p>
+
+<p class="smcap p0">Friend H. T. Phillips:</p>
+
+<p>I will give you a few catches. In 1862, at Monroe,
+Wis., George Paxon, of Evans Center, N. Y., and
+myself made one haul of 250 dozen five miles south of
+the city on corn bait in a pen 32 × 64 feet with nets
+sprung across the top. We fed at this bed over five
+hundred bushels of corn at 25 cents per bushel, and at
+our other beds nearly as much. After the flight-birds
+were over, with a single net sprung on the ground we
+have taken 100 dozen at a time.</p>
+
+<p>At Augusta, Wis., in 1871, Charles Curtin, then of
+Indiana (dead now), over one hundred dozen; William
+W. Cone of Masonville, N. Y., Samuel Schook of
+Circleville, Ohio, and some other boys, 100 dozen and
+over. L. G. Parker of Camden, N. Y., C. S. Martin,
+the Rocky Mountain hunter of Wisconsin, E. G. Slayton
+of Chetek, Wis., are old trappers and could tell of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
+big catches. In 1868, at Cheboygan, I took over six
+hundred fat birds before sunrise. I sold to the United
+States officers at Mackinac for trap shooting, also to
+Island House. In 1861 there were only a few professionals:
+Dr. E. Osborn of Saratoga, N. Y; William N.
+Cone, Masonville, N. Y; John Ackerman, Columbus,
+Ohio; L. G. Parke, Camden, N. J.; James Thompson,
+Hookset, N. H.; S. K. Jones, Saratoga, N. Y.; George
+and Charles Paxon of Evans Center, N. Y., and maybe
+a few others. After this time, trappers increased fast.
+More salt was used in Michigan for bait than any other
+State. I paid at Shelby $4 per barrel. Big bodies of
+pigeons were drowned off Sleeping Bear Point because
+of fog and wind, while trying to cross Lake Michigan.
+I have seen them.</p>
+
+<p>In the Logan County roost, Ohio, I killed with two
+barrels, of a six-bore shoulder gun, 144 birds. The
+other boys killed nearly as many with smaller guns;
+we shot on the roost in the dark. Our plan was to fire
+one barrel on the roost and the other as the pigeons
+flew. The highest price paid per dozen was in New
+York City&mdash;$3&mdash;by Trimm &amp; Summer from Pennsylvania.</p>
+
+<p>For a good many years the birds were in the eastern
+States, with heavy catching in Massachusetts and New
+York, also Pennsylvania, and the hunters worked into
+Canada, then into Ohio, and so on to Michigan and
+Indiana, long before they took in Wisconsin and Minnesota,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+after they left the eastern country for the west.
+A big body was at Grand Rapids in 1858 or 1859,
+before I joined the band.</p>
+
+<p>The trappers at Grand Rapids were Dr. Osborn,
+Cone, Ackerman, the two Paxons, Latimer, and a few
+others, who did some heavy shipping, catching the birds
+on the salt marshes. I have no earlier records for
+Michigan.</p>
+
+<p>I kept no record of the amounts shipped from different
+points. The old books of the express will show
+if they have kept them. I wait to see your report, and
+remain,</p>
+
+<p class="center">Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="tdr smcap">E. Osborn.</p>
+
+
+<p class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Detroit, Mich.</span>, November 2, 1904.</p>
+
+<p class="smcap p0">W. B. Mershon:</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:&mdash;Last evening I looked over some old
+papers and found a few memoranda that lead to my
+making some changes in my notes to you in regard to
+the date of last nestings in our State. I also find my
+later surmise confirmed by a letter from one of the first
+traveling pigeon-catchers in the business, Ephraim Osborn,
+whose uncle, Dr. Osborn of Saratoga, N. Y., was
+one of the original catchers. You will note by Mr.
+Osborn's letter that he has been a shipper of mine for
+a long time. I am well acquainted with him and knew
+all the men he mentioned (with many others) at the
+Shelby nesting. There were nearly six hundred names
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+in the register book of pigeoners in Wisconsin. Nearly
+every one of the farmers, and their wives and daughters,
+were pigeon catchers.</p>
+
+<p>In regard to the dates of last nesting: 1878 was the
+last year that the catch amounted to enough to keep
+men in the business. I find I was at Cheboygan part
+of the time, and got only a small number of birds in
+1880, but some few nested (small body) that year.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="tdr smcap">H. T. Phillips.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2 pmb2">Recollections of "Old Timers"</p>
+
+<div class="dropcap">M</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">M</span>R. OSCAR B. WARREN, now of Houghton,
+Mich., has been interested for years in
+collecting data about the Passenger Pigeon,
+and kindly turned over to me his entire budget. Among
+his letters is the following from Mr. H. T. Blodgett,
+Superintendent of Public Schools, Ludington, Mich.,
+dated November 19, 1904:</p>
+
+<p>.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. Your pigeon is a stranger to me, or rather
+has been a stranger for six or more years. I can distinctly
+remember clouds of them, darkening the sky,
+almost, in Pennsylvania, thirty years ago. Later, in
+Michigan, they were abundant, coming to this part of the
+State as soon as the snow was gone, picking up the
+beech nuts and "shack" of the woods. After a few
+weeks' flying about and feeding they would disappear;
+reappearing again in June, young pigeons, fat, and the
+choicest eating. They would stay a few weeks, not
+more than about three weeks, going about July 1.
+During this visit the birds haunted the thick woods,
+and would call from the shade of the leaves of beech,
+maple, and hemlock trees through the heat of the day,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+feeding mornings and evenings on the sprouted beech
+nuts under the leaves.</p>
+
+<p>There would often be a third appearance in September,
+when I have seen buckwheat fields blue with
+them. Also fall-sowed wheat fields would be so covered
+with them that the farmer had to watch his fields to
+save the seed he had sowed.</p>
+
+<p>During the spring and also the fall visit, flocks
+searching for feeding ground could be called down
+from flight and induced to light on trees near where the
+call was sounded. The call was one in imitation of
+the pigeon's own call, given either as a peculiar throat
+sound (liable to make the throat sore if too often repeated)
+or with a silk band between two blocks of
+wood, like this</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 558px;">
+<img src="images/ip_120.png" width="558" height="120" alt="" />
+<p class="fig_caption">The pigeon call</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>held between the lips and teeth and blown like a blade
+of grass between the thumbs. By biting or pressing
+with the teeth at (A) (A) the tension upon the silk
+band would be increased, raising the tone of the call or
+relaxing for a lower note. Cleverly used, it was very
+successful in calling pigeons feeding in small flocks to
+alight.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Much to my regret I have seen none of the beautiful
+birds for about six years. The savage warfare upon
+them, from nesting place to nesting place by pot-hunters
+and villainous fellows who barreled them for market,
+with nets and every brutal means for wholesale destruction,
+has driven them, I know not whither. If there are
+considerable flocks of them anywhere, I should be glad
+to know it.</p>
+
+<p>I wish I might help you. Such things as are here
+hastily recalled and written will not be likely to afford
+anything of interest, but if there is any thought or anything
+in it, it is cheerfully given.</p>
+
+<p>On the great sand bluffs which line our shores in many
+places, flocks of pigeons in passing would fly so low
+that a man with a club could knock them down. At
+Lincoln, three miles north of here, nets were put on the
+top of the hills, like gill nets, to catch them in their
+flight.</p>
+
+<p>They were never very successful.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 553px;">
+<img src="images/ip_121.png" width="553" height="255" alt="" />
+<p class="fig_caption">Showing the method of placing pigeon net</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hanging">(<i>Notes by the Allen Brothers, Joseph and Isaac, of
+Manchester, Mich. A copy of their letter was received
+through kindness of L. Whitney Watkins, of
+Manchester, Mich.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>We have had about fifty years' experience in the
+business [pigeon catching], as we used to help our
+father as long ago as we can recollect, he being one of
+the best pigeoners in his day, working a great deal at
+the business in the summer season. Until we were
+twenty years old we lived on the shores of Lake Ontario
+in Wayne County, N. Y.</p>
+
+<p>The pigeons used to have a flying course along the
+shore of the lake on their way to the Montezuma
+marshes after salt. Pigeons are very fond of salt, or,
+rather, brine. It seems to be a necessary article for
+them. Their course was generally from west to east.
+They seldom flew west by the same route. How far
+they came, we could not tell; perhaps from this State
+or perhaps farther west. Sometimes they would go
+west by the same route. If so, they were much easier
+to catch than when going east. When going east they
+were looking for salt; when west, for food.</p>
+
+<p>They used to commence to fly about the 1st of April
+and keep it up until the middle of June. After that
+time they would scatter over the country, and did not
+fly in large flocks as in the spring.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It would be hard to make any estimate of their numbers
+that people would believe at this late day. I was
+going to say that a thousand million could have been
+seen in the air all at once. There would be days and
+days when the air was alive with them, hardly a break
+occurring in a flock for half a day at a time. Flocks
+stretched as far as a person could see, one tier above
+another. I think it would be safe to say that millions
+could have been seen at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1854 we moved to Michigan, settling
+near Adrian, where we found pigeons quite plentiful.
+When they were flying here (Adrian) they seemed to
+scatter over the State, having no regular course.</p>
+
+<p>The supply of pigeons kept very regular here for
+about twenty-five or thirty years. About the time we
+came west the pigeons became scarce in New York,
+and very few have been seen there since. It is five
+years (1890) since we have seen or heard of any being
+seen in this State (Michigan) or in any other.</p>
+
+<p>Our "pigeoning" was more for sport than profit,
+and we liked a nice broiled pigeon for breakfast about
+as well as anything we could have, especially when they
+were worth $6.00 per dozen. If the pigeons had been
+sent to the New York market they could have been sold
+for big prices, as pigeons sold for larger and better
+prices than any other game in that market. Our father
+did not like the idea of sending pigeons to New York
+for a market.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After we came to where we now live (Cambridge),
+and when I was going to Adrian, I stopped at father's
+on my road. He had been out catching pigeons that
+morning and had secured 600 by 10 o'clock. He said
+to me:</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you would take these pigeons to Adrian and
+sell them if you can. Take them to the depot and sell
+them for 10 cents per dozen. If you cannot sell them,
+give them to the workingmen in the shops."</p>
+
+<p>I thought 10 cents was pretty cheap, so I went to selling
+at 20 cents per dozen. When the men came out of
+the work-shops I sold them all at 25 cents per dozen.
+After I left for town, father caught 500 more, and took
+them to Adrian the same day and sold them for 10
+cents per dozen. If the same lot of pigeons had been
+shipped to New York, they would probably have
+brought $2 or more per dozen.</p>
+
+<p>About a year from that time we caught 600 in one
+day, and made up our minds we would ship them to
+New York. We took them to Adrian to ship. When
+we got to Adrian we saw father, who, after inquiring
+about our intentions concerning their shipment, said:</p>
+
+<p>"It is foolish for you to send them, as they will never
+be heard from."</p>
+
+<p>He advised us to dispose of them for 25 cents per
+dozen; this was the highest price pigeons were worth
+in Adrian. To please him we tried to sell them for that
+price, but could not, so, taking them to the express
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+office, we shipped them. In about four days the returns
+came, netting us 70 cents per dozen, about the lowest
+price we ever got. They explained that the pigeons
+had been poorly handled or they would have brought
+more. This was thirty-five years ago, <i>and these were
+probably the first pigeons shipped from this State to
+New York</i>.</p>
+
+<p>We have shipped thousands since. They would
+probably average $2 per dozen. We have sold them as
+high as $3.75 per dozen and have seen them quoted as
+high as $6 per dozen. A pigeoner from Pennsylvania
+told us he shipped two barrels at one time and got $5.50
+per dozen. We caught 2,400 one week, having them
+all on hand at one time. We got a market report from
+New York where they were quoted at $6.50 per dozen.
+We packed and shipped ours as soon as possible. When
+they reached market they sold for $1.50 per dozen.
+The army of pigeoners had struck a big nesting in the
+State of Wisconsin the same week we caught ours, and
+they shipped them to market by the wholesale. The
+market dropped from $6.50 to $1.25 in one week.</p>
+
+<p>The pigeon business was very profitable for men
+who were used to it, and there were probably from one
+to three hundred men in the trade. When the pigeons
+changed their location, the pigeoners would follow
+them, sometimes going over a thousand miles.</p>
+
+<p>When this army of men had good luck they would
+ship them by the hundreds of barrels. Probably
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+as many as five hundred barrels have been shipped to
+New York and Boston in one day. Our commission
+man in New York wrote us that 100 barrels a day
+could be sold there without affecting the market but
+very little.</p>
+
+<p>I was at a pigeon nesting in the State of Pennsylvania
+where there were from three to five hundred men
+catching pigeons and squabs. It was a great sight to
+see the birds going back and forth after food. When
+nesting in such large bodies, they leave the food in
+the near vicinity for their young. If they can find
+plenty of food, they nest in large bodies; if not, they
+scatter over the country and nest in scattered colonies.</p>
+
+<p>The nesting I mentioned in Pennsylvania was within
+one mile of the cleared lands. We camped within two
+miles of the nesting. The pigeons kept up a continual
+roaring by their combined twittering and cooing, so
+that it could be heard for miles away by night as well
+as day.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes it is almost impossible to catch the pigeons.
+At the nesting mentioned the most experienced hands
+found it impossible to take large numbers. The whole
+crowd of men could not catch more than one man ought
+to have caught under the circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>The young pigeons (squabs) were much sought after
+in New York and Boston, and if sent in moderate numbers
+brought big prices, usually about two dollars per
+dozen. When the squabs were old enough to market,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
+the army of pigeoners (estimated to be about five hundred)
+commenced taking them. Entering the woods in
+which the nesting was located, they cut down the trees
+right and left, cutting the timber over thousands of
+acres. When a tree fell, bringing with it the squabs,
+they picked the young birds up, sometimes getting as
+many as two dozen from one tree. The large trees,
+which might have yielded fifty or a hundred, were left
+standing. Our company of five took in two days thirteen
+barrels of squabs, averaging 400 to the barrel.</p>
+
+<p>There were shipped from two stations on the Erie
+road in one day 200 barrels of these young pigeons.
+If they had been old birds, they would not have broken
+the market, but this was too many squabs, and the price
+dropped 25 to 45 cents per dozen.</p>
+
+<p>Osborn told me that he once caught 3,500 at one
+catch. It was at a big nesting in the State of Wisconsin.
+He had an enormous flock baited. He said that he put
+out as high as forty bushels of shelled corn at one time
+on the bed where he caught this large number. For
+a trap, he had constructed a board pen built up from
+the ground four or five feet high. This pen was about
+one hundred feet long by twenty feet wide. He took
+three large-sized nets, and, tying them together, set
+them on this pen. He had feeding pens built by the
+side of the trap-pen, so when he made a catch he could
+drive the pigeons into the feeding pens and fatten them
+for market, these "stall-fed" birds bringing much
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+higher prices than poor birds. This large catch filled
+all his feeding pens. He said he could have made
+another catch fully as large as the one just mentioned,
+in one-half hour afterward but, having no room, he
+could not take care of any more.</p>
+
+<p>This method of catching pigeons was much the best
+when they were to be preserved alive. It was rather a
+late invention in the pigeon-netting business. We have
+caught with one net in the same way as many as four
+hundred at one time. With a net set on the ground
+we have taken from three to five hundred a great many
+times. In this latter manner, a brother of mine caught
+556 with one net. Without help, in one day I have
+caught from thirteen to fourteen hundred out of a flock
+as they were flying over.</p>
+
+<p>We have two ways of pigeoning. One is catching
+out of flocks as they are flying over; the other is catching
+baited pigeons. One way of bringing the flocks
+out of the air was by using live pigeons kept for that
+purpose. These we called "fliers" and "stool-pigeons;"
+generally from three to five fliers and two stool-pigeons.
+For the "fliers" and "stools" we made what we called
+"boots" of soft leather. These were slipped on the
+leg a little above the foot. To the boots of the fliers
+were fastened small stout cords from two to four rods
+long, on the other end of which was fastened a small
+bush. If the birds were flying high, we used a longer
+string.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The stool-pigeons were fastened to stools and set on
+the "bed"; when the net was sprung the birds were
+under it. The bed over which the net was sprung was
+the same size as the net, or from thirty to forty feet
+long by twelve to fifteen feet wide. It was made by
+clearing the ground of all rubbish, and making it as clean
+as a garden. Before the net was set it covered the bed.
+We tied a rope to each of the front corners. On the
+front side we used two spring stakes fastened in the
+ground at the ends of the ropes, which were tied to the
+stake about five feet from the ground. At one of the
+stakes we built a bough house so that the rope from
+the net would pass through the house. The back corners
+were fastened with small, notched stakes which
+were driven in the ground so that the notches faced the
+bough house. We used what we called "flying staffs"&mdash;small
+stakes about four feet long and the thickness
+of a broom handle, with a notch cut in one end. We
+also used two more small stakes to set the flying staffs
+against, to hold the net when set. It took two to
+properly set a net. Each one took a staff, stepped in
+front, one at each corner, caught hold of the rope, and
+crowded the front edge back of the back edge about six
+inches. Then the flying staffs were placed against
+the small stakes, notch end against the ropes. The net
+was now crowded to the ground and the staffs slipped
+into the notches of the stakes to hold the net in
+place. The slack of the net was laid alongside the rope
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+on the ground. By crowding the net back, it sprung
+the stakes over, which sprung the net. The stool-pigeons
+were made to hover by pulling a line reaching
+into the bough house, where the pigeoner awaited them
+with his fliers.</p>
+
+<p>When a flock of pigeons came near enough to spy
+the fliers, the pigeoner threw the tethered birds into
+the air. They quickly flew the length of the line and
+then hovered near the ground. They had the appearance
+of feeding on the bed, which, of course, has been
+supplied with food. The wild flock alighted and began
+feeding. The net rope passing through the bough
+house was pulled by the pigeoner, and this drew the
+flying staffs from under the hooks, the staffs raised the
+front edge of the net up about four feet, and over it
+went as quick as a flash, covering or catching perhaps
+five hundred at once.</p>
+
+<div id="fp130" class="figcenter" style="width: 464px;">
+<img src="images/fp_130.png" width="464" height="649" alt="" />
+<p class="fig_title">BAND-TAILED PIGEON<br />(<i>Columba fasciata</i>)</p>
+<p class="fig_caption">Often mistaken for Passenger Pigeon</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="pmt2">Letter from James B. Purdy, of Plymouth, Mich.:</p>
+
+<p class="tdr">November, 1894.</p>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Oscar B. Warren</span>,<br />
+<span style="padding-left: 4em;">Palmer, Mich.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:&mdash;Yours of November 24 received, asking
+me to send notes on the Passenger Pigeon. In the
+beginning I would say that I am now fifty-one years of
+age, and I am writing this under the roof of the old
+homestead where I was born, hence my memory of the
+passenger pigeon for this locality extends back to my
+early boyhood, when millions of pigeons visited this
+locality on their spring and fall migrations, and during
+their spring migrations comparatively few halted with
+us to feed, but the great majority of them winged their
+way in a high-flying flock of unbroken columns, sometimes
+half a mile in length, to the north and west, probably
+to their breeding grounds; but on their return,
+from the first to the fifteenth of September, they would
+swarm down on our newly sowed wheat fields until acres
+of ground would be blue, and when they arose they
+would darken the air and their wings would sound like
+distant thunder. They were not so shy at this time of
+the year, as part of them were young birds, which were
+easily distinguished from the old ones by their speckled
+breasts; and I would here state that, during both spring
+and fall migrations, their greatest flight seemed to be
+from sunrise until about nine or ten o'clock <span class="smcap">A.M.</span></p>
+
+<p>My father was an old pigeon catcher, and it was during
+these fall migrations that he would go out in the
+middle of a wheat field, build his bough house, set his
+net, and prepare for the finest sport in which it was ever
+my good fortune to participate; and many a time have
+I been with him when he has caught hundreds of them
+in a single morning. You may ask, What did you do
+with so many pigeons? Well, I will tell you. We
+skinned out the breasts, pickled them for two or three
+days in weak brine, and then strung them on strings,
+from one hundred and fifty to two hundred on a string,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+and hung them up to dry in the same manner as dried
+beef (I mean the breasts). Of course the remainder
+of the carcasses we cooked for immediate use, or as much
+of them as we needed for the family. Let me tell you
+that those pigeon breasts were a dainty morsel, and
+would last as long as dried beef and was far its superior
+in taste.</p>
+
+<p>While rummaging through the attic a few days since,
+I came across the old pigeon stool upon which the stool-pigeon
+was tied, which my father used so many years
+ago, and it carried me back to my boyhood and conveyed
+to my mind vivid memories of the past.</p>
+
+<p>The pigeons continued to visit us in great abundance
+for a number of years, although there would be an occasional
+season when there would not be so many. As
+the years rolled by they became fewer in number until
+in the fall of 1876, when I saw my last Passenger
+Pigeons (a small flock of ten or fifteen), I tried hard to
+procure some for my cabinet, but failed.</p>
+
+<p>One peculiar habit of the Passenger Pigeons was
+that during their migrations, should they alight and
+their crops were filled with inferior food, they would
+vomit it up in order to fill themselves with something
+better should they find it.</p>
+
+<p class="pmt2">F. N. Lawrence stated in <i>Forest and Stream</i> of February
+18, 1899, that when a boy, in the late forties,
+he spent most of his time on his grandfather's country
+seat at Manhattanville, on the North River. In those
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+years the wild pigeon flew south on both sides of the
+North River by the thousands in the fall, and in lesser
+numbers flew north in the spring.</p>
+
+<p>He also wrote: "These migrations occurred with the
+utmost regularity. The first easterly storm after September
+1st, clearing up with a strong northwest wind,
+was as surely followed by a flight of wild pigeons as
+the sun was to rise. During such storms, I have passed
+many a sleepless night watching to catch the first change
+of wind, and when it veered northwest, daybreak found
+me on the river bank watching for the flight that never
+failed. Ah! how my heart jumped as flock after flock
+of wild pigeons came flying over Fort Washington like
+small clouds. I have shot a great many of them, but
+alas, like the buffalo, they are almost exterminated."</p>
+
+<p class="pmt2">I have run across what was evidently my first diary,
+dated 1872, when I was fourteen years old. I make the
+following extracts from it:</p>
+
+<p>April 6th. "Pigeon flew this morning."</p>
+
+<p>Then on April 8th I mention 9 pigeons shot in the
+afternoon by my father, and say "they flew very thick
+in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>The record, like most boys' diaries, seems to have
+many skips, for the next item about pigeons is on the
+11th of May, saying that I shot 2 that day and on the
+1st of June I mention that I killed 3 pigeons in the
+morning, "the most I ever have shot at one time."</p>
+
+<p>My marksmanship seems to have improved after that,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+for on the 7th of June I mention shooting 7, and on the
+8th 8 (I used to go every morning), and on the 10th
+I got 8 again and on the 11th 12, and so on with varying
+success. On June 11 I mention that the young ones
+were beginning to fly plentifully.</p>
+
+<p class="tdr">W. B. M.</p>
+
+
+<p class="pmt2">Extract from a letter written by the late Alexander
+McDougall of Duluth, February 8, 1905:</p>
+
+<p class="pmt2">I have been about Lake Superior since 1863. Have
+never known any rookery near the lake or in Lake
+Superior Basin, although I think they did breed near
+Lake Superior, for they were in such great quantities
+about the lake during the whole summer. In 1871
+when this town (Duluth) was first building, there were
+millions of them about here. In the Lake Superior
+region there are lots of berries but no beech nuts, except
+near Grand Island, 40 miles east of Marquette.
+It is likely if there was any roosting on Lake Superior,
+this would be the most favorable place.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. The
+pigeon was numerous on Lake Superior in 1872, for I
+have recollections of catching some that year while captain
+of the Steamer <i>Japan</i>. During foggy weather and
+at night, they would alight on the boat in great numbers,
+tired out. On foggy mornings, the blowing of our
+whistle would start them up. Often, when they would
+light on the eave of our overhanging deck, we could
+sneak along under the deck and quickly snatch one. I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+remember having caught several in that way. As
+clearly as I can remember, they left all at once along
+about 1875. I have seen a few here along about 1882,
+and one fall in October, I think, of 1884, I saw two or
+three, the last I remember of them.</p>
+
+<p class="pmt2 tdr"><span class="smcap">Kalamazoo, Mich.</span>, June 13th, 1905.</p>
+
+<p class="smcap p0">Wm. B. Mershon, Saginaw, Mich.:</p>
+
+<p class="center" style="letter-spacing:3em">* * * * *</p>
+
+<p>It seems too bad that this noble bird should have
+been blotted out. The last flock, a small one, that I
+ever saw was in 1891. I saw pigeons in 1883, 1885
+and 1886.</p>
+
+<p>I have been in their nesting grounds. The males and
+the females sit on the nest on alternate days. When
+their big nesting was near South Haven in this State,
+the birds used to fly over this town every day in their
+quest for food, some of them going fully seventy-five
+miles in an air line from their nesting. One day it
+would be a continuous stream of male birds and the
+next day it would be the females.</p>
+
+<p>How the netters did massacre them and ship them
+away by thousands and thousands. Many were kept
+alive and shipped all over the country for pigeon
+shoots. The last wild pigeons ever used for this purpose
+that I know of was at John Watson's Grand Grossing,
+Chicago, Illinois, in 1886. I asked Watson, in
+February last, where he got those birds, and he said
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+from Indian Territory, so I think the netters finally
+cleaned up what was left of the big flight that perished
+from the sleet and fog at their last nesting in Michigan,
+near Petoskey, in 1881.</p>
+
+<p>Their nests were built and eggs laid in late April. A
+big wind and storm of sleet came up just at dusk and
+the birds left; there was a big fog on Lake Michigan,
+and the birds were swallowed up by the storm; anyhow
+they disappeared then and there. I have heard tell of
+the beach being strewn for miles with dead pigeons, and
+I heard an old woodsman tell of the stench arising from
+dead pigeons in the woods.</p>
+
+<p>It was that storm of ice that surely wiped them out.</p>
+
+<p>I was at Petoskey in 1882, and no pigeons showed up
+that year.</p>
+
+<p>What a host of memories of boyhood days are recalled,
+when one thinks of the wild pigeons. I can see
+myself a boy again, equipped with a long, single barrel
+shot gun, shot pouch and powder flask a-dangling, a
+box of G. D. caps in my pocket, and I a-sneakin' and
+a-sneakin' up for a shot at an old cock pigeon perched
+away up on a dead limb at the top of a tall tree. How
+handsome is that old cock with neck outstretched and
+tail a-streamin', the richness of his coloring, the red of
+the breast, the metallic sheen of that outstretched neck
+is of marvelous luster as bathed in the glories of the
+morning sunlight. He turns his head! He is onto
+that boy who is sneaking so carefully along the old
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+rail fence. Carefully the gun is raised and aimed; the
+trigger is pressed. "Ker-whang" in a cloud of smoke
+is the loud report. The old cock, startled, flies away.
+"Missed him, by gosh!" is the boy's lament as he starts
+to reload, whilst in unison with the rattle of the grains
+of powder in the flask, there comes drifting down on the
+morning breeze, slowly wafting here and there, a long
+tail feather from that noble bird to show that though
+missed, yet the aim was true.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="tdr smcap">Ben O. Bush.</p>
+
+
+<p class="pmt2 tdr"><span class="smcap">Kalamazoo, Mich.</span>, June 17th, 1905.</p>
+
+<p class="smcap p0">Dear Mershon:</p>
+
+<p>Do not understand me as to my assertion, that in nesting
+time the wild pigeons in feeding, the males always
+alternate with the females, each having a day off and
+a day on throughout the period of incubation and the
+rearing of the young. It depended upon the amount of
+food and the distance that they had to go to get it,
+and they changed their habit according to the conditions.
+If they had to make a long flight, as was the case when
+they passed over here, then they alternated; but I will
+agree with you that their habit in nesting time when
+food was plenty and not far away, was for the males to
+sit first in the morning, then the females, and sometimes
+the males a second time, all in the same day. Pigeons
+require a great deal of water, and sometimes their crops
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+would show that they had been to water prior to their
+return flight, while at other times the food in their crops
+would be dry.</p>
+
+<p>Some other boys and I had a lot of wild birds that
+we bought alive from a netter. We put the birds in the
+loft of a big barn where there was a lot of beans that
+had not been threshed. We would put in a big trough
+of water for them every day. The way those birds
+threshed out those bean pods was a caution. They became
+very fat and fairly tame. What wouldn't I give
+to hear the call note of Tete! Tete! Tete! of the pigeons
+once more.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="tdr smcap">Ben O. Bush.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb" />
+
+<p>J. S. Van Cleef of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., wrote in
+<i>Forest and Stream</i> of May 20, 1899, as follows:</p>
+
+<p class="pmt2">For many years up to about 1850, flocks of wild
+pigeons in the fall were quite abundant, and were very
+often taken with nets, which was a very favorite way of
+capturing them at that time, but very few, if any, have
+been taken in this manner since that time. A few small
+flocks appeared in the fifties, but not to such an extent
+that an attempt was made to capture them through the
+aid of pigeon nets, and I find upon inquiry that the experience
+of others agrees with my own.</p>
+
+<p>The last flight of pigeons of which I have any knowledge
+occurred in the seventies, where they nested in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+mountain range south of the Beaverkill in the lower part
+of Ulster County. There were two flights about this
+time, one small one, and in the course of two or three
+years this was followed by a flight where the pigeons
+appeared in great numbers.</p>
+
+<p>This flock had nested in Missouri in the month of
+April, and the most of the squabs were killed by those
+who were in the business of furnishing squabs for the
+market.</p>
+
+<p>When the nesting was over the entire flock went to
+Michigan, where they nested again, and they were followed
+there by the same persons who again destroyed
+most of the squabs. When they left Michigan they
+took their flight eastward, and telegrams were sent all
+over that part of the country where the pigeons would
+be likely to nest a third time, and as soon as they settled
+in the Catskills these persons were apprised of the location
+and very soon appeared on the scene.</p>
+
+<p>The party, about thirty strong, stopped at Monson's,
+whose house was located on the upper Beaverkill, about
+three miles from the nest.</p>
+
+<p>This nest was a mile from the Willewemoc Lodge,
+where I happened to be during the whole time that the
+pigeons were in their roost. It was claimed at the
+time that the squabs were sent down to New York by
+the ton, but as to this I have no personal knowledge,
+though I do know that during the nesting all, or nearly
+all, of the squabs were destroyed, and this was done by
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+invading the grounds at night and striking the trunks
+of the trees with a heavy axe or sledge hammer, upon
+which the squabs would tumble out of the nests on the
+ground, and be picked up and carried to Monson's and
+shipped to New York the next day.</p>
+
+<p>I do know, however, that from a natural ice house
+and the ice house belonging to our club, these persons
+obtained not less than fifteen tons of ice for the purpose
+of preserving the squabs.</p>
+
+<p>This is the last flight of pigeons that has ever taken
+place in this part of the country, so far as I have any
+knowledge, and I am very sure that if there had been
+any I would have known it.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">Poughkeepsie, N. Y.</span>, May 12.<br />
+</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2">The Last of the Pigeons</p>
+
+<p class="caption3 pmb2">From "The Auk," July, 1897, under the title "Additional Records
+of the Passenger Pigeon (<i>Ectopistes migratorius</i>.)"</p>
+
+<div class="dropcap">M</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">M</span>OST of the notes on the Passenger Pigeon
+recorded in the past year have referred to
+single birds or pairs. It is with much pleasure
+that I now call attention to a flock of some fifty,
+observed in southern Missouri. I am not only greatly
+indebted to Mr. Chas. H. Holden, Jr., for this interesting
+information, but for the present of a beautiful
+pair which he sent me in the flesh, he having shot them
+as they flew rapidly overhead. Mr. Holden was, at
+the time (December 17, 1896), hunting quail in Attie,
+Oregon County, Mo. The residents of this hamlet
+had not seen any pigeons there before in some years.</p>
+
+<p>Simon Pokagon, Chief of the remaining Pottawattamie
+tribe, and probably the best posted man on the wild
+pigeon in Michigan, writes me under date of October
+16, 1896: "I am creditably informed that there was a
+small nesting of pigeons last spring not far from the
+headwaters of the Au Sable River in Michigan." Mr.
+Chase S. Osborn, State Game and Fish Warden of
+Michigan, under date, Sault Ste. Marie, March 2, 1897,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+writes: "Passenger Pigeons are now very rare indeed
+in Michigan, but some have been seen in the eastern
+parts of Chippewa County, in the upper peninsula, every
+year. As many as a dozen or more were seen in this
+section in one flock last year, and I have reason to believe
+that they breed here in a small way. One came
+into this city last summer and attracted a great deal of
+attention by flying and circling through the air with
+the tame pigeons. I have a bill in the Legislature of
+Michigan, closing the season for killing wild pigeons
+for ten years."</p>
+
+<p class="tdr">
+<span class="smcap">Ruthven Deane</span><span style="padding-right:1em;">,</span><br />
+Chicago, Ill.</p>
+
+
+<p class="caption4">From "The Auk," April, 1898, Vol. 15, Page 184, under the title,
+"The Passenger Pigeon (<i>Ectopistes migratorius</i>) in
+Wisconsin and Nebraska."</p>
+
+<p>Our records of this species during the past few years
+have referred in most instances, to very small flocks and
+generally to pairs or individuals. In <i>The Auk</i> for
+July, 1897, I recorded a flock of some fifty pigeons
+from southern Missouri, but such a number has been
+very unusual. It is now very gratifying to be able to
+record still larger numbers and I am indebted to Mr.
+A. Fugleberg of Oshkosh, Wis., for the following letter
+of information, under date of September 1, 1897: "I
+live on the west shore of Lake Winnebago, Wis. About
+6 o'clock on the morning of August 14, 1897, I saw a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
+flock of wild pigeons flying over the bay from Fisherman's
+Point to Stony Beach, and I assure you it reminded
+me of old times, from 1855 to 1880, when
+pigeons were plentiful every day. So I dropped my
+work and stood watching them. This flock was followed
+by six more flocks, each containing about thirty-five
+to eighty pigeons, except the last, which only contained
+seven. All these flocks passed over within half
+an hour. One flock of some fifty birds flew within gunshot
+of me, the others all the way from one hundred
+to three hundred yards from where I stood." Mr.
+Fugleberg is an old hunter and has had much experience
+with the wild pigeon. In a later letter dated September
+4, 1897, he writes: "On Sept. 2, 1897, I was hunting
+prairie chickens near Lake Butte des Morts, Wis.,
+where I met a friend who told me that a few days
+previous he had seen a flock of some twenty-five wild
+pigeons and that they were the first he had seen for
+years." This would appear as though these birds were
+instinctively working back to their old haunts, as the
+Winnebago region was once a favorite locality. We
+hope that Wisconsin will follow Michigan in making
+a close season on wild pigeons for ten years, and thus
+give them a chance to multiply, and, perhaps, regain, in
+a measure, their former abundance.</p>
+
+<p>In <i>Forest and Stream</i> of Sept. 25, 1897, appeared a
+short notice of "Wild Pigeons in Nebraska," by "W. F.
+R." Through the kindness of the editor he placed me in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+correspondence with the observer, W. F. Rightmire, to
+whom I am indebted for the following details given in
+his letter of Nov. 5, 1897: "I was driving along the
+highway north of Cook, Johnson County, Neb., on
+August 17, 1897. I came to the timber skirting the
+head stream of the Nemaha River, a tract of some
+forty acres of woodland lying along the course of the
+stream, upon both banks of the same, and there feeding
+on the ground or perched upon the trees were the
+Passenger Pigeons I wrote the note about. The flock
+contained seventy-five to one hundred birds. I did not
+frighten them, but as I drove along the road the feeding
+birds flew up and joined the others, and as soon as I
+had passed by they returned to the ground and continued
+feeding. While I revisited the same locality, I
+failed to find the pigeons. I am a native of Tompkins
+County, N. Y., and have often killed wild pigeons in
+their flights while a boy on the farm, helped to net
+them, and have hunted them in Pennsylvania, so that I
+readily knew the birds in question the moment I saw
+them." I will here take occasion to state that in my
+record of the Missouri flock (<i>Auk</i>, July, 1897, p. 316)
+the date on which they were seen (Dec. 17, 1896) was,
+through error, omitted.</p>
+
+<p class="tdr">
+<span class="smcap">Ruthven Deane</span><span style="padding-right:1em;">,</span><br />
+Chicago, Ill.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="caption4">From "The Auk," January, 1896, under the title, "Additional
+Records of the Passenger Pigeon (<i>Ectopistes migratorius</i>)
+in Wisconsin and Illinois."</p>
+
+<p>I am indebted to my friend, Mr. John L. Stockton,
+of Highland Park, Ill., for information regarding the
+occurrence of this pigeon in Wisconsin. While trout
+fishing on the Little Oconto River in the Reservation
+of the Menominee Indians, Mr. Stockton saw, early in
+June, 1895, a flock of some ten pigeons for several consecutive
+days near his camp. They were first seen while
+alighting near the bank of the river, where they had
+evidently come to drink. I am very glad to say that
+they were not molested.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. John F. Ferry of Lake Forest, Ill., has kindly
+notified me of the capture of a young female pigeon
+which was killed in that town on August 7, 1895. The
+bird was brought to him by a boy who had shot it with
+a rifle ball, and although in a mutilated condition he
+preserved it for his collection.</p>
+
+<p>I have recently received a letter from Dr. H. V.
+Ogden, Milwaukee, Wis., informing me of the capture
+of a young female pigeon which was shot by Dr. Ernest
+Copeland on the 1st of October, 1895. These gentlemen
+were camping at the time in the northeast corner
+of Delta County, Mich. (Northern Peninsula), in the
+large hardwood forest that runs through that part of
+the State. They saw no other of the species.</p>
+
+<p class="tdr">
+<span class="smcap">Ruthven Deane</span><span style="padding-right:1em;">,</span><br />
+Chicago, Ill.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="caption4">From "The Auk," July, 1895, under the title, "Additional Records
+of the Passenger Pigeon in Illinois and Indiana."</p>
+
+<p>The occurrence of the wild pigeon (<i>Ectopistes migratorius</i>)
+in this section of the country, and, in fact,
+throughout the West generally, is becoming rarer every
+year, and such observations and data as come to our
+notice should be of sufficient interest to record.</p>
+
+<p>I have, in the past few months, made inquiry of a
+great many sportsmen who are constantly in the field
+and in widely distributed localities, regarding any observations
+on the wild pigeon, and but few of them
+have seen a specimen in the past eight or ten years. N.
+W. Judy &amp; Co., of St. Louis, Mo., dealers in poultry,
+and the largest receivers of game in that section, wrote
+as follows: "We have had no wild pigeons for two
+seasons; the last we received were from Siloam Springs,
+Ark. We have lost all track of them, and our netters
+are lying idle."</p>
+
+<p>I have made frequent inquiry among the principal
+game dealers in Chicago and cannot learn of a single
+specimen that has been received in our markets in several
+years. I am indebted to the following gentlemen for
+notes and observations regarding this species, which
+cover a period of eight years. I have various other
+records of the occurrence of the pigeon in Illinois and
+Indiana, but do not consider them sufficiently authentic
+to record, as to the casual observer this species and the
+Carolina dove are often confounded.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A fine male pigeon was killed by my brother, Mr.
+Chas. E. Deane, April 18, 1887, while shooting snipe
+on the meadows near English Lake, Ind. The bird
+was alone and flew directly over him. I have the specimen
+now in my collection.</p>
+
+<p>In September, 1888, while teal shooting on Yellow
+River, Stark County, Ind., I saw a pigeon fly up the
+river and alight a short distance off. I secured the bird
+which proved to be a young female.</p>
+
+<p>On Sept. 17, 1887, Mr. John F. Hazen and his
+daughter Grace, of Cincinnati, Ohio, while boating on
+the Kankakee River near English Lake, Ind., observed
+a small flock of pigeons feeding in a little oak
+grove bordering the river. They reported the birds
+as quite tame and succeeded in shooting eight specimens.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Frank M. Woodruff, Assistant Curator, Chicago
+Academy of Sciences, informs me that on Dec. 10,
+1890, he received four Passenger Pigeons in the flesh,
+from Waukegan, Ill., at which locality they were said
+to have been shot. Three of the birds were males and
+one was a female. One pair he disposed of, the other
+two I have recently seen in his collection. In the fall of
+1891, Mr. Woodruff also shot a pair at Lake Forest,
+Ill., which he mounted and placed in the collection of
+the Cook County Normal School, Englewood, Ill.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1893, Mr. C. B. Brown, of Chicago,
+Ill., collected a nest of the wild pigeon containing two
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+eggs at English Lake, Ind., and secured both parent
+birds. Mr. Brown describes the nest as being placed
+on the horizontal branch of a burr oak about ten feet
+from the trunk and from forty to fifty feet from the
+ground. He did not preserve the birds, but the eggs
+are still in his collection. The locality where this nest
+was found was a short distance from where the Hazens
+found their birds six years before.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. John F. Ferry informs me that three pigeons
+were seen near the Des Plaines River in Lake County,
+Ill., in September, 1893. One of these was shot by Mr.
+F. C. Farwell.</p>
+
+<p>In an article which appeared in the Chicago <i>Tribune</i>
+Nov. 25, 1894, entitled "Last of His Race," Mr. E. B.
+Clark related his experience in observing a fine male
+wild pigeon in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Ill., in April,
+1893. I quote from the article: "He was perched on
+the limb of a soft maple and was facing the rising sun.
+I have never seen in any cabinet a more perfect specimen.
+The tree upon which he was resting was at the
+southeast corner of the park. There were no trees between
+him and the lake to break from his breast the
+fullness of the glory of the rising sun. The pigeon
+allowed me to approach within twenty yards of his
+resting place and I watched him through a powerful
+glass that permitted as minute an examination as if he
+were in my hand. I was more than astonished to find
+here, close to the pavements of a great city, the representative
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+of a race which always loved the wild woods,
+and, which I thought had passed away from Illinois
+forever."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. R. W. Stafford of Chicago, Ill., who has shot
+hundreds of pigeons in former years within the present
+city limits of Chicago, informs me that in the latter
+part of September, 1894, while shooting at Marengo,
+Ill., he saw a flock of six flying swiftly over and apparently
+alight in a small grove some distance off.</p>
+
+<p>The above records will show that while in this section
+of the country large flocks of Passenger Pigeons
+are a thing of the past, yet they are still occasionally
+observed in small detachments or single birds.</p>
+
+<p>A. B. Covert of Ann Arbor, Mich., wrote under date
+of Oct. 27, 1894: "Prior to the spring of 1881 the
+wild pigeon was everywhere a common bird of passage
+throughout the southern part of Michigan and nested
+commonly in the northern part. My home, in 1880,
+and for a few years after, was at Cadillac, Mich., and
+there was at that time a nesting place near Muskrat
+Lake in Missaukee County. Thousands of the birds
+were killed there. In the spring of 1881 the birds
+failed to make their appearance, and since then have
+been very rare. Nov. 23, 1892, I secured one male
+and two young females; these were killed in Scio, Washtenaw
+County, Oct. 9, 1893; one male near Ypsilanti,
+Mich., Sept. 27, 1894; one female killed at Honey
+Brook, Scio, Washtenaw County. There is also a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+female bird in this city that was killed in Livingston
+County in October, 1892."</p>
+
+<p>In a bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club,
+Vol. II, No. 3-4, July to December, 1898, Mr. A. B.
+Covert, the club's president, tells of seeing a flock of
+about two hundred pigeons. On Oct. 1, 1898, in Washtenaw
+County, Mich., he watched a large number of
+them all day.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Stewart E. White writes from Ann Arbor under
+date of Feb. 9, 1894: "My notebooks are not here so
+I cannot give exact dates, but I can remember distinctly
+every specimen I ever saw. I observed one flock of
+about sixty in Kent County in the fall, the last of October
+or first of November, 1890. At Mackinac Island at
+various times in September of 1889 I saw parts of a
+large flock, of say two hundred. My field experience
+in the western part of Michigan has been quite extensive
+and thorough, but these two flocks are all I ever recorded."</p>
+
+<p>F. M. Falconer of Hillsdale, Mich., on Dec. 3, 1904,
+writes to Mr. Warren as follows: "During the last
+week of March, 1892, one of the students here shot a
+nice male. There were two together, but only one was
+secured. That summer I saw a small flock feeding in
+some thick woods along the banks of a stream in which
+I was fishing, in Chautauqua County, N. Y. There
+were eight or ten birds at least, and perhaps many more,
+as they scattered along in spots."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. T. E. Douglas of Grayling, Mich., reports that
+in the year 1900 he saw three Passenger Pigeons on the
+East Branch of Au Sable River, Michigan, and about
+five years previous to that date a flock of ten was seen
+around George's Lake, which is eight miles southwest
+of West Branch, Michigan.</p>
+
+<p>I also have a record of one pigeon taken by
+Mr. John H. Sage, in Portland, Conn., in October,
+1889.</p>
+
+<p>In May, 1904, Hon. Chase S. Osborn wrote:</p>
+
+<p class="pmt2"><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Mershon</span>: I haven't much information
+relating to the pigeons in this section of the country. In
+fact, the pigeon was practically gone from the north
+when I first visited the country in 1880. I remember
+seeing a flock of about three hundred in Florence
+County, Wis., which would probably be on a line fifty
+miles south of here, in 1883. In 1884 I saw a flock in
+that same section, in the woods northwest of Florence,
+of about fifty. In 1890 I six of these birds near the
+mouth of the Little Munoskong River in this county.
+This river empties into Munoskong Bay, about thirty
+miles southeast of here. In 1897 I saw a single wild
+pigeon, flying with the tame pigeons around this town.
+It was a remarkable sight and attracted the attention of
+many local bird lovers. There is no doubt that it was a
+pigeon, and it was absolutely alone as far as we could
+discover.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Upon inquiry here among old residents, I am told
+that there was quite a large roost on a beech ridge
+about forty miles west of here, which would be at a
+point north of the present station of Eckerman. I have
+been unable to learn just when this roosting place was
+discontinued, but as near as I can make out from comparing
+statements and records, it must have been in '78,
+'79, or '80.</p>
+
+<p>I have heard of a large roosting place in northern
+Wisconsin which was used as late as 1874 by vast numbers
+of birds. It was located to the south and a little
+west of Lac Vieux Desert. At the head of the Pike
+River in Wisconsin, a point probably sixty-five miles
+south of here, and west into that State, the pigeons
+were seen in large numbers until 1872. As I understand
+it, in the early days they were very likely to frequent
+the same section year after year when not too
+much disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Newell A. Eddy of Bay City, Mich., under date
+of Aug. 7, 1905, wrote me as follows:</p>
+
+<p class="pmt2">I find that I have but few notes regarding this
+species. On Sept. 13, 1880, I took a single bird near
+the city of Bangor, Maine. The sex was not determined.
+This was an unusual capture for the place and
+the time. A few years previous to that time, on a
+canoeing trip to the headwaters of the Penobscot River,
+I fell in with a small flock of a dozen or more in an old
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+burnt-over swamp, but was unable to secure any of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>I presume that you have an abundance of notes on
+the Passenger Pigeon in this section of the country at
+the time it was so abundant here, as such information
+is readily obtainable from any of the old inhabitants
+of this locality. I had a very interesting interview the
+other day with Mr. C. E. Jennison of this city, who
+was one of our earliest settlers, and he gave me a great
+deal of information about this bird in the earlier days
+of Bay City. He also stated, which was quite interesting,
+that six or seven years ago he saw a few birds at
+Thunder Bay Island, near Alpena. This appears to
+be his last record of this species.</p>
+
+<p>The most interesting information I have was obtained
+from Mr. Birney Jennison, his son, who advised
+me a few days ago while we were on our way to Point
+Lookout, Saginaw Bay, that about the 15th of July,
+this year, he saw a pair of these birds in a swale at
+Point Lookout while roaming through the woods. He
+and I visited the same locality about two weeks after
+that, but saw nothing of them. Of course there is some
+likelihood that the birds Mr. Jennison saw may have
+been the common Carolina doves. Mr. Birney Jennison
+also had a great deal of experience with this bird
+in his younger days about Bay City, and there would
+appear to be no question as to his ability to accurately
+identify the bird.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="pmt2">From Mr. Neal Brown, Warsaw, Wis., May 20,
+1904:</p>
+
+<p class="pmt2 p0"><span class="smcap">Mr. W. B. Mershon</span>, Saginaw, Mich.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir:</span>&mdash;Your favor at hand with reference to
+the wild pigeon. It was, I think, three or four years
+ago that, in hunting with Mr. Emerson Hough near
+Babcock in this State in September, we killed an unmistakable
+wild pigeon. I saw a few pigeons in the woods
+in Forest County, in this State, about fifteen years ago.
+About seven years ago I saw three near Wausau and
+shot one of them. There was a pigeon roost for many
+years in Wood County, in this State, but it has long
+since disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>When I was a boy in southern Wisconsin in the 60's
+and 70's, wild pigeons were so numerous as to almost
+darken the air. In the early 70's there was a small roost
+on Bark River, near Ft. Atkinson, in this State.</p>
+
+<p>The wild pigeon had practically disappeared in
+southern Wisconsin as early as 1880, in fact, it was two
+or three years before that that I saw the last of them.</p>
+
+<p>Charles W. Ward of Queens, L. I., New York, reports
+that in October, 1883, he saw a flock of at least
+one hundred Passenger Pigeons along the Manistee
+River in Township 26-5 and the following year about
+one dozen nested in a Spruce swamp near Orchard Lake
+on his old homestead. He often saw the nest and the
+birds. He remembers the time as being the season of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+the year when huckleberries were ripe, for he was
+berry-picking when he first observed them.</p>
+
+<p>The writer of the following newspaper clipping of
+recent date is emphatically skeptical regarding the present-day
+existence of even an isolated pigeon:</p>
+
+<p class="caption3">LAST PIGEON FLIGHT IN IOSCO IN 1880</p>
+
+<p class="caption4">MILLIONS PASSED THROUGH THEN, BUT THEY HAVE
+NEVER BEEN THERE SINCE</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Tawas, Mich.</span>, July 27.&mdash;John Sims, county game
+and fish warden, ridicules the idea of flocks of wild
+pigeons being found in Iosco County, as was reported
+in some of the State papers. He says: "There are no
+wild pigeons in Iosco County; nor have there been any
+here since April 1, 1880. There fell about six inches
+of snow on that day, then the weather cleared and the
+sun rose bright and clear, but it was but for a short
+time, as the air was clouded with pigeons going westward.
+That was the first time they had been here for
+a number of years, and, although it was Sunday, everyone
+who had a gun was shooting or trying to shoot, and
+there were lots of pigeons killed that day in nearly all
+the streets of Tawas. There were simply millions of
+them going westward, and those that were killed were
+picked up out of the snow. Since that day there have
+been no wild pigeons here. We have lots of mourning
+doves here, and the writer has probably seen these.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+There is a certain magazine that offers $50 for a pair
+of wild pigeons, and I think the sportsmen would add
+another $50 to it to have the wild pigeons with us
+again."</p>
+
+<p>In the report of the Massachusetts commissioners on
+fisheries and game for the year ending December 31,
+1903, is to be found the following:</p>
+
+<p>The occurrence of the wild pigeon is a matter of
+public and scientific interest, and for this reason, and not
+because it is a game bird, reference to it is introduced
+here. Deputy Samuel Parker, who is perfectly familiar
+with the wild pigeon, makes mention of its appearance
+at Wakefield this year as follows: "In September a
+flock of wild pigeons, twenty-five or thirty in number,
+came over Crystal Lake." This notice of the presence
+of a species believed to be extinct is interesting and must
+be important to ornithologists.<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a>
+<a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> I believe that this informant was mistaken&mdash;W. B. M.</p></div>
+
+<p>George King, guide and trapper, living in Otsego
+County, Michigan, told me in 1904 that four years before
+he had seen along Black River a flock of wild
+pigeons, a dozen or more birds. He said there is no
+mistake about it, because he was familiar with the wild
+pigeon early in life. These alighted in a tree near him.
+He said that in 1902, also, he heard the call of two
+wild pigeons, although he hunted for the birds and did
+not find them.</p>
+
+<div id="fp156" class="figcenter" style="width: 632px;">
+<img src="images/fp_156.png" width="632" height="431" alt="" />
+<p class="fig_title">COMPARATIVE SIZE OF PIGEON AND DOVE</p>
+<p class="fig_caption">From photo furnished by Prof W. B. Burrows, of the Michigan Agricultural College</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I believe that six wild pigeons were actually seen in
+the latter part of April of 1905 near Vanderbilt, Mich.,
+by this George King. I have tested his honesty and
+truthfulness time and time again. He told me he was
+seated in the branches of an apple tree when he saw six
+wild pigeons alight in another tree near him. He kept
+perfectly still and watched their movements for about
+thirty minutes. They flew from the old tree in which
+they had alighted, underneath a beech tree and began
+feeding on beech nuts from the ground. He says he
+heard them call and they made the same old crowing
+call of the wild pigeon. He was close to them; he is
+perfectly familiar with the dove and knows that these
+six were Passenger Pigeons. King has for many years
+lived in the section that formerly was the great pigeon
+nesting and feeding ground of northern Michigan.</p>
+
+<p class="tdr2 smcap">Michigan Agricultural College,</p>
+
+<p class="tdr">July 14, '05.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir:</span>&mdash;I have been away for the past three
+weeks and find your letter of June 27 here on my return.
+The photographs sent you were those of the Passenger
+Pigeon and the Carolina dove, the one of the two birds
+being intended to show relative size and appearance.
+It was taken from two of the best specimens in the
+museum, placed at exactly the same distance from the
+camera so that the picture shows the comparative size
+exactly. The birds being so similar in general appearance,
+the smaller one looks as if it were further away
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+than the larger, and this, I think, shows clearly how
+impossible it is for the ordinary observer to discriminate
+between these two species when seen separately in the
+field. Of course a mixed flock would be a different
+proposition, but so far as I know the two species never
+mingle, and, at least in this State, it is an unusual thing
+to find the Carolina dove in large compact flocks such
+as are characteristic of the Passenger Pigeon. In several
+cases, however, during August and September I have
+seen large scattered flocks of the Carolina dove which
+were feeding on weed seeds and grain in open fields,
+and which when disturbed, gathered into small bands
+of twenty to fifty each and flew and perched very much
+like Passenger Pigeons. In one case I saw at least five
+hundred Carolina doves acting this way, and had hard
+work to convince a sportsman friend of mine that they
+were not Passenger Pigeons. Finally, after getting
+directly under a small tree on which a dozen or more
+were perched, he was able to see that characteristic
+black dot on the side of the neck, and was also able to
+estimate more correctly the actual size of the birds.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Yours very truly,</p>
+<p class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Walter B. Burrows</span>,<br />
+<i>Professor of Zoology.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="pmt2 tdr2 smcap">Agricultural College,</p>
+
+<p class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Ingham Co., Mich.</span>, June 17, 1905.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap p0">Mr. W. B. Mershon</span>, Saginaw, Mich.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir:</span>&mdash;Yours of the 16th is at hand and in
+reply I would say that the Carolina dove is <i>rarely</i>
+found north of the Au Sable River, and I should not
+expect <i>ever</i> to see it there in flocks in the spring; on
+the other hand it is just as likely to be found <i>early</i> in
+the season as the Passenger Pigeon, since the Carolina
+dove winters regularly in southern Michigan and is
+one of the first birds to appear in the spring in this
+county, in fact not infrequently staying <i>here</i> through
+the winter. On the whole, however, I think there can
+be little doubt that Mr. King's report relates to the Passenger
+Pigeon and not to the dove. I have had some
+photographs taken of the Carolina dove and Passenger
+Pigeon together, and will ask my assistant, Mr. Myers,
+to mail you prints of these within a few days as soon as
+he has time to make some good ones. If these do not
+show what you desire we will try again.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Yours very truly,</p>
+
+<p class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Walter B. Burrows</span>,<br />
+<i>Professor of Zoology.</i></p>
+
+<p class="pmt2">Mr. George E. Atkinson, to whom I am indebted
+for much valuable data in this book, writes from
+Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, July 21, 1905, as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I was on a holiday trip on the Assiniboia River last
+week, and a pair of birds flew by me at a few yards'
+distance, flashing the pigeon color to all appearances
+in the sun and alighting on the bank. I turned my boat
+and until after I shot the bird, I would have sworn it
+was a pigeon, but it proved to be a large, bright
+plumaged dove. Atmospheric conditions considerably
+affected the size so that I am convinced that it is possible
+for even the best of us to be deceived, and a scientific
+record must not be formed on any supposition.</p>
+
+<p class="tdr tdr2 smcap">Iron Mountain, Mich.,</p>
+
+<p class="tdr">May 30, 1904.</p>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Mr. W. B. Mershon</span>, Saginaw, Mich.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:&mdash;In reply to your letter of inquiry respecting
+the Passenger Pigeon, I will say that my knowledge
+of it is very limited except from hearsay, but I am credibly
+informed that it nested at the east end of Deerskin
+Lake, Sec. 30, N44 W31, as late as 1888. Mr. Armstrong,
+a timber cruiser, late a resident of this city, gave
+me this information. He said there was a small colony
+of less than a hundred birds then. Fire has since destroyed
+the timber there and he doubted if they were
+still there when he told me about them. Mr. A. was a
+keen observer and thoroughly reliable; had been familiar
+with the species when abundant in lower Michigan,
+and I have great confidence in the accuracy of his reports.
+I used to see them as late as 1883 in this
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+vicinity. They were shot in the summer of 1883 during
+the blueberry season. I should estimate that as
+many as fifty birds were taken that summer. I cannot
+imagine why they should have disappeared from this
+region. I have no reports concerning the birds from
+the north shore.</p>
+
+<p>In 1897 a young bird was taken in the neighboring
+town of Norway with a broken wing and identified by
+hunters who had known the species in the day of its
+abundance.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. J. D. Cameron of this city informs me that he
+saw a flock of about fifty birds flying over the St.
+George Hospital of this place on the 28th of October,
+1900. He was positive that he was not mistaken, as
+the birds were flying low, and he had formerly been well
+acquainted with the species in Canada. You can take
+this latter for what it is worth. Dr. C's. veracity is
+beyond question, but whether he could have mistaken
+some other birds for the pigeons I am not prepared to
+say. He is not interested in ornithology and I would not
+expect him to recognize ordinary birds, but he may
+have hunted the wild pigeon in his younger days
+and so be familiar with its manner of flight. I
+cannot imagine any other birds that he could mistake
+for them.</p>
+
+<p>I have an idea that I may have seen one myself in the
+summer of 1900, but am not sufficiently well acquainted
+with it to recognize it at sight. I fired at it with a .22
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+rifle, and the peculiar maneuvers which it executed in
+the air as the bullet passed, attracted my attention. I
+was afterward told that the wild pigeon tumbled in the
+air that way when fired at. I thought at first that it
+was hit.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="tdr"><span class="smcap">E. E. Brewster</span>.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2">What Became of the Wild Pigeon?</p>
+
+<p class="caption3">By Sullivan Cook, from "Forest and Stream," March 14, 1903.<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a>
+<a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote pmb2">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> I think that anyone who reads this article will be, like myself, satisfied
+that the destruction of the pigeons was wrought to gratify the avarice and
+love of gain of a few men who slaughtered them until they were virtually
+exterminated.&mdash;W. B. M.</p></div>
+
+<div class="dropcap">W</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">W</span>HEN a boy and living in northern Ohio, I
+often had to go with a gun and drive the
+pigeons from the newly sown fields of wheat.
+At that time wheat was sown broadcast, and pigeons
+would come by the thousands and pick up the wheat
+before it could be covered with the drag. My father
+would say, "Get the gun and shoot at every pigeon you
+see," and often I would see them coming from the woods
+and alighting on the newly sowed field. They would
+alight until the ground was fairly blue with these beautiful
+birds.</p>
+
+<p>I would secrete myself in a fence corner, and as these
+birds would alight on the ground they would form themselves
+in a long row, canvassing the field for grain, and
+as the rear birds raised up and flew over those in front,
+they reminded one of the little breakers on the ocean
+beach, and as they came along in this form, they resembled
+a windrow of hay rolling across the field.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I would wait until the end of this wave was opposite
+my hiding place and then arise and fire into this windrow
+of living, animated beauty, and I have picked up as
+many as twenty-seven dead birds killed at a single shot
+with an old flintlock smooth bore. Later in the fall
+these birds would come in countless millions to feed
+on the wild mast of beech nuts and acorns, and every
+evening they would pass over our home, going west of
+our place to what was known as Lodi Swamp.</p>
+
+<p>Many and many a time have I seen clouds of birds
+that extended as far as the eye could reach, and the
+sound of their wings was like the roar of a tempest.
+And for those who are not acquainted with the habits
+and flight of these birds, I wish to say that once in the
+month of November, while these pigeons were going
+from their feeding grounds to this roost in the Lodi
+Swamp, they were met with a storm of sleet and snow.
+The wind blew so hard that they could not breast it and
+were compelled to alight in a sugar orchard near our
+place. This orchard consisted of twenty acres, where
+the timber had all been cut out, except the maples, and
+when they commenced alighting, the trees already partially
+loaded with snow and ice, and the vast flock of
+pigeons being attracted by those alighting, all sought the
+same resting place.</p>
+
+<p>Such vast numbers alighted that in a short time the
+branches of the trees were broken and as fast as one
+tree gave way those birds would alight on the already
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+loaded tree adjoining, and, that, too, was stripped of
+its long and limber branches. Suffice it to say that in
+a half hour's time this beautiful sugar orchard was
+entirely ruined by the loads of birds which had attempted
+to rest from the storm.</p>
+
+<p>About this time I enjoyed my first pigeon hunt in
+a roost. Being a boy about sixteen years of age, having
+a brother about thirteen, and as we had seen the pigeons
+going by to their roost for hours and knowing that
+many people went there every night to shoot pigeons
+on the roost, my brother and I were seized with a desire
+to go and enjoy this exciting sport. Then arose
+the difficulty of a gun suitable for the occasion. As
+we had nothing but a small-bore rifle and not owning
+a shotgun, we appealed to father as to what we should
+do for a gun. We had previously gained his consent
+to our going. He suggested that we take the old horse
+pistol; one of the Revolutionary time, which had been
+kept in the family as a reminder of troublesome years.</p>
+
+<p>Let the young man of to-day, who hunts with the
+improved breechloader, think of two boys starting
+pigeon hunting, their only outfit consisting of a horse
+pistol, barrel twelve inches long, caliber 12-gauge, flintlock,
+one pound of No. 4 shot, a quarter of a pound of
+powder, a pocket full of old newspaper for wadding,
+a two-bushel bag to carry game in, and a tin lantern.
+Thus equipped, we started for the pigeon roost a little
+after dark. Although three miles from the roost when
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+we started from home, we could hear the sullen roar of
+that myriad of birds, and the sound increased in volume
+as we approached the roost, till it became as the roar
+of the breakers upon the beach.</p>
+
+<p>As we approached the swamp where the birds roosted,
+a few scattered birds were frightened from the roost
+along the edge of the swamp. These scattering birds
+we could not shoot, but kept advancing further into the
+swamp. As we approached this vast body of birds,
+which bent the alders flat to the ground, we could see
+every now and then ahead of us a small pyramid which
+looked like a haystack in the darkness, and as we approached
+what appeared to be this haystack, the
+frightened birds would fly from the bended alders, and
+we would find ourselves standing in the midst of a
+diminutive forest of small trees of alders and willows.</p>
+
+<p>We now found these apparent haystacks were only
+small elms or willows completely loaded down with live
+birds. My brother suggested that I shoot at the next
+"haystack." So we advanced along very carefully
+among the now upright alders till we came to where it
+was a perfect roar of voices and wings, and just ahead
+of us we saw one of those mysterious objects which so
+resembled a haystack.</p>
+
+<p>My brother suggested that I aim at the center of it
+and let the old horse pistol go. I instantly obeyed his
+suggestion, pointing as best I could in the dim light at
+the center of that form, and pulled. There was a flash
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+and a roar, and the very atmosphere seemed to be alive
+with flying, chattering birds. The old tin lantern was
+lighted. The horse pistol was hunted for, as it had
+recoiled with such force I had lost hold of it. The
+gun being found, we then approached as nearly as we
+could the place where I had shot at the stack. From
+this discharge we picked up eighteen pigeons and saw
+some hobbling away into thick brush, from which we
+could not recover them. After an hour of this kind
+of hunting our bag was full of pigeons, and our tallow
+candle in the lantern nearly consumed. We retraced
+our steps out of the swamp, and about 11 o'clock at
+night arrived home well satisfied with the night's hunt
+in the pigeon roost. We had had acres of enjoyment
+and had brought home bushels of pigeons.</p>
+
+<p>This is only to give an idea of what pigeons were in
+northern Ohio in the days of my boyhood. This was in
+the years of 1844 to 1846. In 1854, having grown to
+man's estate, I moved to Michigan and settled in Cass
+County, where I built a log house and began clearing
+up a farm. After having cleared three or four fields
+around my house, one morning one of my girls came
+running in from out of doors and said: "Pa, come
+out and see the pigeons."</p>
+
+<p>I went to the door and saw scooting across my fields,
+as it seemed skimming the surface of the earth, flock
+after flock of the birds, one coming close upon the heels
+of another. I hastened into the house and grasped my
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+double barreled shotgun, powder flask and shot pouch;
+my little girl, then a miss of twelve summers, following
+me. I took a stand on a slight rise in the middle of a
+five-acre field and commenced shooting, you might say,
+at wads of pigeons, so closely huddled were they as they
+went by. Letting the birds get opposite me and firing
+across the flock, I was enabled to kill from three to
+fifteen pigeons at a shot. And my girl was wildly
+excited, picking up the dead birds and catching the
+winged ones and bringing them to me.</p>
+
+<p>You never saw two mortals more busy than we were
+for a half hour. At this time my wife called for breakfast,
+as we were near the house, and I found my stock
+of ammunition nearly exhausted. We went into the
+house for our breakfast and when we came out the birds
+were flying as thickly as ever. She says, let us count
+the pigeons and see how many we have. We found we
+had killed and picked up in this short time twenty-three
+dozen. My wife said I had better take them to Three
+Rivers, which was our nearest town, and sell them.
+And as my ammunition was about exhausted, I hitched
+up my team, took twenty dozen of the birds and drove
+ten miles to the station, sold my birds for sixty-five
+cents a dozen and returned home well satisfied with my
+day's work, and having on hand a good supply of ammunition
+for the next morning's flight.</p>
+
+<p>Now I wish to pass along, the lapse of time being
+about sixteen years. During this time I had removed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+from Cass County to Van Buren County, where I had
+located in the beautiful village of Hartford. In the
+year 1869 or 1870, the pigeoners, a class of men who
+lived in Hartford, made a business of netting pigeons,
+and they are living here yet, and not one of them
+feels any pride in the part he took in the destruction
+of these beautiful birds. In March, 1869, word was
+received that a large flight of pigeons were coming
+north through the State of Indiana. These men, who
+had followed the pigeons for years, said, "As we have
+snow on the ground they will be sure to nest near
+here, and as we have had a big crop of beech nuts and
+acorns last fall they will be sure to stop to get the
+benefit of this mast." A queer thing about the pigeon
+was that he always built his nest on the borders of the
+snow, that is, where the ground underneath was covered
+with snow.</p>
+
+<p>Sure enough, as predicted, in two days after receiving
+notice of the flight of the birds from Indiana,
+myriads of pigeons were passing north along the east
+shore of Lake Michigan, and soon scattering flocks were
+seen going south towards the bare ground. In a few
+days word was received that pigeons had gone to nesting
+in what was then called Deerfield Township, a vast
+body of hardwood and hemlock timber. Then it was
+that the pigeon killers, with their nets, stool birds and
+flyers commenced making preparations for the slaughter
+of the beautiful birds when they began laying
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>
+their eggs. This takes place only three or four days
+after they commence nesting, as a pigeon's nest is the
+simplest nest ever built by a bird seen in a tree. It consists
+of a few little twigs laid crosswise, without moss
+or lining of any kind, and the lay of eggs is but one.
+As soon as one egg is laid, they commence sitting, and
+the male pigeon is quite a gentleman in his way, taking
+his turn and sitting one-half of the time.</p>
+
+<p>In about twelve or fourteen days&mdash;some claim twenty&mdash;the
+young pigeon is hatched. As soon as hatched
+the male and female birds commence feeding on what
+is known as marsh feed, that is, on low, springy ground.
+And from this feed is supplied to both the male and
+female bird what is known as pigeon's milk, forming
+inside of the crop a sort of curd, on which the young
+pigeon is fed by both father and mother, who supply
+this food. The young bird is gorged with this food,
+and in a few days becomes as heavy as the parent
+bird. Another singular thing about the wild pigeon
+is that as the snow melts and the ground is left bare
+where the nesting is, the old birds never eat the nuts
+in the nesting, but leave them for the benefit of the
+young one, and so when he comes off the nest he always
+finds an abundance of food at his very door, as
+it were. As soon as the young birds are able to leave
+the nest and begin feeding on the ground in the
+nesting, the old birds immediately forsake them, move
+again on to the borders of the snow and start another
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
+nesting. In five or ten days the young birds will follow
+in the direction of the old birds.</p>
+
+<p>When the young birds first come off the nest and
+commence feeding on the ground, they are fat as
+balls of butter, but in ten days from this time, when
+they start on their northern flight to follow their
+mother bird, they are poor as snakes, and almost unfit
+to eat, while, when they first leave the nest they are
+the most palatable morsel man ever tasted. However,
+in about forty days from the time they began nesting to
+the time they took their northern flight, there were
+shipped from Hartford and vicinity, three carloads a
+day of these beautiful meteors of the sky. Each car
+containing 150 barrels with 35 dozen in a barrel, making
+the daily shipment 24,750 dozen.</p>
+
+<p>Young men who are now hunting for something to
+shoot and wondering what has become of our game,
+must hear with anger and regret such reports as this
+from western Michigan in the days gone by: "In three
+years' time there were caught and shipped to New York
+and other eastern cities 990,000 dozen pigeons, and in
+the two succeeding years it was estimated by the same
+men who caught the pigeons at Hartford that there
+were one-third more shipped from Shelby than from
+Hartford; and from Petoskey, Emmett County, two
+years later, it is now claimed by C. H. Engle, a resident
+of this town, who was a participant in this ungodly
+slaughter, that there were shipped five carloads a day
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+for thirty days, with an average of 8,250 dozen to the
+carload. Now, when one asks you what has become of
+the wild pigeons, refer them to C. H. Engle, Stephen
+Stowe, Chas. Sherburne, and Hiram Corwin, and a man
+by the name of Miles from Wisconsin, Mr. Miles having
+caught 500 dozen in a single day. And when you
+are asked what has become of the wild pigeons, figure
+up the shipping bills, and they will show what has
+become of this, the grandest game bird that ever cleft
+the air of any continent."</p>
+
+<p>My young friends, I want to humbly ask your forgiveness
+for having taken a small part in the destruction
+of this, the most exciting of sport. And there is
+not one of us but is ashamed of the slaughter which has
+robbed you of enjoyment. If we had been restrained
+by laws of humanity, you, too, could have enjoyed this
+sport for years to come.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2">A Novel Theory of Extinction</p>
+
+<p class="caption3 pmb2">By C. H. Ames and Robert Ridgway</p>
+
+
+<p class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Boston</span>, March 8, 1906.</p>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Mr. W. B. Mershon</span>:</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:&mdash;Thank you for your note of the third
+in reply to mine of the first, in regard to your book on
+the Passenger Pigeon. I note that you say:</p>
+
+<p class="smaller">"There is room to make additions if you think you have something
+that would be interesting, and would like to submit it to me for my
+consideration."</p>
+
+<p>Thanking you for your courtesy in the matter, I beg
+to say that I have long had great interest in the problem
+of the so sudden and complete destruction of this
+great species, and have from the first been quite unable
+to believe that the ordinarily assigned agencies for the
+destruction of the pigeon were adequate, or anywhere
+near adequate, to make a destruction so sudden and
+complete.</p>
+
+<p>Several accounts which have come to my notice have
+strengthened my view. I know well that the attack of
+man and beast upon the pigeons in their rookeries, or
+breeding places, was fierce, persistent and enormously
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+destructive, and that at these breeding places the destroyers
+gathered in great numbers, but, with my vivid
+recollection of the tremendous flights of pigeons which
+I myself saw in the '60's in northern Illinois, the wide
+distribution of the bird, and what I know of its migratory
+habits (I wish I knew very much more about these
+habits), I cannot think that in so few years the practical
+destruction of the species could be effected by the means
+referred to.</p>
+
+<p>Years ago&mdash;I cannot tell how many, but I am confident
+it must have been at about the time of the disappearance
+of the great pigeon flights&mdash;I read an account,
+either in or quoted from a New Orleans newspaper, giving
+the stories of several ship captains and sailors who
+had arrived in New Orleans from the Gulf of Mexico.
+They stated that they had, in crossing the Gulf, sailed
+over leagues and leagues of water covered, and covered
+thickly, with dead pigeons. The supposition was that
+an enormous flight of the pigeons crossing the waters
+of the Gulf had been overwhelmed by a cyclone, or
+some such atmospheric disturbance, and that the birds
+had been whirled into the surf and drowned.</p>
+
+<p>I have been told by competent ornithologists connected
+with the Boston Society of Natural History that
+Pigeon Cove, a well-known and much frequented extremity
+of Cape Ann, near Gloucester, Mass., received
+its name from the fact that a large flight of pigeons was
+similarly overwhelmed in flying along the Atlantic near
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
+that place, and that their bodies covered the shore in
+"windrows."</p>
+
+<p>Not more than two years ago, if so long, I read a
+lengthy and signed account in a Montreal paper of a similar
+catastrophe to a great flight of pigeons in attempting
+to cross Lake Michigan, and similar statement was
+made that for miles the beach above Milwaukee was
+heaped and piled with "windrows" of dead pigeons.</p>
+
+<p>Within two or three years several accounts have
+reached us, bearing every mark of believability, that
+considerable flights of geese, swans and ducks have
+been drowned in the surf off the New Jersey and Maryland
+shores. These flights of birds have been overwhelmed
+in a sudden storm or gale of wind, which beat
+them down into the surf where they were drowned, their
+bodies drifting about, and some of them being thrown
+up on the shore.</p>
+
+<p>These accounts have come from fishermen, sportsmen
+and others, and I see no reason whatever to doubt
+that a flight of birds of any species known could easily
+be destroyed if caught off shore in some of the wind
+storms of which we have so many instances. I have
+frequently in <i>Forest and Stream</i> propounded my
+theory and asked for information about it before it
+became too late. The whole theory stands or falls, as
+it seems to me, with the ascertainment of the southern
+limit of the migration of the great pigeon flight. If
+the birds did not cross the Gulf of Mexico there is far
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+less likelihood of my theory being the correct one,
+though my inquiries in <i>Forest and Stream</i> elicited
+one very circumstantial account of an enormous destruction
+of pigeons on the Gulf Coast, the birds being
+blown into the Gulf and destroyed by a fierce "norther"
+which beat down the coast for two or three days. Persons
+familiar with this phenomena of the Texas
+"norther" need no help to their imaginations in seeing
+how a pigeon flight, being caught on the shores of the
+Gulf by such a wind could be practically destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know that you will think my theory worth
+any consideration, but I have finally interested a number
+of ornithologists who share my view that the final and
+sudden wiping out of the great bulk of the pigeon flight
+must have been by some cataclysmic agency. It seems
+to me that the question is one of great interest from
+the point of view of the naturalist and biologist, and
+well worth serious investigation by all who care for
+these things. I shall be pleased to know if what I have
+said seems to you of interest and to have any weight.</p>
+
+<p>Wishing you all success in your admirable undertaking,
+and anticipating with great pleasure the results
+of your studies in your proposed book, I am,</p>
+
+<p class="center">Yours very truly,</p>
+
+<p class="tdr pmb2"><span class="smcap">C. H. Ames.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hanging"><i>Memorandum prepared by Mr. Robert Ridgway, Curator
+of the Division of Birds, U. S. National Museum,
+to accompany letter to Mr. W. B. Mershon, Saginaw,
+Mich.</i></p>
+
+<p>If Mr. Mershon will communicate on the subject of
+Passenger Pigeons with Mr. William Brewster,<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a>
+<a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a> 145
+Brattle Street, Cambridge, Mass., he may get some
+data which will (or ought to) dismiss from consideration
+the idea that the passenger pigeon could have been
+exterminated in the manner suggested by Mr. Ames.
+During a visit to northern Michigan, Mr. Brewster
+talked with a great many pigeon netters. I have forgotten
+the figures, and may be very inexact in my recollection
+of them, but my recollection is that at one
+"roost" there were one hundred netters who averaged
+one thousand (it may have been ten thousand) pigeons
+per day. When it is considered that this was the rate
+of destruction at one locality in one State only, that
+the same was going on in other States, and that tens of
+thousands were being killed by hunters and others, and
+this year after year, I cannot see anything surprising in
+the eventual extermination of the species, no matter
+how numerously represented originally.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> See
+Chapter VII, "Netting the Pigeon" by Wm. Brewster.</p></div>
+
+<p>Nothing in the history of the Passenger Pigeon is
+more certainly known than the fact that its range to
+the southward <i>did not extend beyond the United States</i>.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+There is a single Cuban record, but the occurrence was
+purely accidental. The migrations of the Passenger
+Pigeon were wholly different in their character from
+those of true emigrants, that is to say, they were influenced
+or controlled purely by the matter of food
+supply, as in the case of the robin and some other birds,
+and the flights were as often from west to east and
+<i>vice versa</i> as from south to north or north to south; in
+short, the flocks moved about in various directions in
+their search for food or nesting places. For myself,
+I do not believe in the story of drowning in the Gulf
+of Mexico for two reasons. In the first place the birds
+are extremely unlikely to have been there, a hurricane
+from the <i>northward</i> being absolutely necessary to explain
+their presence in that quarter, and, in the second
+place, no such explanation is needed in view of what is
+known to be the facts concerning their wholesale destruction
+by human agency alone.</p>
+
+<p>The range of the Passenger Pigeon was limited to
+the mixed hardwood forest region of the eastern
+United States and Canada, and any that occurred beyond
+were stragglers, pure and simple. Consequently
+it was not found, except as stragglers, in the long-leaf
+pine belt of the Gulf Coast, but only on the uplands
+from northern or middle Alabama, Mississippi, and
+Louisiana, northward.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2 pmb2">News from John Burroughs</p>
+
+<div class="dropcap">W</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">W</span>HEN the following report from so high an
+authority as John Burroughs appeared in
+<i>Forest and Stream</i> it seemed too important
+to be overlooked. I therefore ventured to open a
+correspondence with this famous naturalist, even suggesting
+that his informants might have mistaken some
+other species of migratory bird for a flight of wild
+pigeons. I had once made a similar mistake in Texas
+when the northern migration of the curlews was in full
+flight. Countless flocks of them were streaming past at
+a considerable distance from me, and I could have sworn
+they were wild pigeons until I was lucky enough to see
+them at much closer range. Even now the newspapers
+east and west contain an annual crop of wild pigeon
+reports, most of which are to be found fake reports
+upon careful investigation. It has happened often that
+hunters and woodsmen mistake the wild dove for the
+pigeon, and refuse to believe otherwise. The correspondence
+explains itself, however, and is a valuable
+contribution to the subject in hand.</p>
+
+<p class="tdr">W. B. M.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="caption3">A FLOCK OF WILD PIGEONS<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a>
+<a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnt_cntr">
+<a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_F_6" class="label"><span>[F]</span></a> From
+<i>Forest and Stream</i>, May 19, 1906.
+</div>
+
+<p class="tdr"><span class="smcap">West Park, N. Y.</span>, May 11th.</p>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Editor</span> <i>Forest and Stream</i>:</p>
+
+<p>I have received evidence which is to me entirely convincing
+that a large flock of Passenger Pigeons was seen
+to pass over the village of Prattsville, Greene County,
+this State, late one afternoon about the middle of April.
+The fact was first reported in the local paper, the Prattsville
+<i>News</i>. An old boyhood schoolmate of mine,
+Charles W. Benton, was, with others, reported to have
+seen them. I have corresponded with Mr. Benton and
+have no doubt the pigeons were seen as stated. Mr.
+Benton saw pigeons, clouds of them, in his boyhood,
+and could not well be mistaken. He says it was about
+5 o'clock, and that the flock stretched out across the
+valley about one-half mile and must have contained
+many hundreds. It came from the southeast, and went
+northwest. Mr. Benton says that a large flock was reported
+last year as having passed over the village of
+Catskill, and that a wild pigeon was shot near Prattsville
+last fall. A friend of mine saw two pigeons in the
+woods at West Point a year or so ago.</p>
+
+<p>I have no doubt, therefore, that the wild pigeon is
+still with us, and that if protected we may yet see them
+in something like their numbers of thirty years ago.</p>
+
+<p class="tdr smcap">John Burroughs.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="pmt2 tdr"><span class="smcap">West Park</span>, N. Y., May 27, 1906.</p>
+
+<p class="smcap p0">To W. B. Mershon:</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:&mdash;I can give you no more definite information
+about that flock of pigeons than I reported to
+<i>Forest and Stream</i>. I have no doubt about the fact.
+If you will write to C. W. Benton, Prattsville, N. Y.,
+he can put you in communication with several people
+who saw the flock.</p>
+
+<p>I am just about to write to <i>Forest and Stream</i> of
+another very large flock of pigeons that was seen to pass
+over the city of Kingston, N. Y., on the morning of the
+15th. I have written to Judge A. T. Clearwater of
+that city, who replies that he has talked with many persons
+who saw the pigeons and who had seen the pigeons
+years ago. The flock is described as a mile long. I
+am going up to Kingston soon to question the persons
+who saw the flock. If I learn anything to discredit the
+story I will let you know. We never have a flight of
+any birds here that could be mistaken for pigeons by
+any one who had ever seen the latter. If these flocks
+were pigeons, where have they been hiding all these
+years?</p>
+
+<p class="center">Very sincerely yours,</p>
+
+<p class="tdr smcap">John Burroughs.</p>
+
+<p class="pmt2 tdr"><span class="smcap">Prattsville</span>, N. Y., June 9, 1906.</p>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">W. B. Mershon</span>, Saginaw, Mich.:</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:&mdash;Yours of the 6th inst. is before me and
+I hasten to reply. Now, in the first place, you speak
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+of John Burroughs. Mr. Burroughs and I went to
+school together when we were boys, and, as you say, he
+is a good authority on natural history, and I have had
+some communication with him on the pigeon question.
+I live in the heart of the Catskill Mountains, which was
+once a great resort for wild pigeons, and I have seen a
+vast number of them, dating back as far as 1848, when
+this country was literally covered with them, and for
+some years after. Now in regard to the wild pigeons
+I saw this spring. I was going to my home in the village
+of Prattsville, in company with a man by the name
+of M. E. Kreiger, one Sunday afternoon, and when
+near my house we stopped to talk a few minutes, when,
+on looking up, we saw the flock of pigeons. They were
+coming from the southeast and went to the northwest.
+The flock was about one-half mile long and flew in the
+same manner as pigeons of old. There were thousands
+of them. Now in regard to ducks, teal and plover, we
+never see any of them here in the mountains, though
+once in a while a few ducks, but only in small flocks of
+seven or eight in a bunch; and there are no birds that
+gather in flocks here but crows in the fall, but never at
+any other time. Wild geese fly over here in the fall.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Daily Leader</i>, a daily paper published in Kingston,
+Ulster County, N. Y., contained an item a few
+weeks since stating that a flock of wild pigeons passed
+over the city a short time ago. The flock was about
+one mile long and contained many thousands. And in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+the spring of 1905, the <i>Catskill Recorder</i>, a newspaper
+published in this county, reported seeing a flock similar
+to the one seen at Kingston.</p>
+
+<p>Wishing you success on your fishing trip, I am,</p>
+
+<p class="center">Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="smcap tdr">C. W. Benton.</p>
+
+
+<p class="caption3">THE SULLIVAN COUNTY PIGEONS</p>
+
+<p class="tdr"><span class="smcap">West Park</span>, N. Y., June 30th.</p>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Editor</span> <i>Forest and Stream</i>:</p>
+
+<p>Since I wrote you a few weeks ago, I have been looking
+up the men who were reported to have seen wild
+pigeons recently. I have seen six men who are positive
+they have seen flocks of wild pigeons&mdash;some of them
+two years ago, and some of them this past spring. As
+these men were all past middle age and had been
+familiar with the pigeon thirty and forty years ago and
+were, moreover, men reported truthful and sober by
+their neighbors, and who impressed me as being entirely
+reliable, I feel bound to credit their several statements.
+At De Bruce, Sullivan County, Mr. Cooper,
+the postmaster and village blacksmith, said he had seen
+a large flock of pigeons in the fall two years ago. They
+were about a buckwheat field. He pointed out the hill
+about which they were flying. Mr. Cooper had shot
+and trapped a great many pigeons years ago, and was
+sure he could not mistake any other bird for a pigeon.
+A farmer, whose name I do not now remember and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+who heard Mr. Cooper's statement, said he saw a large
+flock last fall about a buckwheat field, in the same town.
+This man was reported to me as perfectly reliable, and
+he gave me that impression.</p>
+
+<p>At Port Ewen, I met a Hudson River shad fisherman,
+Mr. Van Vliet, who said he had seen early one
+morning in April or May, two years ago, a flock of wild
+pigeons over the Hudson. He estimated the flock as
+containing seventy or eighty birds. Mr. Van Vliet is
+a man nearly seventy years old, and one cannot look
+into his face and have him speak and doubt for a moment
+the truth of what he is saying. When I asked
+him if he knew the wild pigeon, he smiled good-humoredly
+and said he knew them as well as he knew
+anything; he had lived in the time of pigeons, and had
+killed hundreds of them.</p>
+
+<p>Another man, one of the leading grocerymen of Port
+Ewen, said he had seen a very large flock of pigeons
+between 4 and 5 o'clock on May 15 last, flying over
+as he was on his way to open his store. His hired man,
+who was with him, also saw them. Mr. Van Leuven
+had also seen pigeons in his youth and described to me
+accurately their manner of flight and the form of the
+flock against the sky. A neighbor of his told me he
+had seen a flock of fifteen or twenty pigeons on a foggy
+morning only a few days before. The rush of their
+wings overhead first attracted his attention to them.
+But he had never seen wild pigeons, and might have
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+been deceived, though he was sure they were pigeons
+by their speed and general look.</p>
+
+<p>None of these men could have had any motive in
+trying to deceive me, and I feel bound to credit their
+stories. Their statements, taken in connection with the
+statement of my old schoolfellow at Prattsville, N. Y.,
+of whom I wrote you, makes me believe that there is a
+large flock of wild pigeons that still at times frequents
+this part of the State, and perhaps breeds somewhere
+in the wilds of Sullivan or Ulster County. But they
+ought to be heard from elsewhere&mdash;from the south or
+southwest in winter.</p>
+
+<p class="tdr"><span class="smcap">John Burroughs.</span></p>
+
+<p>P. S.&mdash;Just as I finished the above, I came upon the
+following in the Poughkeepsie <i>Sunday Courier</i>:</p>
+
+<p>"We noticed recently an item asking whether wild
+pigeons are returning. Sullivan County people seem
+to be taking the lead in answering the question, but a
+Dutchess County farmer named David Rosell, living
+near Fishkill Plains, who was familiar with the aforesaid
+birds in old days, reports having seen a flock of
+about thirty feeding on his buckwheat patch one morning
+last week, which gives evidence that the birds are
+not extinct as supposed, but a flock may merely be
+taking a tour around the world like Magellan of old.
+Mr. Rosell stated that he had not seen any before in
+about forty years. At first sight, he could hardly believe
+his eyes, but he was not long in becoming convinced
+of their identity."</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2">The Pigeon in Manitoba<a name="FNanchor_G_7" id="FNanchor_G_7"></a>
+<a href="#Footnote_G_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption3">By George E. Atkinson</p>
+
+<div class="footnote pmb2">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_G_7" id="Footnote_G_7"></a>
+<a href="#FNanchor_G_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> This
+paper was read at a meeting of the Manitoba Historical and
+Scientific Society at Winnepeg in 1905, by the author, a naturalist, residing
+at Portage la Prairie.</p></div>
+
+<div class="dropcap">W</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">W</span>HILE the biological history of any country
+records the decrease and disappearance of
+many forms of life due to just or unjust circumstances,
+it remains for the historical records of
+North America to reveal a career of human selfishness
+which may be considered the paragon. Within four
+centuries of North American civilization (or modified
+barbarism) we can be credited with the wiping into the
+past of at least three species of animal life originally
+so phenomenally abundant and so strikingly characteristic
+in themselves as to evoke the wonder and amazement
+of the entire world. And, sad to relate, so effectual
+has been the extermination, that it is doubtful if
+our descendants a few generations hence will be able to
+learn anything whatever about them save through the
+medium of books. While herein again we shall be just
+subjects of their censure for having manifestly failed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+to preserve in history's archives any material amount of
+specific information.</p>
+
+<p>The early settlers landing upon the Atlantic coast
+between Newfoundland and the Carolinas found them
+in possession of armies of great auks, and the few scraps
+of authenticated history which we now possess disclose
+a most iniquitous course of wanton slaughter and destruction
+which ended in the complete extinction of the
+bird over sixty years ago. Yet in the face of this destruction
+there remain but four mounted specimens and
+two eggs in the collections of North America to-day,
+while but seventy skins remain in the collections of the
+entire world.</p>
+
+<p>If possible, more ruthless and inhuman was the carnage
+waged against the noble buffalo, the countless
+thousands of which roaming over virgin prairies excited
+the wonder and amazement of the entire sporting
+and scientific world, and which, to-day, are represented
+only in the zoölogical parks, where all individuality
+will eventually be lost in domestication.</p>
+
+<p>Coincident almost with the passing of the buffalo
+we have to record the decline and fall of the Passenger
+Pigeon, a bird which aroused the excitement and wonder
+of the entire world during the first half of the last
+century because of its phenomenal numbers; a bird also
+which stood out unique in character and individuality
+among the 300 described pigeons of the world and
+which won the admiration of every ornithologist who
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+was fortunate enough to have experience with it living
+or dead. Yet it was not exempt from the oppression
+of its human foe, who has been instrumental, through
+interference with the breeding and feeding grounds and
+through a continued persecution and ruthless slaughter
+for the market, in reducing the species almost beyond
+the hope of salvation.</p>
+
+<p>The Passenger Pigeon, the species under observation,
+was first described under the genus <i>Columba</i>, or type
+pigeons, but subsequently Swainson separated it from
+these and placed it under the genus <i>Ectopistes</i> because
+of the greater length of wing and tail.</p>
+
+<p>Generically named <i>Ectopistes</i>, meaning moving about
+or wandering, and specifically named <i>Migratoria</i>, meaning
+migratory, we have a technical name implying not
+only a species of migrating annually to and from their
+breeding ground, but one given to moving about from
+season to season, selecting the most congenial environment
+for both breeding and feeding.</p>
+
+<p>.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp; With all the knowledge we have possessed of
+the inestimable multitudes which existed during the
+early part of the last century, and with their decline,
+begun and noted generally in the later sixties and early
+seventies, we still find that no steps whatever were taken
+to prevent their possible depletion, and few records of
+any value are made of the continuance or speed of this
+decrease; and not until the last decade of the century
+do we awake to the fact that the pigeons are gone beyond
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+the possibility of a return in any numbers. When
+a few years later reports are made that pigeons still
+exist and are again increasing, scientific investigation
+shows that the mourning dove has been mistaken for
+the pigeon or that the band-tailed pigeon of California
+is taken for the old Passenger Pigeon, and so we have
+continued since the early nineties investigating rumors
+of their appearance from all over America, north and
+south, and the West India Islands, but all reports point
+us to the past for the pigeon and some other species
+under suspicion.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. I doubt very much if the
+historian desirous of compiling any historical work
+would find himself confronted with such a decided blank
+in historical records during an important period as that
+confronted in the compilation of a historical record of
+the Passenger Pigeon within any district which it formerly
+frequented during the period from about 1870,
+when the decline was first noticed, to 1890, when the
+birds had practically passed away.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.</p>
+
+<p>In this matter, Mr. J. H. Fleming of Toronto, in
+writing me, says: "The pigeons seem to have gone off
+like dynamite. Nobody expected it and nobody prepared
+a series of skins"; and to this I can add that no
+one seems to have made any series of records of the
+birds from year to year. Since their disappearance,
+however, things have changed: everybody is alert for
+pigeons, and everybody has a theory; but beyond offering
+subject of social conversation, or awakening a recital
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+of old pigeon experiences from the old timers,
+these rumors and theories seem to return to the winds
+from whence they came.</p>
+
+<p>The latest theory advanced to me by a correspondent
+is the possibility of some disturbance of the elements in
+the shape of a cyclone, or a storm striking a migrating
+host in crossing the Gulf of Mexico and destroying them
+almost completely. This is a plausible theory, but I am
+unable to conceive how such immense hosts of pigeons
+as are recorded up to 1865 could possibly have met
+with sudden disaster in this manner, even in the center
+of the Gulf, without leaving some wreckage to tell the
+story, and such is not recorded. While again I do not
+think that the entire host would cross the Gulf, but that
+a large portion of the migrating birds would take an
+overland route through Mexico and Central America
+to the southern boundary of their flight. Personally I
+am inclined to cherish my original contentions that the
+continued disturbance of the breeding and feeding
+grounds, both by the slaughter of the birds for market
+and by the dissipating of the original immense colonies
+by the clearing of the hardwood and pine forests of the
+United States and eastern Canada, compelling these
+sections of the main column to travel farther in search
+of congenial environment, curtailing the breeding season,
+and, I have no doubt, frequently preventing many
+from breeding for several seasons.</p>
+
+<p>While the persistent persecution and destruction for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+the market was in no way proportionately lessened in
+the vicinity of these smaller colonies as long as a sufficient
+number of the birds remained to make the traffic
+profitable, it can at once be seen that this continued drain
+upon these smaller colonies, when other conditions were
+becoming more difficult for the birds to contend with,
+would be instrumental in depleting the entire former
+main column to a point when netting and shooting were
+no longer profitable; and, the remnant of these colonies
+having to run a gantlet of persecution over their entire
+course of migration to and from winter quarters,
+there could be but one result to such proceeding, and
+that one we now face; extermination.</p>
+
+<p>Of these records made during the pigeons' day, as
+we might call it, the earliest we have are those made
+by a Mr. T. Hutchins, who was a Hudson's Bay Company
+trader, operating for some twenty-five years in
+the district adjacent to Hudson's Bay, during which
+time he made copious notes of the birds frequenting
+that district, which were afterwards published by
+Pennant in his "Arctic Zoölogy" in 1875. He says in
+part:</p>
+
+<p>"The first pigeon I shall take note of is one I received
+at Severn in 1771; and, having sent it home to
+Mr. Pennant, he informed me that it was the <i>migratoria</i>
+species. They are very numerous inland and visit our
+settlement in the summer. They are plentiful about
+Moose Factory and inland, where they breed, choosing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+an arboreous situation. The gentlemen number them
+among the many delicacies the Hudson's Bay affords
+our tables. It is a hardy bird, continuing with us until
+December. In summer their food is berries, but after
+these are covered with snow, they feed upon the juniper
+buds. They lay two eggs and are gregarious. About
+1756 these birds migrated as far north as York Factory,
+but remained only two days."</p>
+
+<p>In a report issued in 1795, Samuel Hearne also reports
+the birds being abundant inland from the southern
+portion of Hudson's Bay, but states that, though good
+eating, they were seldom fat.</p>
+
+<p>The first provincial record is that made by Sir John
+Richardson in 1827, in which he says: "A few hordes
+of Indians who frequent the low floods districts at the
+south end of Lake Winnipeg subsist principally on the
+pigeons during the period when the sturgeon fishing is
+unproductive and the wild rice is still unripened, but
+farther north the birds are too few in numbers to furnish
+material diet."</p>
+
+<p>I presume that he means farther up the Lake Winnipeg
+shores, since Hutchins and Hearne both reported
+them common nearer Hudson's Bay.</p>
+
+<p>The early records of the birds in eastern Canada in
+later years corroborate the earlier statements of Wilson
+and Audubon in almost every particular; and one acquainted
+with the timbered conditions of the country
+to the immediate west of the Red River Valley and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+north of the American boundary line can readily appreciate
+the utter inadequacy of an acceptable food supply
+for these countless millions of pigeons; and we can also
+readily understand how very soon the breaking up of
+the original hardwood forests of eastern Canada would
+tend to decrease the visible food supply and cause these
+hungry millions to seek new pastures.</p>
+
+<p>The breaking of these feeding grounds would first
+be instrumental in scattering or breaking up the largest
+flocks, and even the very long distances the bird was
+able to fly from breeding to feeding ground would be
+exceeded, necessitating next the nesting in smaller colonies,
+where careless nesting habits with continued changing
+conditions would tend to continue to decline their
+numbers, while the tenacity with which even the smaller
+roosts were clung to by man, like leeches to a frog, and
+the hapless victim shot, netted and stolen from the nest
+before maturity, was but another effectual and not the
+least responsible agent in the relegation of the pigeon
+to that past from which none return.</p>
+
+<p>When I decided to attempt the preparation of a review
+history of the pigeon in Manitoba, I felt that,
+having had practically no experience with the bird myself,
+I should have to depend upon the reports of representative
+pioneers of the country for my facts as to the
+numbers of the birds formerly found here, and the
+period of their decline and disappearance. I accordingly
+drafted a series of questions which I submitted to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+these gentlemen, and I have to tender them all my sincere
+thanks, as well as that of the scientific world, for
+the ready responses and the conciseness of the information
+received.</p>
+
+<p>One of the earliest residents of Portage la Prairie,
+Mr. George A. Garrioch, informs me:</p>
+
+<p>"I was born in Manitoba and came to Portage la
+Prairie about 1853. I was then only about six years
+old, and as far back as I can remember pigeons were
+very numerous.</p>
+
+<p>"They passed over every spring, usually during the
+mornings, in very large flocks, following each other in
+rapid succession.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think they bred in any numbers in the
+province, as I only remember seeing one nest; this contained
+two eggs.</p>
+
+<p>"The birds, to my recollection, were most numerous
+in the fifties, and the decline was noticed in the later
+sixties and continued until the early eighties, when they
+disappeared. I have observed none since until last year,
+when I am positive I saw a single male bird south of the
+town of Portage la Prairie."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Angus Sutherland of Winnipeg, in reply to my
+interrogation, states:</p>
+
+<p>"I was born in the present city of Winnipeg and have
+lived here over fifty years. The wild pigeons were very
+numerous in my boyhood. They frequented the mixed
+woods about the city, and while undoubtedly many birds
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+bred here, I remember no extensive breeding colonies
+in the province, and believe the great majority passed
+farther north to breed. About 1870 the decrease in
+their numbers was most pronouncedly manifest, this decline
+continuing until the early eighties, when they had
+apparently all disappeared, and I have seen only occasional
+birds since, and none of late years."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. W. J. McLean, formerly of the Hudson's Bay
+Company and at present a resident of Winnipeg, sends
+me some valuable information, which supports my contention
+regarding the influence of food supply. He
+writes:</p>
+
+<p>"I came to the Red River Settlement in 1860 and
+found the pigeons very plentiful on my arrival. The
+birds came in many thousands, and great numbers of
+them bred in the northeastern portion of the province
+through the district north of the Lake of the Woods
+and Rainy Lake, where the cranberry and blueberry
+are abundant. These fruits constitute their chief food
+supply, as they remain on the bushes and retain much
+of their food properties until well on into the summer
+following their growth. They also feed largely on
+acorns wherever they abound. The decline began about
+the early seventies, and 1877 was the first year in which
+I encountered large flocks of them passing northwesterly
+from White Sand River near Fort Pelly. This was on
+a dull, drizzling day about the middle of May, and I
+presume they were then heading towards the Barren
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
+Grounds district, where the blueberry and the cranberry
+are very abundant."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. E. H. G. G. Hay, formerly police magistrate of
+Portage la Prairie, now of St. Andrews, reports:</p>
+
+<p>"I came to the country in June, 1861, and found that
+the pigeons were abundant previous to my arrival. To
+give you an idea of their numbers, a Mr. Thompson of
+St. Andrews some mornings caught with a net about
+ten feet square as many as eighty dozen, and in the
+spring of 1864 I fired into a flock as they rose from
+the ground and picked up seventeen birds.</p>
+
+<p>"The birds were mostly migratory in what is now
+known as Manitoba, and most of them went farther
+north after the seeding season. I never heard of any
+extensive rookeries such as those observed in the east
+and south. The few that bred here frequented mixed
+poplar and spruce. They seemed most numerous in the
+sixties and began to show signs of decreasing about
+1869 or 1870, and by 1875 they had all disappeared
+and I have only seen an occasional bird since."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. William Clark of the Hudson's Bay Company,
+Winnipeg, informs me:</p>
+
+<p>"The first place I remember having seen pigeons in
+Manitoba was at White Horse Plains (St. François
+Xavier) in 1865, where they were very numerous,
+breeding in the oak trees in that district. Two years
+after this I went to Oak Point on Lake Manitoba, but
+do not remember the birds there then nor since."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Charles A. Boultbee of Macgregor, Man., replies
+as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"I have resided in Manitoba since 1872, and have
+taken pigeons as far north as Fort Pelly in the fall of
+1874, but know nothing of them previously. In our
+district they usually made their appearance in the fall
+and fed upon the grain. They continued fairly numerous
+until about 1882, at which time we had to drive
+them from the grain stocks, but they then disappeared
+and only stragglers have been noted since."</p>
+
+<p>There is no doubt that many other reports could have
+been secured, but, as all seem to tend toward the one
+conclusion, I shall save time and space by summarizing
+the information at hand.</p>
+
+<p>Some months ago I made a statement in an article,
+written for local interest, to the effect that Manitoba
+had never been the home of the wild pigeon. By this
+I meant that, because of unfavorable breeding and feeding
+conditions within the province, only the smallest
+percentage of the enormous flocks recorded for the
+south and east could possibly exist here. The records
+here collected support me in this contention so far as
+that portion of the province west of the Red River is
+concerned, but the record of Sir John Richardson tends
+to show that favorable conditions must have existed immediately
+south of Lake Winnipeg, through what he
+calls a low-lying district, and where we can assume that
+the cranberry and blueberry were abundant, as they
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+were through the district subsequently reported by Mr.
+McLean to the east and northeast of this district.
+There is no doubt that the difference in the character
+of the country east of the Red River from that of the
+west would present more favorable conditions for the
+birds, but not in one case has it been shown that the
+birds nested in colonies approaching the size of the
+famous eastern and southern roosts. Reports seem
+rather to show that those which bred within the province
+were more generally scattered over the country, at
+the same time being numerous enough to permit the
+shooter and the netter to make a profitable business of
+killing the birds.</p>
+
+<p>All evidence seems to show that large numbers passed
+through the province to and from a northern breeding
+ground, possibly that recorded by Hutchins near Hudson's
+Bay and to the westward, and that they were excessively
+numerous up to about 1870, when they began
+to decrease. As to the latest authenticated records, I
+quote from notes in my pamphlet on "Rare Bird
+Records:"</p>
+
+<p>"The beautiful specimen of the Passenger Pigeon that
+I have been able to secure for illustration is loaned me
+by Mr. Dan Smith of Winnipeg, who shot it in St.
+Boniface, southeast of the cathedral, in the fall of 1893;
+and, so far as I have been able to discover, it was the
+last bird found in the vicinity of Winnipeg, while the
+only specimen in the flesh which I was ever privileged
+to handle in Manitoba was killed at Winnipegosis on
+April 10, 1896, and sent me to be mounted."</p>
+
+<div id="fp198" class="figcenter" style="width: 448px;">
+<img src="images/fp_198.png" width="448" height="600" alt="" />
+<p class="fig_caption">Photo by C. O. Whitman (University of Chicago)</p>
+
+<div class="smaller">
+<p class="pmt2 tdr">October 16, 1906.</p>
+
+<p class="smcap p0">Mr. W. B. Mershon,</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:&mdash;I am much chagrined over
+my carelessness in overlooking your request for a photo of a young
+Passenger Pigeon. I had best of intentions, but crowded work threw
+this out of mind. I should have attended to it at first, had it been
+easy to get at the picture. I have been away all summer and found
+things misplaced on my return. I fear it is now too late, but send the
+picture to be used if you are still able to do so. I shall be very
+much interested to see your book. I still have two female pigeons and
+two hybrids between a former male pigeon and the common Ring-dove. The
+hybrids are unfortunately infertile males.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Very truly,</p>
+
+<p class="tdr smcap">C. O. Whitman.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Since that time I have expended much effort in following
+up rumors of the bird's presence in various districts
+with a view of locating a breeding pair. Not
+only have I sought to secure a bird to mount, but also
+to get a live pair, or the eggs while fresh, to assist in
+the preservation of the pigeon in a partially domesticated
+state, since the only specimens now living in captivity
+are those owned by Prof. Whitman of the University
+of Chicago, who, in writing me, says: "My
+stock seems to have come to a complete standstill, having
+raised no young for the last four years. The weakness
+is due to long inbreeding, as my birds are from a
+single pair captured about twenty-five years ago in
+Wisconsin. I have long tried to secure new stock, but
+have been unsuccessful. A single pair would enable me
+to save them, for they breed well in confinement.</p>
+
+<p>"I have crossed them with ring doves, and still have
+three hybrids, but as these are infertile there is no hope
+of even preserving these half-breeds alive. Of all the
+wild pigeons in the world the Passenger Pigeon is my
+favorite. No other pigeon combines so many fine qualities
+in form, color, strength and perfection of wing
+power."</p>
+
+<p>I am enabled through the kindness of Prof. Whitman
+to exhibit a photograph of one of his younger birds
+taken in his aviary at Chicago.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2">The Passenger Pigeon in Confinement</p>
+
+<p class="caption2">(<i>Ectopistes migratorius</i>)</p>
+
+<p class="caption3 pmb2">From "The Auk," July, 1896.</p>
+
+<div class="dropcap">I</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">I</span>N the <i>American Field</i> of December 5, 1895, I
+noticed a short note, stating that Mr. David
+Whittaker of Milwaukee, Wis., had in a spacious
+inclosure a flock of fifty genuine wild pigeons. Being
+much interested of late in this bird, I at once wrote to
+Mr. Whittaker, asking for such information in detail
+regarding his birds as he could give me, but, owing to
+absence from the city, he did not reply. Still being
+anxious to learn something further regarding this interesting
+subject, I recently wrote to a correspondent
+in Milwaukee, asking him to investigate the matter. In
+due time I received his reply, stating that he had seen
+the pigeons, but that the flock consisted of fifteen instead
+of fifty birds, and inviting me to join him and
+spend a few hours of rare pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>On March 1, 1896, I visited Milwaukee, and made
+a careful inspection of this beautiful flock. I am
+greatly indebted to Mr. Whittaker, through whose
+courtesy we saw and heard so much of value and interest,
+not only in regard to his pet birds, but also about
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+his large experience with the wild pigeon in its native
+haunts; for, being a keen observer of nature, and having
+been a prospector for many years among the timber
+and mining regions of Wisconsin, Michigan and Canada,
+his opportunities for observation have been extensive.
+In the fall of 1888 Mr. Whittaker received
+from a young Indian two pairs of pigeons, one of
+adults and the other quite young. They were trapped
+near Lake Shawano, in Shawano County in northeastern
+Wisconsin.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after being confined, one of the old birds
+scalped itself by flying against the wire netting, and
+died; the other one escaped. The young pair were,
+with much care and watching, successfully raised, and
+from these the flock has increased to its present number,
+six males and nine females. The inclosure, which
+is not large, is built behind and adjoining the house,
+situated on a high bluff overlooking Milwaukee River.
+It is built of wire netting and inclosed on the top and
+two sides with glass. There is but slight protection
+from the cold, and the pigeons thrive in zero weather
+as well as in summer. A few branches and poles are
+used for roosting, and two shelves, about one foot wide
+and partitioned off, though not inclosed, are where the
+nests are built and the young are raised. It was several
+years before Mr. Whittaker successfully raised the
+young, but, by patient experimenting with various kinds
+of food, he has been rewarded. The destruction of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
+nests and egg, at times by the female, more often by
+others of the flock, and the killing of the young birds,
+after they leave the nest, by the old males, explains in
+part the slow increase in the flock.</p>
+
+<p>When the pigeons show signs of nesting, small twigs
+are thrown onto the bottom of the inclosure; and, on
+the day of our visit, I was so fortunate as to watch the
+operations of nest building. There were three pairs
+actively engaged. The females remained on the shelf,
+and, at a given signal which they only uttered for this
+purpose, the males would select a twig or straw, and in
+one instance a feather, and fly up to the nest, drop it and
+return to the ground while the females placed the
+building material in position and then called for more.</p>
+
+<p>In all of Mr. Whittaker's experience with this flock
+he has never known of more than one egg being
+deposited. Audubon, in his article on the Passenger
+Pigeon, says: "A curious change of habits has taken
+place in England in those pigeons which I presented to
+the Earl of Kirby in 1830, that nobleman having assured
+me that, ever since they began breeding in his
+aviaries, they have laid only one egg." The eggs are
+usually laid from the middle of February to the middle
+of September, some females laying as many as seven or
+eight during the season, though three or four is the
+average.</p>
+
+<p>The period of incubation is fourteen days, almost to
+a day, and, if the egg is not hatched in that time, the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+birds desert it. As in the wild state, both parents assist
+in incubation, the females sitting all night, and the
+males by day. As soon as the young are hatched the
+parents are fed on earth worms, beetles, grubs, etc.,
+which are placed in a box of earth, from which they
+greedily feed, afterwards nourishing the young, in the
+usual way, by disgorging the contents from the crop.
+At times the earth in the inclosure is moistened with
+water and a handful of worms thrown in, which soon
+find their way under the surface. The pigeons are so
+fond of these tid-bits they will often pick and scratch
+holes in their search, large enough to almost hide themselves.</p>
+
+<p>When the birds are sitting during cold weather, the
+egg is tucked up under the feathers, as though to support
+the egg in its position. At such times the pigeon rests
+on the side of the folded wing, instead of squatting on
+the nest. During the first few days, after the young is
+hatched, to guard against the cold, it is, like the egg,
+concealed under the feathers of the abdomen, the head
+always pointing forward. In this attitude, the parents,
+without changing the sitting position or reclining on
+the side, feed the squab by arching the head and neck
+down, and administering the food. The young leave
+the nest in about fourteen days, and then feed on small
+seeds, and later, with the old birds, subsist on grains,
+beech nuts, acorns, etc.</p>
+
+<p>The adults usually commence to molt in September
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>
+and are but a few weeks in assuming their new dress,
+but the young in the first molt are much longer. At the
+time of my visit the birds were all in perfect plumage.
+The young in the downy state are a dark slate-color.</p>
+
+<p>The pigeons are always timid, and ever on the alert
+when being watched, and the observer must approach
+them cautiously to prevent a commotion. They inherit
+the instincts of their race in a number of ways.
+On the approach of a storm the old birds will arrange
+themselves side by side on the perch, draw the head and
+neck down into the feathers, and sit motionless for a
+time, then gradually resume an upright position, spread
+the tail, stretch each wing in turn, and then, as at a given
+signal, they spring from the perch and bring up against
+the wire netting with their feet as though anxious to fly
+before the disturbing elements. Mr. Whittaker has
+noticed this same trait while observing pigeons in the
+woods.</p>
+
+<p>It was with a peculiar sense of pleasure and satisfaction
+that I witnessed and heard all the facts about this
+flock, inasmuch as but few of us expect to again have
+such opportunities with this pigeon in the wild state.
+It is to be hoped that, if Mr. Whittaker continues to
+successfully increase these birds, he will dispose of a
+pair to some zoölogical gardens; for what would be a
+more valuable and interesting addition than an aviary
+of this rapidly diminishing species?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">LETTERS OF COMMENT FROM CHIEF POKAGON.</p>
+
+<p class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Hartford, Mich.</span>, Dec. 17, 1896.</p>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="smcap">Ruthven Deane</span>, Chicago, Ill.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:&mdash;Your article on wild
+pigeons (<i>O-me-me-oo</i>)
+received and just read with much interest. I
+am now satisfied you are deeply interested in those
+strange birds, or you would not have gone to Milwaukee
+to see them. I would like to have Whittaker's
+full name and address so I can learn the come-out of
+that little flock. You note his flock stands zero weather.
+Many times in my life I have known O-me-me-oo, while
+nesting, to be obliged to search for food in from four
+to six inches of snow, and have seen the snow at such
+times upturned and intermixed with forest leaves for
+miles and miles. They would move out of the nesting
+grounds in vast columns, flying one over the other. I
+have seen them at such times reminding me of a vast
+flood of water rolling over a rocky bottom, sending the
+water in curved lines upwards and falling farther down
+the stream.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen them many times building nests by the
+thousand within sight, both male and female assisting
+in building the nest. I have counted the number of
+sticks used many times; they number from seventy to
+one hundred and ten, sometimes so frail I have plainly
+seen the eggs from the ground.</p>
+
+<p>I visited a nesting north of Kilburn City, Wis., about
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+twenty-five years ago, and I there counted as high as
+forty nests in scrub oaks not over twenty-five feet high;
+in many places I could pick the eggs out of the nests,
+being not over five or six feet from the ground.</p>
+
+<p>I stopped then with the Win-a-ba-go Indians, and
+was much interested in seeing them play mog-i-cin. I
+had heard the fathers explain the game when a boy,
+but never saw it before. I call it a gambling game.
+Certain it is, when nesting in a wild state, the male
+goes out at break of day; returning from eight to eleven
+he takes the nest; the hen then goes out, returning from
+one to four, and takes the nest; then the male goes out,
+returning, according to feed, between that time and
+night.</p>
+
+<p>After the young leave their nests, I have always
+noticed that a few, both males and females, stay with
+them. I have seen as many as a dozen young ones
+assemble about a male, and, with drooping wings, utter
+the plaintive begging notes to be fed, and never saw
+them misused at such times by either gender. Certain
+it is, while feeding their young they are frantic for salt.
+I have seen them pile on top of each other, about salt
+springs, two or more deep. I wonder if your friend
+gives his birds, while brooding, salt.</p>
+
+<p class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Hartford, Mich.</span>, Dec. 18, 1896.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:&mdash;Yours of December 17th at hand. It
+is indeed surprising to me that your place of business
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+is so close to old Fort Dearborn. In writing you yesterday,
+I overlooked what you said about the Milwaukee
+man's experience with his birds just hatching. I understand
+they were young birds. Thirty-two years ago
+there was a big nesting between South Haven and St.
+Joseph on Lake Michigan. About one week after the
+main body commenced nesting, a new body of great size,
+covering hundreds of acres, came and joined them. I
+never saw nests built so thick, high and low. I found
+they were all young birds less than a year old, which
+could be easily explained from their mottled coloring.
+To my surprise, soon as nests were built, they commenced
+tearing them down&mdash;a few eggs scattered about
+told some had laid; within three days they all left,
+moving in a body up the lake shore north. I have had
+like facts told me by others who have witnessed the
+same thing; and therefore conclude that your friend's
+experience accurately portrays the habits of these birds
+in their wild state.</p>
+
+<p class="tdr2 smcap">University of Chicago,</p>
+
+<p class="tdr">May 30, 1904.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:&mdash;I have ten of the wild pigeons; they are
+from a single pair obtained by Mr. Whittaker of Milwaukee
+about twenty years ago. Mr. W. bred from
+this pair until he had a dozen or more. I obtained a
+few pairs from him, and they bred fairly well for a few
+years, but lately have failed to accomplish anything.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+This season a single egg was obtained. It developed
+for about a week and then halted. The stock is evidently
+weakened by inbreeding so long. I can give no
+information as to time of disappearance. I have
+sought information far and near. Only a few birds
+have been reported the last three years. One was reported
+on pretty reliable grounds from Toronto last
+summer.</p>
+
+<p>Sorry I can give you no satisfactory details.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="smcap tdr">C. O. Whitman.</p>
+
+<p>[Under date of June 6, 1905, Prof. Whitman of the
+University of Chicago wrote to me that his flock had
+been reduced from ten to four since he last wrote. He
+says that one pair were then beginning the maneuvers
+preceding nesting, but he doubted very much if they
+would accomplish anything.]</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2">Nesting Habits of the Passenger Pigeon</p>
+
+<p class="caption3 pmb2">By Eugene Pericles (Dr. Morris Gibbs), from "The Oölogist, 1894."</p>
+
+<div class="dropcap">T</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">T</span>HERE are hundreds and perhaps thousands of
+the younger readers of <i>The Oölogist</i> who have
+never seen a Passenger Pigeon alive. In fact,
+there are many who have never seen a skin or stuffed
+specimen, for the species is so rare now that very few
+of the younger collectors have had an opportunity of
+shooting a bird. And of the present generation of
+oölogists, the ones who have secured a set (one egg)
+are indeed very few.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the older ornithologists can remember when
+the birds appeared among us in myriads each season,
+and were mercilessly and inconsiderately trapped and
+shot whenever and wherever they appeared. I could
+fill a book with the accounts of their butcheries, and
+could easily cause astonishment in my readers by telling
+of the immense flocks which were seen a quarter of a
+century ago. But wonderful as these tales would appear,
+they would be as nothing compared to the stories
+of the earlier writers on birds in America.</p>
+
+<p>.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp; Of course we know that the net and gun
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+have been the principal means of destruction, but it is
+almost fair to assert that even with the net and gun
+under proper restrictions, the pigeon would still be with
+us in hordes, both spring and autumn. For many years
+hunters (butchers) used to shoot the birds regularly at
+their nesting places, while the netters were also found
+near at hand.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen many birds taken, by unsportsmanlike
+netters, for the market during spring migrations, and
+the published accounts of the destruction by netters is
+almost beyond belief. Doctor Kirtland states that near
+Circleville, Ohio, in 1850, there were taken in a single
+net in one day 1,285 live pigeons.</p>
+
+<p>The Passenger Pigeon was in the habit of crossing the
+Ohio River by March 1 in the spring migrations, and
+I have noted the birds several times in Michigan in
+February. But this was not usually the case, for the
+birds were not abundant generally before April 1,
+although no set rule could be laid down regarding their
+appearance or departure either in spring or fall. They
+usually came with a mighty rush. Sometimes they did
+not appear, or, at least, only very sparingly. Their
+nesting sites would remain the same for years if the
+birds were unmolested, but they generally had to change
+every year or two, or as soon as the roost was discovered
+by the despicable market netter.</p>
+
+<p>Where the mighty numbers went to when they left
+for the south is not accurately stated, and, of course, this
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+will now never be known, but they were found to continue
+in flocks in Virginia, Kentucky and even Tennessee.</p>
+
+<p>.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. In the latter part of April or early May
+the birds began nesting. The nest building beginning
+as soon as the birds had selected a woods for a rookery,
+the scene was one of great activity. Birds were flying in
+every direction in search of twigs for their platform
+nests, and it did seem that each pair was intent on securing
+materials at a distance from the structure. Many
+twigs were dropped in flying, or at the nest, and these
+were never reclaimed by their bearers, but were often
+picked up by other birds from another part of the rookery.
+This peculiarity in so many species of birds in nest
+building I could never understand.</p>
+
+<p>It takes a pair of pigeons from four to six days to
+complete a nest, and any basketmaker could do a hundred
+per cent. better job with the same materials in a
+couple of hours. In the nest of the pigeon, man could
+certainly give the birds points for their benefit, for it is
+one of the most shiftless structures placed in trees that I
+have met with.</p>
+
+<p>The nest is always composed of slender dead twigs,
+so far as I have observed, or ever learned from others,
+and in comparison, though smaller, much resembles
+some of the heron's structures. In some nests I have
+observed the materials are so loosely put together
+that the egg or young bird can be seen through the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+latticed bottom. In fact, it has been my custom to
+always thus examine the nests before climbing the
+tree.</p>
+
+<p>The platform structures vary in diameter from six
+to twelve inches or more, differing in size according to
+the length of the sticks, but generally are about nine or
+ten inches across. An acquaintance of mine had tamed
+some wild birds, which at last bred regularly in captivity.
+These birds were well supplied with an abundance
+of material for their nests and always selected in
+confinement such as described above, and making a nest
+about nine inches in diameter.</p>
+
+<p>The breeding places are generally found in oak
+woods, but the great nesting sites in Michigan were
+often in timbered lands, I am informed.</p>
+
+<p>The height of the nest varies. It may be as low as
+six feet or all of sixty-five feet from the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Passenger Pigeons are always gregarious when unmolested,
+and hundreds of thousands sometimes breed
+in a neighborhood at one time. It is impossible to say
+how many nests were the most found in one tree, but
+there are authenticated instances of a hundred. One
+man, on whose veracity I rely, informs me that he
+counted 110 nests in one tree in Emmett County, the
+lower peninsula. Still this may not be correct, for we
+all know how easy it is to be deceived in correctly counting
+and keeping record of even the branches of a tree,
+and when these limbs are occupied by nests it is certainly
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+doubly difficult, and the tendency to count the
+same nests twice is increased.</p>
+
+<p>The first nests that I found were in large white oak
+trees at the edge of a pond. The date was May 17,
+1873. The nests were few in number and only one nest
+in a tree. There was but a single egg in a nest; in fact
+this is all I have found at any time. The last nest that
+I have met with south of the forty-third parallel was
+forty feet up in a tamarack tree in a swamp near the
+river, June 1, 1884. This nest was alone and would not
+have been discovered had not the birds flown to it. I
+have found several instances of pairs of pigeons building
+isolated nests, and cannot help but think that if all
+birds had followed this custom that the pigeons would
+still be with us in vast numbers.</p>
+
+<p>As late as May 9, 1880, my lamented friend, the late
+C. W. Gunn, found a rookery in a cedar woods in Cheboygan
+County. These nests contained a single egg
+each, and he secured about fifty fresh eggs. He did not
+think their number excessive, as the netters were killing
+the birds in every direction. But now we can look upon
+such a trip almost as devastation because the birds are
+so scarce.</p>
+
+<p>In 1885 I met with the pigeon on Mackinac Island,
+and have found a few isolated flocks in the Lower
+Peninsula since then, generally in the fall, but it is safe
+to say that the birds will never again appear in one-thousandth
+part of the number of former years.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The places where the birds are nesting are interesting
+spots to visit. Both parents incubate and the scene is
+animated as the birds fly about in all directions. However,
+as the bulk of the birds must fly to quite a distance
+from an immense rookery to find food, it necessarily
+follows that the main flocks arrive and depart
+evening and morning. Then the crush is often terrific
+and the air is fairly alive with birds. The rush of their
+thousands of wings makes a mighty noise like the sound
+of a stiff breeze through the trees.</p>
+
+<p>Often when the large flocks settle at the roost the
+birds crowd so closely on the slender limbs that they
+bend down and sometimes crack, and the sound of the
+dead branches falling from their weight adds an additional
+likeness to a storm. Sometimes the returning
+birds will settle on a limb which holds nests and then
+many eggs are dashed to the ground, and beneath the
+trees of a rookery one may always find a lot of smashed
+eggs.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the season young birds may be seen perched
+all over the trees or on the ground, while big squabs
+with pin-feathers on are seen in, or rather on, the frail
+nests, or lying dead or injured on the ground. The
+frightful destruction that is sure to accompany the nesting
+of a rookery of Passenger Pigeons is bound to attract
+the observer's eye. And we cannot but understand how
+it is that these unprolific birds with many natural enemies,
+in addition to that unnatural enemy, man, fail to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+increase. If the pigeon deposited ten to twenty eggs
+like the quail the unequal battle of equal survival might
+be kept up. But even this is to be doubted if the bird
+continues to nest in colonies.</p>
+
+<p>Many ornithological writers have written that the
+wild pigeon lays two eggs as a rule, but these men were
+evidently not accurate observers, and probably took their
+records at second-hand. There is no doubt that two
+eggs are quite often found in a nest, and sometimes
+these eggs are both fresh, or else equally advanced in
+incubation. But these instances, I think, are evidences
+alone that two females have deposited in the same nest,
+a supposition which is not improbable with the gregarious
+species.</p>
+
+<p>That the wild pigeon may rear two or three young in
+a season, I do not doubt, and an old trapper and observer
+has offered this theory to explain the condition
+where there are found both egg and young in the same
+nest, or squabs of widely varied ages. He asserts that
+when an egg is about ready to hatch, a second egg was
+deposited in the nest, and that the squab assisted in incubating
+the egg when the old birds were both away for
+food, and that in time a third and last egg was laid, so
+that three young were hatched each season, if the birds
+are unmolested.</p>
+
+<p>This peculiarity may exist with the pigeon, but I can
+add nothing to further it from my own observations,
+except to record the finding of an egg in the nest with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+a half-grown bird&mdash;the only instance in my experience.
+From watching the ways of some captive birds kept as
+stool-pigeons, I am well satisfied that two young are not
+rarely hatched at some weeks apart, and they do fairly
+well in confinement.</p>
+
+<p>The young are fed by a process known as regurgitation,
+the partially digested contents of the birds' crops
+being ejected into the mouths of the squabs.</p>
+
+<p>The position of the nest varies greatly. Often the
+nests are well out on slender branches and in dangerous
+positions, considering the shiftlessness of the structure.
+When a rookery is visited, nests may be found in all
+manner of situation. I have found single nests built on
+small twigs next the body of an oak tree, and at a height
+of only ten feet, and again have seen nests forty feet up
+in thick tamaracks.</p>
+
+<p>The eggs do not vary much in size or color. They
+are white, but without the polish seen on the egg of the
+domestic pigeon. About one and one-half by one inch
+is the regulation size.</p>
+
+<p>By reference to old price lists of nearly a quarter of
+a century ago I find that the eggs were then listed at
+twenty-five cents, while it would be difficult to secure
+good specimens at present at six times the figure.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p class="caption2"><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</a></p>
+
+<p class="caption2 pmb2">Miscellaneous Notes</p>
+
+<div class="dropcap">T</div>
+
+<p class="p0"><span class="hidden">T</span>HE earliest mention of the wild pigeon I have
+been able to find is the following, taken from
+<i>Forest and Stream</i>, to which it was contributed
+by F. C. Browne, Framingham, Mass. It is
+from an old print entitled, "Two Voyages to New England,
+Made During the Years 1638-63," by John Josselyn,
+Gent. Published in 1674. I am not so fortunate as
+to possess an original copy. This extract is from the Boston
+reprint of 1865, and is from the "Second Voyage"
+(1663), which has a full account of the wild beasts,
+birds and fishes of the new settlement:</p>
+
+<p>"The Pidgeons, of which there are millions of millions.
+I have seen a flight of Pidgeons in the Spring,
+and at Michaelmas when they return back to the South-ward,
+for four or five miles, that to my thinking had
+neither beginning nor ending, length nor breadth, and
+so thick that I could see no Sun. They join Nest to
+Nest and Tree to Tree by their Nests many miles together
+in Pine-Trees. I have bought at Boston a dozen
+Pidgeons ready pulled and garbidged for three pence.
+But of late they are much diminished, the English taking
+them with Nets."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It will be noted that the wild pigeons began to be
+"much diminished" even at that early date.</p>
+
+<p>The following extract is from the journal of the
+voyage of Father Gravier in the year 1700:</p>
+
+<p>"Through the Country of the Illinois to the Mouth
+of the Mississippi."</p>
+
+<p>Under date of October 7th he says:</p>
+
+<p>"Below the mouth of the Ouabache (meaning the
+Wabash River), we saw such a great quantity of wild
+pigeons that the air was darkened and quite covered by
+them."</p>
+
+<p>The journal of Alexander Henry, the younger, written
+in August, 1800, states that large numbers of wild
+pigeons were seen and used for food by his party. This
+was at a point on the Red River not far north of what
+is now Grand Forks, N. D.</p>
+
+<p>The Passenger Pigeon found a place in a book called
+"Quebec and Its Environments; Being a Picturesque
+Guide to the Stranger." Printed by Thomas Cary &amp;
+Co., Freemasons' Hall, Buade Street, 1831. A rare
+copy was found in the library of the late Charles Dean,
+having been purchased by him while visiting Quebec in
+1841. It is now in the possession of Ruthven Deane of
+Chicago. I quote from this old guide-book as follows:</p>
+
+<div id="fp218" class="figcenter" style="width: 612px;">
+<img src="images/fp_218.png" width="612" height="454" alt="" />
+<p class="fig_title">PIGEON NET</p>
+
+<p class="fig_caption">Taken from an old etching</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"At one period of the year numerous and immense
+flights of pigeons visit Canada, when the population
+make a furious war against them both by guns and nets;
+they supply the inhabitants with a material part of their
+subsistence, and are sold in the market at Quebec remarkably
+cheap, often as low as a shilling per dozen,
+and sometimes even at a less rate. It appears that the
+pigeon prefers the loftiest and most leafless tree to
+settle on. In addition to the natural beauty of St. Ann
+and its environs, the process by which the inhabitants
+take the pigeons is worth remarking. Upon the loftiest
+tree, long bare poles are slantingly fixed; small pieces
+of wood are placed transversely across this pole, upon
+which the birds crowd; below, in ambush, the sportsman
+with a long gun enfilades the whole length of the pole,
+and, when he fires, few if any escape. Innumerable
+poles are prepared at St. Ann for this purpose. The
+other method they have of taking them is by nets, by
+which means they are enabled to preserve them alive,
+and kill them occasionally for their own use or for the
+market, when it has ceased to be glutted with them.
+Behind Madam Fontane's this sport may be seen in perfection.
+The nets, which are very large, are placed at
+the end of an avenue of trees (for it appears the pigeons
+choose an avenue to fly down); opposite a large tree,
+upon erect poles two nets are suspended, one facing the
+avenue, the other the tree; another is placed over them,
+which is fixed at one end, and supported by pulleys and
+two perpendicular poles at the opposite; a man is hid
+in a small covered house under the tree, with a rope
+leading from the pulleys in his hand. Directly the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+pigeons fly against the perpendicular nets, he pulls the
+rope, when the top net immediately falls and incloses
+the whole flock; by this process vast numbers are taken."</p>
+
+<p>"Tanner's Narrative," a story (authentic) of thirty
+years among the Indians, published in 1830, refers frequently
+to great numbers of pigeons, and gives their
+range from the Kentucky, Big Miami and Ohio Rivers
+to Lake Winnipeg, or "The Lake of Dirty Waters."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Osborn further adds: "Tanner was a United
+States Indian interpreter at the Soo."</p>
+
+<p>William Glazier made a trip to the headwaters of
+the Mississippi River in 1881 and wrote a book entitled
+"Down the Mississippi River." In three different
+places in this book he mentions seeing wild pigeons. In
+one place he says that a small flock of pigeons dropped
+down in the tops of some tall pines near him.</p>
+
+<p>In Hayden's Survey Report, Interior Department, as
+given in Coues' "Birds of the Northwest," 1874, it is
+mentioned that wild pigeons were found on the Pacific
+coast, and Cooper reports them in the Rocky Mountains.
+[High authority, but it must have referred to
+the band-tailed pigeon.&mdash;W. B. M.]</p>
+
+<p class="pmt2">From the foregoing chapters I have summarized the
+latest reports of the presence of the wild pigeon in its
+former haunts. These instances have been reported as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>N. W. Judy &amp; Co., St. Louis, Mo., the largest dealers
+in poultry and game in that section, said, in 1895, they
+had had no wild pigeons for two years; the last they
+received were from Siloam Springs, Ark. This would
+mean that they were on the market during the season of
+1893. Until 1890 frequent reports were recorded of
+pigeons seen singly, in pairs and in small flocks.</p>
+
+<p>In 1891 Mr. F. M. Woodruff, Assistant Curator of
+the Chicago Academy of Sciences, secured a pair at
+Lake Forest, Ill.</p>
+
+<p>A nest with two eggs and two birds were collected
+by C. B. Brown of Chicago in the spring of 1893 at
+English Lake, Ind.</p>
+
+<p>In September, 1893, three were reported in Lake
+County, Ill.</p>
+
+<p>In April of the same year, a male pigeon was reported
+as having been seen in Lincoln Park, Ill.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. R. W. Stafford of Chicago, Ill., reported seeing
+a flock in the latter part of September, 1894, at Marengo,
+Ill.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. John L. Stockton, Highland Park, Ill., reported
+that while trout fishing on the Little Oconto River,
+Wis., early in June, 1895, he saw a flock of ten pigeons
+for several consecutive days near his camp.</p>
+
+<p>A young female was killed at Lake Forest, Ill., in
+August, 1895.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In October, 1895, Dr. Ernest Copeland of Milwaukee
+killed one in Delta, Northern Peninsula, Mich.</p>
+
+<p>On December 17, 1896, C. N. Holden, Jr., while
+hunting quail in Oregon County, Mo., observed a flock
+of about fifty birds.</p>
+
+<p>Chief Pokagon reports there was a small nesting of
+pigeons near the head waters of the Au Sable River in
+Michigan, during the spring of 1896.</p>
+
+<p>A. Fugleburg of Oshkosh, Wis., reports that on the
+morning of August 14, 1897, he saw a flock of pigeons
+flying over Lake Winnebago from Fisherman's Island
+to Stony Brook. This flock was followed by six more
+flocks containing from thirty-five to eighty pigeons each.
+The same observer reports that on September 2, 1897,
+a friend of his reported having seen a flock of about
+twenty-five near Lake Butte des Mortes, Wis.</p>
+
+<p>W. F. Rightmire reports that while driving along
+the highway north of Cook, Johnson County, Neb.,
+August 18, 1897, he saw a flock of seventy-five to one
+hundred birds; some feeding on the ground, others
+perched in the trees.</p>
+
+<p>A. B. Covert of Ann Arbor, President at one time of
+the Michigan Ornithological Club, reports seeing stray
+birds during 1892 and 1894, and states also that on
+October 1, 1898, he saw a flock of 200 and watched
+them nearly all day.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>T. E. Douglas of Grayling reports seeing a flock of
+ten near West Branch, Mich., in 1895, and in 1900 he
+saw three on one of the branches of the Au Sable River
+in Michigan.</p>
+
+<p>In 1897 C. S. Osborn of Sault Ste Marie reported
+having seen a single wild bird flying with the tame
+pigeons around the town.</p>
+
+<p>In 1897 or 1898 C. E. Jennison of Bay City saw six
+or seven at Thunder Bay Island near Alpena, Mich.</p>
+
+<p>In 1900 Neal Brown of Wausau, Wis., killed one
+near Babcock, Wis., in September.</p>
+
+<p>George King of Otsego County, Mich., in 1900 saw
+a flock of one dozen or more birds on the Black River,
+and he says he heard two "holler" in 1902, but was
+unable to find them. In May, 1905, he is certain he saw
+six near Vanderbilt, Mich.</p>
+
+<p>John Burroughs reports that a friend of his, Charles
+W. Benton, saw a large flock of wild pigeons near
+Prattsville, Greene County, N. Y., in April, 1906.</p>
+
+
+<p class="caption3">EARLY LEGISLATION TO SAVE THE PIGEON</p>
+
+<p>Wild pigeons were used largely by trap-shooters for
+tournaments. In 1881, 20,000 of them were killed in
+one of these trap-shooting butcheries on Coney Island,
+N. Y. The following editorial protest against this outrage
+appeared in <i>Forest and Stream</i>, July 14, 1881:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Mr. Bergh's Anti-Pigeon Bill.</i>&mdash;Just as we go to
+press we learn that the Senate has passed the bill prepared
+by Mr. Henry Bergh prohibiting the trap-shooting
+of pigeons. The bill awaits Governor Cornell's
+signature before becoming a law. Its provisions are:</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Section 1.</span> Any person who shall keep or use any
+live pigeon, fowl, or other bird or animal for the purpose
+of a target or to be shot at either for amusement
+or as a test of skill in marksmanship, and any person
+who shall shoot at any pigeon, fowl, or other bird or
+animal, as aforesaid, or be a party to any such shooting
+of any pigeon, fowl or other bird or animal; and any
+person who shall rent any building, shed, room, yard,
+field, or other premises, or shall suffer or permit the use
+of any building, shed, room, yard, field, or other premises
+for the purpose of shooting any pigeon, fowl, or
+other bird or animal, as aforesaid, shall be guilty of a
+misdemeanor.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Section 2.</span> Nothing herein contained shall apply to
+the shooting of any wild game in its wild state.</p>
+
+<p>The bill is a direct and not wholly unexpected result
+of the Coney Island pigeon-killing tournament of the
+New York State Association for the Protection of Fish
+and Game. Had the sport of pigeon shooting been confined
+to individual clubs of gentlemen testing their skill
+at the traps, it is doubtful if the matter ever would have
+received, as it would not have merited, public attention.
+But when a society, which organized ostensibly for the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+protection of game, treats the public to such a spectacle
+as that at Coney Island, neglects the matter with which
+it should be concerned and devotes 20,000 pigeons
+brought from their nesting ground to its wholesale
+slaughter, its members can hardly look for any other
+public sentiment than exactly that feeling which has
+been aroused. An afternoon's shoot at a few pigeons,
+and a ten days' shoot at unlimited numbers of helpless
+birds&mdash;many of them squabs, unable to fly, and others
+too exhausted to do so&mdash;are regarded by the public as
+two very different things.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="transnote">
+<p class="caption2">Transcriber's Note</p>
+
+<p>Obvious punctuation and spelling errors were corrected.</p>
+
+<p>One 'signature' of Ruthven Deane was modified from the printed version
+to match the others.</p>
+
+<p>Where quotations began and were not closed, a closing quotation mark
+was placed at the end of that paragraph:</p>
+
+<p class="p0" style="margin-left:5em;"><a href="#Page_155">p. 155</a> "There are no wild pigeons in Iosco County&#8230;<br />
+<a href="#Page_71">p. 171</a> "In three years' time&#8230;</p>
+
+<p><a id="Transcription"></a>Transcription of circular shown facing
+<a href="#Page_92">page 92</a> for screen readers:</p>
+
+<p class="bbox" style="width:70%; margin:0 auto; padding:1.5em; text-align:center;">
+AMONG THE PIGEONS.<br />
+<br />
+A Reply to Professor Roney's Account of<br />
+the Michigan Nestings of 1878.<br />
+<br />
+&mdash;BY&mdash;<br />
+<br />
+E. T. MARTIN,<br />
+<br />
+In the <span class="smcap">Chicago Field</span>, Jan. 25, 1879.<br />
+<br />
+Illustration: building and pigeons<br />
+<br />
+E. T. Martin's Headquarters at Boyne Falls, Michigan, during the
+Nesting of 1878.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="pg" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PASSENGER PIGEON***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 44729-h.txt or 44729-h.zip *******</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Passenger Pigeon, by Various, Edited by
+W. B. Mershon
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Passenger Pigeon
+
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: W. B. Mershon
+
+Release Date: January 22, 2014  [eBook #44729]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PASSENGER PIGEON***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Tor Martin Kristiansen, Tom Cosmas, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
+generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 44729-h.htm or 44729-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44729/44729-h/44729-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/44729/44729-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      https://archive.org/details/passengerpigeon00mers
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Whole and fractional parts of numbers are displayed as 6-1/4.
+
+      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+
+
+
+
+
+THE PASSENGER PIGEON
+
+
+[Illustration: PASSENGER PIGEON (_Columba Migratoria_)
+
+Upper bird, male; lower, female]
+
+
+THE PASSENGER PIGEON
+
+by
+
+W. B. MERSHON
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Publisher's Logo]
+
+New York The Outing Publishing Company 1907
+
+Copyright, 1907, by W B Mershon
+
+The Outing Press Deposit, N. Y.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+        CHAPTER                                                      PAGE
+
+        Introduction                                                   ix
+
+      I My Boyhood Among the Pigeons                                    1
+
+     II The Passenger Pigeon                                            9
+          _From "American Ornithology," by Alexander Wilson_
+
+    III The Passenger Pigeon                                           25
+          _From "Ornithological Biography," by John James Audubon_
+
+     IV As James Fenimore Cooper Saw It                                41
+
+      V The Wild Pigeon of North America                               48
+          _By Chief Pokagon, in "The Chautauquan"_
+
+     VI The Passenger Pigeon                                           60
+          _From "Life Histories of North American Birds,"
+            by Charles Bendire_
+
+    VII Netting the Pigeons                                            74
+          _By William Brewster, in "The Auk"_
+
+   VIII Efforts to Check the Slaughter                                 77
+          _By Prof. H. B. Roney_
+
+     IX The Pigeon Butcher's Defense                                   93
+          _By E. T. Martin, in "American Field"_
+
+      X Notes of a Vanished Industry                                  105
+
+     XI Recollections of "Old Timers"                                 119
+
+    XII The Last of the Pigeons                                       141
+
+   XIII What Became of the Wild Pigeon?                               163
+          _By Sullivan Cook, in "Forest and Stream"_
+
+    XIV A Novel Theory of Extinction                                  173
+          _By C. H. Ames and Robert Ridgway_
+
+     XV News from John Burroughs                                      179
+
+    XVI The Pigeon in Manitoba                                        186
+          _By George E. Atkinson_
+
+   XVII The Passenger Pigeon in Confinement                           200
+          _By Ruthven Deane, in "The Auk"_
+
+  XVIII Nesting Habits of the Passenger Pigeon                        209
+          _By Dr. Morris Gibbs, in "The Oologist"_
+
+    XIX Miscellaneous Notes                                           217
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  The Passenger Pigeon                                     _Frontispiece_
+    _By Louis Agassiz Fuertes_
+
+                                                              FACING PAGE
+
+  Audubon Plate (_color_)                                              24
+
+  Passenger Pigeon and Mourning Dove                                   88
+
+  Fac-simile of "Among the Pigeons"                                    92
+
+  H. T. Phillip's Store                                               104
+
+  Band-tailed Pigeon (_color_)                                        130
+
+  Comparative Size of Pigeon and Dove                                 156
+
+  Young Passenger Pigeon                                              198
+
+  Pigeon Net                                                          218
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+For the last three years I have spent most of my leisure time in
+collecting as much material as possible which might help to throw light
+on the oft-repeated query, "What has become of the wild pigeons?" The
+result of this labor of love is scarcely more than a compilation, and
+I am under many obligations to those who have so cheerfully assisted
+me. I have given them credit by name in connection with their various
+contributions, but I wish that I might have been able to give them the
+more finished and literary setting that would have been within the
+reach of a trained writer or scientist. I am merely a business man who
+is interested in the Passenger Pigeon because he loves the outdoors and
+its wild things, and sincerely regrets the cruel extinction of one of
+the most interesting natural phenomena of his own country. If I have
+been able to make a compilation that otherwise would not have been
+available for the interested reader, I need make no further apologies
+for the imperfect manner of my treatment of this subject.
+
+It is hard for us of an older generation to realize that as recently as
+1880 the Passenger Pigeon was thronging in countless millions through
+large areas of the Middle West, and that in our boyhood we could find
+no exaggeration in the records of such earlier observers as Alexander
+Wilson, the ornithologist, who said that these birds associated in
+such prodigious numbers as almost to surpass belief, and that their
+numbers had no parallel among any other feathered tribes on the face
+of the earth; or that one of their "roosts" would kill the trees over
+thousands of acres as completely as if the whole forest had been
+girdled with an ax.
+
+Audubon estimated that an average flock of these pigeons contained a
+billion and a quarter of birds, which consumed more than eight and a
+half million bushels of mast in a day's feeding. They were slain by
+millions during the middle of the last century, and from one region in
+Michigan in one year three million Passenger Pigeons were killed for
+market, while in that roost alone as many more perished because of the
+barbarous methods of hunting them. They supplied a means of living for
+thousands of hunters, who devastated their flocks with nets and guns,
+and even with fire. Yet so vast were their numbers that after thirty
+years of observation Audubon was able to say that "even in the face
+of such dreadful havoc nothing but the diminution of our forests can
+accomplish their decrease."
+
+Many theories have been advanced to account for the disappearance
+of the wild pigeons, among them that their migration may have been
+overwhelmed by some cyclonic disturbance of the atmosphere which
+destroyed their myriads at one blow. The big "nesting" of 1878 in
+Michigan was undoubtedly the last large migration, but the pigeons
+continued to nest infrequently in Michigan and the North for several
+years after that, and until as late as 1886 they were trapped for
+market or for trap-shooting. Therefore the pigeons did not become
+extinct in a day; nor did one tremendous catastrophe wipe them from the
+face of the earth. They gradually became fewer and existed for twenty
+years or more after the date set as that of the final extermination.
+
+At one time the wild pigeons covered the entire north from the Gaspe
+Peninsula to the Red River of the North. Separate nestings and flights
+were of regular yearly occurrence over this vast eastern and northern
+expanse. Gradually civilization, molestation and warfare drove them
+from the Atlantic seaboard west, until Michigan was their last grand
+rendezvous, in which region their mighty hosts congregated for the
+final grand nesting in 1878. As late as 1845 they were quite numerous
+on the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec, but disappeared from there about that
+time.
+
+The habits of the birds were such that they could not thrive singly
+nor in small bodies, but were dependent upon one another, and vast
+communities were necessary to their very existence, while an enormous
+quantity of food was necessary for their sustenance. The cutting off
+of the forests and food supply interfered with their plan of existence
+and drove them into new localities, and the ever increasing slaughter
+could not help but lessen their once vast numbers.
+
+The Passenger Pigeon laid only one egg in its nest, rarely two, and
+although it bred three or four times a year it could not replenish the
+numbers slaughtered by the professional netters. Undoubtedly millions
+of the birds perished at various periods along the Great Lakes country,
+becoming confused in foggy weather and dropping from exhaustion into
+the water, while snow and sleet storms at times caused great mortality
+among the young birds, and even among the old ones, which often arrived
+in the North before winter had passed.
+
+The history of the buffalo is repeated in that of the wild pigeon, the
+extermination of which was inspired by the same motive: the greed of
+man and the pursuit of the almighty dollar. We lock the barn door after
+the horse is stolen. Our white pine forests and timber lands in general
+have been wantonly destroyed with no thought for the future. The
+American people are wasteful. They are just beginning to learn the need
+of economy in the use of that which Nature has flung at their feet.
+When one recalls the destruction of that noble animal, the buffalo,
+frequently for nothing else than so-called sport, or the removal of
+a robe; when one thinks of the burning of forest trees which took
+centuries to grow, merely to clear a piece of land to raise crops, it
+is not to be wondered at that the wild pigeon, insignificant, and not
+even classed as a game bird, so soon became extinct.
+
+
+
+
+The Passenger Pigeon
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+My Boyhood Among the Pigeons
+
+
+My boyhood was made active and wholesome by a love for outdoor pastimes
+that had been bred in me by generations of sport-loving ancestors. From
+which side of the genealogical tree this ardor for field and forest and
+open sky had come with stronger influence I cannot say. While my father
+was the one to use the fowling-piece and cast the fly for the glorious
+speckled trout, my mother was a willing conspirator, for it was she
+who packed the lunch basket, often called us for the start in the gray
+morning, and went along to "hold the horse" while we shot pigeons. And
+when we were bent on a day in the woods in bracing October weather she
+drove old Dolly sedately along the winding trail, while I hunted one
+side of the woods and father hunted the other. On such days we were
+after partridges, of course, ruffed grouse, the king of all game birds.
+Often mother marked them down and told us just where they had crossed
+the road, or whether the bird was hit, for the cloud of smoke from the
+old black powder made seeing guesswork on our part. She loved the dogs,
+too, those good old friends and workers, Sport, Bob, and Ranger.
+
+I remember calling my mother to a window early one morning and
+shouting: "See there! a flock of pigeons! Ah, ha! April fool!" This
+time I did not deceive her with the threadbare trick. The joke was "on
+me" for once. There was a flight of pigeons that morning, the first
+one of the season, and behind the foremost flock another and another
+came streaming. Away from the east side of the river at the north of
+the town, from near Crow Island, they swept like a cloud. Crossing
+the river to the west they reached the woods near Jerome's mill and
+skirted the clearings or passed in waves over the tree tops, back of
+John Winter's farm, and then wheeled to the south. Out of the tongue of
+woodland, just back of the Hermansau Church, they poured, thence over
+the fields, too high to be shot, and then away to the evergreens and
+stately pines of Pine Hill; on, on, on across the Tittabawassee, to
+some feeding ground we knew not how far away.
+
+Now that the pigeons had come they would "fly" every morning. This we
+knew from years of observation in the great migration belt of Michigan.
+They would fly lower to-morrow morning, and in a day or two more sweep
+low enough for the sixteen-gauge and the number eight shot to reach
+them. Sometimes, even now, forty years after the last of the great
+passenger pigeon flights, I fall to day-dreaming and seem to hear
+myself saying in the eager, piping tones of those golden boyhood days:
+
+"Mother, I am going for pigeons to-morrow morning! Do call me if I
+oversleep. I must be awake by four o'clock. We'll have pigeon pot-pie
+to-morrow. I'm going to bed early so as to be sure to be up by
+daybreak. Old Sport is going along to 'fetch' dead birds."
+
+"Hello, dad," cries a voice in my ear, "what are you up to? What are
+you hustling around so for with your old shot pouch and powder-flask?
+There's nothing to shoot this time of the year."
+
+The spell is broken; my own boy fetches his daddy out of his dream,
+and I am fairly caught in the act of making an old fool of myself. My
+youngsters are counting the days before May first when I have promised
+to take them trout-fishing, and the smallest boy found his first gun in
+his stocking last Christmas. But they can know nothing at all about the
+joys and excitement of pigeon shooting in the vanished days when these
+birds fairly darkened the sky above our old homestead. But I try to
+tell them what we used to do and my story sounds something like this:
+
+"It is early in the spring, so early that a bunch of snow may yet
+be found on the north side of the largest of the fallen trees in
+the woods. Puddles that the melting snow left in the hollows of the
+clearing are fringed with ice this morning, and we look around and tell
+each other, 'There was a frost last night.' The mud in the road has
+stiffened, and the rutted cattle tracks are also streaked and barred
+with ice. Yet winter has gone and spring is here, for the buds are
+swelling on the twigs of the elms and the pussy willows show their
+dainty, silvery signals to tell us that the vernal equinox has come and
+gone.
+
+"If the springtime is still young, so is the day. Light is breaking
+in the gray sky of dawn as we hurry along the slippery, sticky road.
+We must make haste to the point of woods, by John Winter's clearing,
+before full daybreak or the pigeons will be flying and we will miss the
+early flocks which always keep nearest the ground.
+
+"You may be curious to know what we look like as we trudge along in
+Indian file, eagerly chatting about a kind of sport which this later
+generation knows nothing about. I am a chunk of a country lad, topped
+by a woolen cap with ear-tabs pulled down over my ears, a tippet around
+my neck, yarn mittens on my hands, which are sure to be badly skinned
+and chapped this time of year from playing 'knuckle-down-tight.'
+
+"My 'every-day pants' are tucked into a pair of calf-skin boots with
+square pieces of red leather for the tops, an old-fashioned adornment
+dear to Young America of my day. My old Irish water spaniel 'Sport' is
+tagging behind or charging frantically ahead; my gun is a sixteen-gauge
+muzzle loader, stub and twist barrels, with dogs' heads for the hammers.
+
+"Dangling from one shoulder is a leather shot pouch that cuts off
+one ounce of number eights for a load. The sides of this pouch are
+embossed, on the one a group of English woodcock, on the other a
+setter rampant. Hanging at my left side by a green cord with a tassel
+or two is my fluted copper powder flask, ready to measure out two and
+three-fourths drams of coarse Dupont or Curtis & Harvey powder.
+
+"My pockets are full of Ely's black-edged wads, for I am a young
+nabob of sportsmen, let me tell you, and I scorn to use tow or bits
+of newspaper for wadding. My vest pocket holds the caps, G. D.'s or
+Ely's again, for didn't I tell you that I was a nabob. The _piece de
+resistance_ of this outfit is the game bag, the pride of my eye, for
+it was a Christmas present, and this is its maiden shooting trip.
+Suspended over the left shoulder so that it will hang well back of
+the right hip, the strap that carries it is broad and with many holes
+for the wondrous buckle which can be shifted to hang it in the most
+comfortable place, wherever that is, for when it is loaded with game it
+will choke me almost to death, no matter how I adjust it. This noble
+bag has two pockets, one of them for luncheon, and on the outside is a
+netted pocket, easy to get into and keeping the birds cool. I nearly
+forgot to mention its magnificent fringe, which hangs down from both
+sides and the bottom like the war-bags of an Indian chief.
+
+"My companions are rigged out in much the same fashion. They are grown
+men, however, for I don't remember any other boys who shot pigeons
+with me. Holabird or khaki hunting suits are as yet unknown, and even
+corduroy coats are rare. The powder horn is seen as often as the copper
+flask, and one hunter has a shot belt with two compartments instead of
+the English pouch. Of guns the assortment is as varied as the number of
+hunters, but the old, hard-kicking army musket with its iron ramrod is
+more popular than any other arm.
+
+"We reach the edge of the clearing not a minute too soon. Now and then
+a distant shot tells us that we are not the first hunters out afield
+this morning. The guns are cracking everywhere along the road that
+skirts the woodland, and back in, close to the 'chopping,' some better
+wing-shots are posted by the openings into the woods where the birds
+fly lower, but where the shooting is more difficult. It is largely
+of the 'pick your bird' style, for the flight of a pigeon is very
+swift, and when they are darting among the tree-tops of a small forest
+opening, rare skill is required to bag one's birds.
+
+"I prefer to take the flocks, even though they offer me more distant
+targets, and soon my gun-barrels are as hot as those of the rest of the
+skirmishers. Sometimes two or three birds drop from a flock at a single
+discharge, and then several shots may not fetch from on high more than
+one or two of the long tail-feathers spinning and twisting to the
+ground. It is fascinating to watch the whirling, shining descent of one
+of these feathers, and I pick up one and stick it in my cap as a matter
+of habit.
+
+"This kind of pigeon shooting takes a good gun and ammunition to kill
+a big bag as we bang away at long range at the birds on their way to
+the morning feeding-ground. The flight is over by half-past six o'clock
+and I am home by seven o'clock ready for breakfast and then to scamper
+off to school.
+
+"The pigeons in this particular locality have followed the same routine
+as long as I have known them. They only fly in the morning, always
+going in the same direction, and I can't recall seeing them coming back
+again, or flying later in the day. This habit holds until the young
+squabs are in the nests in June, after which we are likely to find
+pigeons almost anywhere, for their feeding grounds become scattered and
+local.
+
+"One thing that annoys me in these brave days of youth and sport is
+the poacher, the low-down fellow who steals my birds. I am reckoned a
+pretty good shot, and I have a first-rate gun, but I am only a boy, so
+the pigeon thief thinks I am fair picking, and he saves his ammunition
+by claiming every bird that drops anywhere near him.
+
+"Another smart dodge of his is to fire into a flock ahead or behind
+the one I am shooting at and then claim whatever birds fall as the
+quarry of both our guns. If he is not too big I try to lick him, but
+generally I have to submit to the rascality unless I can persuade a
+grown-up friend to take my part. Sometimes these villains hang around
+my shooting ground without any guns at all, and pick up as many birds
+as I do. Then I hunt around for a father or an uncle to reinforce my
+protests and there is a pretty row which ends in the interloper taking
+to his heels to wait for a more propitious occasion.
+
+"When we are ready to carry our birds home we pull out the four long
+tail-feathers and knot them together at the tips. Then the quill ends
+are stuck through the soft part of the lower mandible, and the birds
+are strung together, eight or ten in a string. These strings are
+bunched together by tying the quill ends of the feathers, and we have
+our game festooned in compact shape for the triumphal march homeward
+bound."
+
+Alas, the pigeons and the frosty morning hunts and the delectable
+pigeon-pie are gone, no more to return. They are numbered with those
+recollections which help to convince me that the boys of to-day don't
+have as good times as we youngsters did in the prime of our busy
+outdoor world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+The Passenger Pigeon
+
+(_Columba Migratoria_)
+
+From "American Ornithology," by Alexander Wilson
+
+
+This remarkable bird merits a distinguished place in the annals of our
+feathered tribes--a claim to which I shall endeavor to do justice;
+and, though it would be impossible, in the bounds allotted to this
+account, to relate all I have seen and heard of this species, yet no
+circumstance shall be omitted with which I am acquainted (however
+extraordinary some of these may appear) that may tend to illustrate its
+history.
+
+The wild pigeon of the United States inhabits a wide and extensive
+region of North America, on this side of the Great Stony Mountains,
+beyond which, to the westward, I have not heard of their being seen.
+According to Mr. Hutchins, they abound in the country around Hudson's
+Bay, where they usually remain as late as December, feeding, when the
+ground is covered with snow, on the buds of the juniper. They spread
+over the whole of Canada; were seen by Captain Lewis and his party near
+the Great Falls of the Missouri, upwards of two thousand five hundred
+miles from its mouth, reckoning the meanderings of the river; were also
+met with in the interior of Louisiana by Colonel Pike; and extend their
+range as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, occasionally visiting or
+breeding in almost every quarter of the United States.
+
+But the most remarkable characteristic of these birds is their
+associating together, both in their migrations, and also during the
+period of incubation, in such prodigious numbers, as almost to surpass
+belief; and which has no parallel among any other of the feathered
+tribes on the face of the earth, with which all naturalists are
+acquainted. These migrations appear to be undertaken rather in quest
+of food, than merely to avoid the cold of the climate, since we find
+them lingering in the northern regions, around Hudson's Bay, so late
+as December; and since their appearance is so casual and irregular,
+sometimes not visiting certain districts for several years in any
+considerable numbers, while at other times they are innumerable. I
+have witnessed these migrations in the Genesee country, often in
+Pennsylvania, and also in various parts of Virginia, with amazement;
+but all that I had then seen of them were mere straggling parties,
+when compared with the congregated millions which I have since beheld
+in our Western forests, in the States of Ohio, Kentucky, and the
+Indiana territory. These fertile and extensive regions abound with
+the nutritious beechnut, which constitutes the chief food of the
+wild pigeon. In seasons when these nuts are abundant, corresponding
+multitudes of pigeons may be confidently expected. It sometimes happens
+that, having consumed the whole produce of the beech trees, in an
+extensive district, they discover another, at the distance perhaps of
+sixty or eighty miles, to which they regularly repair every morning,
+and return as regularly in the course of the day, or in the evening,
+to their place of general rendezvous, or as it is usually called, the
+roosting place. These roosting places are always in the woods, and
+sometimes occupy a large extent of forest. When they have frequented
+one of these places for some time the appearance it exhibits is
+surprising. The ground is covered to the depth of several inches with
+their dung; all the tender grass and underwood destroyed; the surface
+strewed with large limbs of trees, broken down by the weight of the
+birds clustering one above another; and the trees themselves, for
+thousands of acres, killed as completely as if girdled with an ax.
+The marks of this desolation remain for many years on the spot; and
+numerous places could be pointed out, where, for several years after,
+scarcely a single vegetable made its appearance.
+
+When these roosts are first discovered, the inhabitants, from
+considerable distances, visit them in the night with guns, clubs, long
+poles, pots of sulphur, and various other engines of destruction. In
+a few hours they fill many sacks, and load their horses with them.
+By the Indians, a pigeon roost, or breeding place, is considered an
+important source of national profit and dependence for the season; and
+all their active ingenuity is exercised on the occasion. The breeding
+place differs from the former in its greater extent. In the western
+countries above mentioned, these are generally in beech woods, and
+often extend, in nearly a straight line across the country for a great
+way. Not far from Shelbyville, in the State of Kentucky, about five
+years ago, there was one of these breeding places, which stretched
+through the woods in nearly a north and south direction; was several
+miles in breadth, and was said to be upwards of forty miles in extent!
+In this tract almost every tree was furnished with nests, wherever
+the branches could accommodate them. The pigeons made their first
+appearance there about the 10th of April, and left it altogether, with
+their young, before the 29th of May.
+
+As soon as the young were fully grown, and before they left the nests,
+numerous parties of the inhabitants from all parts of the adjacent
+country came with wagons, axes, beds, cooking utensils, many of them
+accompanied by the greater part of their families, and encamped for
+several days at this immense nursery. Several of them informed me that
+the noise in the woods was so great as to terrify their horses, and
+that it was difficult for one person to hear another speak without
+bawling in his ear. The ground was strewed with broken limbs of trees,
+eggs, and young squab pigeons, which had been precipitated from above,
+and on which herds of hogs were fattening. Hawks, buzzards, and eagles
+were sailing about in great numbers, and seizing the squabs from
+their nests at pleasure; while from twenty feet upwards to the tops
+of the trees the view through the woods presented a perpetual tumult
+of crowding and fluttering multitudes of pigeons, their wings roaring
+like thunder, mingled with the frequent crash of falling timber; for
+now the ax-men were at work cutting down those trees that seemed to be
+most crowded with nests, and contrived to fell them in such a manner
+that, in their descent, they might bring down several others; by which
+means the falling of one large tree sometimes produced two hundred
+squabs, little inferior in size to the old ones, and almost one mass
+of fat. On some single trees upwards of one hundred nests were found,
+each containing _one_ young only; a circumstance in the history of
+this bird not generally known to naturalists. It was dangerous to walk
+under these flying and fluttering millions, from the frequent fall of
+large branches, broken down by the weight of the multitudes above,
+and which, in their descent, often destroyed numbers of the birds
+themselves; while the clothes of those engaged in traversing the woods
+were completely covered with the excrements of the pigeons.
+
+These circumstances were related to me by many of the most respectable
+part of the community in that quarter, and were confirmed, in part, by
+what I myself witnessed. I passed for several miles through this same
+breeding place, where every tree was spotted with nests, the remains of
+those above described. In many instances I counted upwards of ninety
+nests on a single tree, but the pigeons had abandoned this place for
+another, sixty or eighty miles off towards Green River, where they
+were said at that time to be equally numerous. From the great numbers
+that were constantly passing overhead to or from that quarter, I had
+no doubt of the truth of this statement. The mast had been chiefly
+consumed in Kentucky, and the pigeons, every morning a little before
+sunrise, set out for the Indiana territory, the nearest part of which
+was about sixty miles distant. Many of these returned before ten
+o'clock, and the great body generally appeared on their return a little
+after noon.
+
+I had left the public road to visit the remains of the breeding place
+near Shelbyville, and was traversing the woods with my gun, on my
+way to Frankfort, when, about one o'clock, the pigeons, which I had
+observed flying the greater part of the morning northerly, began to
+return in such immense numbers as I never before had witnessed. Coming
+to an opening by the side of a creek called the Benson, where I had a
+more uninterrupted view, I was astonished at their appearance. They
+were flying with great steadiness and rapidity at a height beyond
+gunshot in several strata deep, and so close together that could shot
+have reached them one discharge could not have failed of bringing down
+several individuals. From right to left, far as the eye could reach,
+the breadth of this vast procession extended, seeming everywhere
+equally crowded. Curious to determine how long this appearance would
+continue, I took out my watch to note the time, and sat down to,
+observe them. It was then half-past one. I sat for more than an hour,
+but, instead of a diminution of this prodigious procession, it seemed
+rather to increase both in numbers and rapidity, and, anxious to reach
+Frankfort before night, I rose and went on. About four o'clock in
+the afternoon I crossed the Kentucky River at the town of Frankfort,
+at which time the living torrent above my head seemed as numerous
+and as extensive as ever. Long after this I observed them in large
+bodies that continued to pass for six or eight minutes, and these
+again were followed by other detached bodies, all moving in the same
+southeast direction, till after six in the evening. The great breadth
+of front which this mighty multitude preserved would seem to intimate
+a corresponding breadth of their breeding place, which, by several
+gentlemen who had lately passed through part of it, was stated to me
+at several miles. It was said to be in Green County, and that the
+young began to fly about the middle of March. On the seventeenth of
+April, forty-nine miles beyond Danville, and not far from Green River,
+I crossed this same breeding place, where the nests, for more than
+three miles, spotted every tree; the leaves not being yet out I had a
+fair prospect of them, and was really astonished at their numbers. A
+few bodies of pigeons lingered yet in different parts of the woods, the
+roaring of whose wings were heard in various quarters around me.
+
+All accounts agree in stating that each nest contains only one young
+squab. These are so extremely fat that the Indians, and many of the
+whites, are accustomed to melt down the fat for domestic purposes as a
+substitute for butter and lard. At the time they leave the nest they
+are nearly as heavy as the old ones, but become much leaner after they
+are turned out to shift for themselves.
+
+It is universally asserted in the western countries that the pigeons,
+though they have only one young at a time, breed thrice, and sometimes
+four times in the same season; the circumstances already mentioned
+render this highly probable. It is also worthy of observation that
+this takes place during the period when acorns, beechnuts, etc., are
+scattered about in the greatest abundance and mellowed by the frost.
+But they are not confined to these alone; buckwheat, hempseed, Indian
+corn, hollyberries, hackberries, huckleberries, and many others furnish
+them with abundance at almost all seasons. The acorns of the live
+oak are also eagerly sought after by these birds, and rice has been
+frequently found in individuals killed many hundred miles to the
+northward of the nearest rice plantation. The vast quantity of mast
+which these multitudes consume is a serious loss to the bears, pigs,
+squirrels, and other dependents on the fruits of the forest. I have
+taken from the crop of a single wild pigeon a good handful of the
+kernels of beechnuts, intermixed with acorns and chestnuts. To form a
+rough estimate of the daily consumption of one of these immense flocks
+let us first attempt to calculate the numbers of that above mentioned,
+as seen in passing between Frankfort and the Indiana territory. If we
+suppose this column to have been one mile in breadth (and I believe it
+to have been much more), and that it moved at the rate of one mile in
+a minute, four hours, the time it continued passing, would make its
+whole length two hundred and forty miles. Again, supposing that each
+square yard of this moving body comprehended three pigeons, the square
+yards in the whole space, multiplied by three, would give two thousand
+two hundred and thirty millions, two hundred and seventy-two thousand
+pigeons!--an almost inconceivable multitude, and yet probably far below
+the actual amount. Computing each of these to consume half a pint of
+mast daily, the whole quantity at this rate would equal seventeen
+millions, four hundred and twenty-four thousand bushels per day! Heaven
+has wisely and graciously given to these birds rapidity of flight and
+a disposition to range over vast uncultivated tracts of the earth,
+otherwise they must have perished in the districts where they resided,
+or devoured up the whole productions of agriculture, as well as those
+of the forests.
+
+A few observations on the mode of flight of these birds must not be
+omitted. The appearance of large detached bodies of them in the air
+and the various evolutions they display are strikingly picturesque and
+interesting. In descending the Ohio by myself in the month of February
+I often rested on my oars to contemplate their aerial manoeuvres. A
+column, eight or ten miles in length, would appear from Kentucky,
+high in air, steering across to Indiana. The leaders of this great
+body would sometimes gradually vary their course until it formed a
+large bend of more than a mile in diameter, those behind tracing the
+exact route of their predecessors. This would continue sometimes long
+after both extremities were beyond the reach of sight, so that the
+whole, with its glittery undulations, marked a space on the face of
+the heavens resembling the windings of a vast and majestic river.
+When this bend became very great the birds, as if sensible of the
+unnecessary circuitous course they were taking, suddenly changed their
+direction, so that what was in column before, became an immense front,
+straightening all its indentures, until it swept the heavens in one
+vast and infinitely extended line. Other lesser bodies also united with
+each other as they happened to approach with such ease and elegance
+of evolution, forming new figures, and varying these as they united
+or separated, that I never was tired of contemplating them. Sometimes
+a hawk would make a sweep on a particular part of the column from
+a great height, when, almost as quick as lightning, that part shot
+downwards out of the common track, but soon rising again, continued
+advancing at the same height as before. This inflection was continued
+by those behind, who, on arriving at this point, dived down, almost
+perpendicularly, to a great depth, and rising, followed the exact path
+of those that went before. As these vast bodies passed over the river
+near me, the surface of the water, which was before smooth as glass,
+appeared marked with innumerable dimples, occasioned by the dropping of
+their dung, resembling the commencement of a shower of large drops of
+rain or hail.
+
+Happening to go ashore one charming afternoon, to purchase some milk at
+a house that stood near the river, and while talking with the people
+within doors, I was suddenly struck with astonishment at a loud rushing
+roar, succeeded by instant darkness, which, on the first moment, I
+took for a tornado about to overwhelm the house and everything around
+in destruction. The people, observing my surprise, coolly said: "It
+is only the pigeons"; and on running out I beheld a flock, thirty or
+forty yards in width, sweeping along very low between the house and the
+mountain, or height, that formed the second bank of the river. These
+continued passing for more than a quarter of an hour, and at length
+varied their bearing so as to pass over the mountain, behind which they
+disappeared before the rear came up.
+
+In the Atlantic States, though they never appear in such unparalleled
+multitudes, they are sometimes very numerous, and great havoc is
+then made amongst them with the gun, the clap net, and various other
+implements of destruction. As soon as it is ascertained in a town that
+the pigeons are flying numerously in the neighborhood, the gunners
+rise _en masse_, the clap nets are spread out on suitable situations,
+commonly on an open height in an old buckwheat field; four or five
+live pigeons, with their eyelids sewed up, are fastened on a movable
+stick--a small hut of branches is fitted up for the fowler at the
+distance of forty or fifty yards--by the pulling of a string the stick
+on which the pigeons rest is alternately elevated and depressed, which
+produces a fluttering of their wings similar to that of birds just
+alighting; this being perceived by the passing flocks they descend with
+great rapidity, and, finding corn, buckwheat, etc., strewed about,
+begin to feed, and are instantly, by the pulling of a cord, covered by
+the net. In this manner ten, twenty, and even thirty dozen have been
+caught at one sweep. Meantime the air is darkened with large bodies
+of them moving in various directions; the woods also swarm with them
+in search of acorns; and the thundering of musketry is perpetual on
+all sides from morning to night. Wagon loads of them are poured into
+market, where they sell from fifty to twenty-five and even twelve cents
+per dozen; and pigeons become the order of the day at dinner, breakfast
+and supper, until the very name becomes sickening. When they have been
+kept alive and fed for some time on corn and buckwheat their flesh
+acquires great superiority; but, in their common state, they are dry
+and blackish and far inferior to the full grown young ones or squabs.
+
+The nest of the wild pigeon is formed of a few dry slender twigs,
+carelessly put together, and with so little concavity that the young
+one, when half grown, can easily be seen from below. The eggs are pure
+white. Great numbers of hawks, and sometimes the bald eagle himself,
+hover above those breeding places, and seize the old or the young
+from the nest amidst the rising multitudes, and with the most daring
+effrontery. The young, when beginning to fly, confine themselves to
+the under part of the tall woods where there is no brush, and where
+nuts and acorns are abundant, searching among the leaves for mast,
+and appear like a prodigious torrent rolling through the woods, every
+one striving to be in the front. Vast numbers of them are shot while
+in this situation. A person told me that he once rode furiously into
+one of these rolling multitudes and picked up thirteen pigeons which
+had been trampled to death by his horse's feet. In a few minutes
+they will beat the whole nuts from a tree with their wings, while
+all is a scramble, both above and below, for the same. They have the
+same cooing notes common to domestic pigeons, but much less of their
+gesticulations. In some flocks you will find nothing but young ones,
+which are easily distinguishable by their motley dress. In others they
+will be mostly females, and again great multitudes of males with few
+or no females. I cannot account for this in any other way than that,
+during the time of incubation, the males are exclusively engaged in
+procuring food, both for themselves and their mates, and the young,
+being yet unable to undertake these extensive excursions, associate
+together accordingly. But even in winter I know of several species
+of birds who separate in this manner, particularly the red-winged
+starling, among whom thousands of old males may be found with few or no
+young or females along with them.
+
+Stragglers from these immense armies settle in almost every part of
+the country, particularly among the beech woods and in the pine and
+hemlock woods of the eastern and northern parts of the continent. Mr.
+Pennant informs us that they breed near Moose Fort, at Hudson's Bay, in
+N. latitude 51 degrees, and I myself have seen the remains of a large
+breeding place as far south as the country of the Choctaws, in latitude
+32 degrees. In the former of these places they are said to remain until
+December; from which circumstance it is evident that they are not
+regular in their migrations like many other species, but rove about as
+scarcity of food urges them. Every spring, however, as well as fall,
+more or less of them are seen in the neighborhood of Philadelphia; but
+it is only once in several years that they appear in such formidable
+bodies; and this commonly when the snows are heavy to the north, the
+winter here more than usually mild, and acorns, etc., abundant.
+
+The passenger pigeon is sixteen inches long, and twenty-four inches in
+extent; bill, black; nostril, covered by a high rounding protuberance;
+eye, brilliant fiery orange; orbit, or space surrounding it, purplish
+flesh-colored skin; head, upper part of the neck and chin, a fine
+slate blue, lightest on the chin; throat, breast, and sides, as far as
+the thighs, a reddish hazel; lower part of the neck and sides of the
+same, resplendent changeable gold, green, and purplish crimson, the
+last named most predominant; the ground color, slate; the plumage of
+this part is of a peculiar structure, ragged at the ends; belly and
+vent, white; lower part of the breast, fading into a pale vinaceous
+red; thighs, the same; legs and feet, lake, seamed with white; back,
+rump, and tail-coverts, dark slate, spotted on the shoulders with
+a few scattered marks of black; the scapulars, tinged with brown;
+greater coverts, light slate; primaries and secondaries, dull black,
+the former tipped and edged with brownish white; tail, long, and
+greatly cuneiform, all the feathers tapering towards the point, the
+two middle ones plain deep black, the other five, on each side, hoary
+white, lightest near the tips, deepening into bluish near the bases,
+where each is crossed on the inner vane with a broad spot of black,
+and nearer the root with another of ferruginous; primaries edged with
+white; bastard wing, black.
+
+The female is about half an inch shorter, and an inch less in extent;
+breast, cinerous brown; upper part of the neck, inclining to ash; the
+spot of changeable gold, green, and carmine, much less, and not so
+brilliant; tail coverts, brownish slate; naked orbits, slate colored;
+in all other respects like the male in color, but less vivid and more
+tinged with brown; the eye not so brilliant an orange. In both the tail
+has only twelve feathers.
+
+[Illustration: PASSENGER PIGEON (_Columba Migratoria_)
+
+Upper bird, female; lower, male
+
+_Reproduced from the John J. Audubon Plate_]
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+The Passenger Pigeon
+
+From "Ornithological Biography," by John James Audubon
+
+
+The Passenger Pigeon, or, as it is usually named in America, the Wild
+Pigeon, moves with extreme rapidity, propelling itself by quickly
+repeated flaps of the wings, which it brings more or less near to the
+body, according to the degree of velocity which is required. Like
+the domestic pigeon, it often flies, during the love season, in a
+circling manner, supporting itself with both wings angularly elevated,
+in which position it keeps them until it is about to alight. Now and
+then, during these circular flights, the tips of the primary quills
+of each wing are made to strike against each other, producing a smart
+rap, which may be heard at a distance of thirty or forty yards. Before
+alighting, the wild pigeon, like the Carolina parrot and a few other
+species of birds, breaks the force of its flight by repeated flappings,
+as if apprehensive of receiving injury from coming too suddenly into
+contact with the branch or the spot of ground on which it intends to
+settle.
+
+I have commenced my description of this species with the above account
+of its flight, because the most important facts connected with its
+habits relate to its migrations. These are entirely owing to the
+necessity of procuring food, and are not performed with the view of
+escaping the severity of a northern latitude, or of seeking a southern
+one for the purpose of breeding. They consequently do not take place at
+any fixed period or season of the year. Indeed, it sometimes happens
+that a continuance of a sufficient supply of food in one district will
+keep these birds absent from another for years. I know, at least, to a
+certainty, that in Kentucky they remained for several years constantly,
+and were nowhere else to be found. They all suddenly disappeared one
+season when the mast was exhausted and did not return for a long
+period. Similar facts have been observed in other States.
+
+Their great power of flight enables them to survey and pass over an
+astonishing extent of country in a very short time. This is proved
+by facts well-known in America. Thus, pigeons have been killed in
+the neighborhood of New York, with their crops full of rice, which
+they must have collected in the fields of Georgia and Carolina, these
+districts being the nearest in which they could possibly have procured
+a supply of that kind of food. As their power of digestion is so great
+that they will decompose food entirely in twelve hours, they must in
+this case have traveled between three hundred and four hundred miles in
+six hours, which shows their power of speed to be at an average about
+one mile in a minute. A velocity such as this would enable one of these
+birds, were it so inclined, to visit the European continent in less
+than three days.
+
+This great power of flight is seconded by as great a power of vision,
+which enables them, as they travel at that swift rate, to inspect the
+country below, discover their food with facility, and thus attain the
+object for which their journey has been undertaken. This I have also
+proved to be the case, by having observed them, when passing over a
+sterile part of the country, or one scantily furnished with food suited
+to them, keep high in the air, flying with an extended front, so as
+to enable them to survey hundreds of acres at once. On the contrary,
+when the land is richly covered with food, or the trees abundantly hung
+with mast, they fly low, in order to discover the part most plentifully
+supplied.
+
+Their body is of an elongated oval form, steered by a long, well-plumed
+tail, and propelled by well-set wings, the muscles of which are very
+large and powerful for the size of the bird. When an individual is seen
+gliding through the woods and close to the observer, it passes like a
+thought, and on trying to see it again, the eye searches in vain; the
+bird is gone.
+
+The multitudes of wild pigeons in our woods are astonishing. Indeed,
+after having viewed them so often, and under so many circumstances,
+I even now feel inclined to pause, and assure myself that what I am
+going to relate is fact. Yet I have seen it all, and that, too, in the
+company of persons who, like myself, were struck with amazement.
+
+In the autumn of 1813, I left my house at Henderson, on the banks of
+the Ohio, on my way to Louisville. In passing over the Barrens a few
+miles beyond Hardensburgh, I observed the pigeons flying from northeast
+to southwest, in greater numbers than I thought I had ever seen them
+before, and feeling an inclination to count the flocks that might
+pass within the reach of my eye in one hour, I dismounted, seated
+myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my pencil, making a dot
+for every flock that passed. In a short time, finding the task which
+I had undertaken impracticable, as the birds poured in in countless
+multitudes, I rose, and counting the dots then put down, found that one
+hundred and sixty-three had been made in twenty-one minutes. I traveled
+on, and still met more the farther I proceeded. The air was literally
+filled with pigeons; the light of noonday was obscured as by an
+eclipse; the dung fell in spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow; and
+the continued buzz of wings had a tendency to lull my senses to repose.
+
+Whilst waiting for dinner at Young's Inn, at the confluence of Salt
+River with the Ohio, I saw, at my leisure, immense legions still
+going by, with a front reaching far beyond the Ohio on the west, and
+the beechwood forests directly on the east of me. Not a single bird
+alighted; for not a nut or acorn was that year to be seen in the
+neighborhood. They consequently flew so high, that different trials to
+reach them with a capital rifle proved ineffectual; nor did the reports
+disturb them in the least. I cannot describe to you the extreme beauty
+of their aerial evolutions, when a hawk chanced to press upon the rear
+of the flock. At once, like a torrent, and with a noise like thunder,
+they rushed into a compact mass, pressing upon each other towards the
+center. In these almost solid masses, they darted forward in undulating
+and angular lines, descended and swept close over the earth with
+inconceivable velocity, mounted perpendicularly so as to resemble a
+vast column, and, when high, were seen wheeling and twisting within
+their continued lines, which then resembled the coils of a gigantic
+serpent.
+
+Before sunset I reached Louisville, distant from Hardensburgh
+fifty-five miles. The pigeons were still passing in undiminished
+numbers, and continued to do so for three days in succession. The
+people were all in arms. The banks of the Ohio were crowded with men
+and boys, incessantly shooting at the pilgrims, which there flew lower
+as they passed the river. Multitudes were thus destroyed. For a week or
+more, the population fed on no other flesh than that of pigeons, and
+talked of nothing but pigeons. The atmosphere, during this time, was
+strongly impregnated with the peculiar odor which emanates from the
+species.
+
+It is extremely interesting to see flock after flock performing
+exactly the same evolutions which had been traced as it were in the
+air by a preceding flock. Thus, should a hawk have charged on a group
+at a certain spot, the angles, curves and undulations that have been
+described by the birds, in their efforts to escape from the dreaded
+talons of the plunderer, are undeviatingly followed by the next group
+that comes up. Should the bystander happen to witness one of these
+affrays, and, struck with the rapidity and elegance of the motions
+exhibited, feel desirous of seeing them repeated, his wishes will be
+gratified if he only remain in the place until the next group comes up.
+
+It may not, perhaps, be out of place to attempt an estimate of the
+number of pigeons contained in one of those mighty flocks, and of
+the quantity of food daily consumed by its members. The inquiry will
+tend to show the astonishing beauty of the great Author of Nature in
+providing for the wants of His creatures. Let us take a column of one
+mile in breadth, which is far below the average size, and suppose it
+passing over us without interruption for three hours, at the rate
+mentioned above of one mile in a minute. This will give a parallelogram
+of one hundred and eighty by one, covering one hundred and eighty
+square miles. Allowing two pigeons to the square yard, we have one
+billion, one hundred and fifty millions, one hundred and thirty-six
+thousand pigeons in one flock. As every pigeon daily consumes fully
+half a pint of food, the quantity necessary for supplying this vast
+multitude must be eight millions, seven hundred and twelve thousand
+bushels per day.
+
+As soon as the pigeons discover a sufficiency of food to entice them
+to alight, they fly around in circles, reviewing the country below.
+During their evolutions, on such occasions, the dense mass which they
+form exhibits a beautiful appearance, as it changes its direction, now
+displaying a glistening sheet of azure, when the backs of the birds
+come simultaneously into view, and anon, suddenly presenting a mass
+of rich deep purple. They then pass lower, over the woods, and for
+a moment are lost among the foliage, but again emerge, and are seen
+gliding aloft. They now alight, but the next moment, as if suddenly
+alarmed, they take to wing, producing by the flapping of their wings
+a noise like the roar of distant thunder, and sweep through the
+forests to see if danger is near. Hunger, however, soon brings them
+to the ground. When alighted, they are seen industriously throwing up
+the withered leaves in quest of the fallen mast. The rear ranks are
+continually rising, passing over the main body, and alighting in front,
+in such rapid succession, that the whole flock seems still on the wing.
+The quantity of ground thus swept is astonishing, and so completely has
+it been cleared, that the gleaner who might follow in their rear would
+find his labor completely lost. Whilst feeding, their avidity is at
+times so great that in attempting to swallow a large acorn or nut, they
+are seen gasping for a long while, as if in agonies of suffocation.
+
+On such occasions, when the woods are filled with these pigeons,
+they are killed in immense numbers, although no apparent diminution
+ensues. About the middle of the day, after their repast is finished,
+they settle on the trees, to enjoy rest, and digest their food. On the
+ground they walk with ease, as well as on the branches, frequently
+jerking their beautiful tail, and moving the neck backwards and
+forwards in the most graceful manner. As the sun begins to sink beneath
+the horizon, they depart _en masse_ for the roosting place, which not
+infrequently is hundreds of miles distant, as has been ascertained by
+persons who have kept an account of their arrivals and departures.
+
+Let us now, kind reader, inspect their place of nightly rendezvous.
+One of these curious roosting places, on the banks of the Green River
+in Kentucky, I repeatedly visited. It was, as is always the case, in
+a portion of the forest where the trees were of great magnitude, and
+where there was little underwood. I rode through it upwards of forty
+miles, and, crossing it in different parts, found its average breadth
+to be rather more than three miles. My first view of it was about a
+fortnight subsequent to the period when they had made choice of it, and
+I arrived there nearly two hours before sunset. Few pigeons were then
+to be seen, but a great number of persons, with horses and wagons,
+guns and ammunition, had already established encampments on the borders.
+
+Two farmers from the vicinity of Russelsville, distant more than a
+hundred miles, had driven upwards of three hundred hogs to be fattened
+on the pigeons which were to be slaughtered. Here and there, the people
+employed in plucking and salting what had already been procured, were
+seen sitting in the midst of large piles of these birds. The dung lay
+several inches deep, covering the whole extent of the roosting place,
+like a bed of snow. Many trees two feet in diameter, I observed, were
+broken off at no great distance from the ground; and the branches of
+many of the largest and tallest had given way, as if the forest had
+been swept by a tornado. Everything proved to me that the number of
+birds resorting to this part of the forest must be immense beyond
+conception. As the period of their arrival approached, their foes
+anxiously prepared to receive them. Some were furnished with iron
+pots containing sulphur, others with torches of pine knots, many with
+poles, and the rest with guns. The sun was lost to our view, yet not
+a pigeon had arrived. Everything was ready, and all eyes were gazing
+on the clear sky, which appeared in glimpses amidst the tall trees.
+Suddenly there burst forth a general cry of "Here they come!" The
+noise which they made, though yet distant, reminded me of a hard gale
+at sea passing through the rigging of a close-reefed vessel. As
+the birds arrived and passed over me, I felt a current of air that
+surprised me. Thousands were seen knocked down by the pole-men. The
+birds continued to pour in. The fires were lighted, and a magnificent,
+as well as wonderful and almost terrifying sight presented itself.
+The pigeons, arriving by thousands, alighted everywhere, one above
+another, until solid masses as large as hogsheads were formed on the
+branches all round. Here and there the perches gave way under the
+weight with a crash, and, falling to the ground destroyed hundreds of
+the birds beneath, forcing down the dense groups with which every stick
+was loaded. It was a scene of uproar and confusion. I found it quite
+useless to speak, or even to shout to those persons who were nearest
+to me. Even the reports of the guns were seldom heard, and I was made
+aware of the firing only by seeing the shooters reloading.
+
+No one dared venture within the line of devastation. The hogs had been
+penned up in due time, the picking up of the dead and wounded being
+left for the next morning's employment. The pigeons were constantly
+coming, and it was past midnight before I perceived a decrease in the
+number of those that arrived. The uproar continued the whole night; and
+as I was anxious to know to what distance the sound reached, I sent
+off a man, accustomed to perambulate the forest, who, returning two
+hours afterwards, informed me he had heard it distinctly when three
+miles distant from the spot. Toward the approach of day, the noise in
+some measure subsided, long before objects were distinguishable, the
+pigeons began to move off in a direction quite different from that in
+which they had arrived the evening before, and at sunrise all that were
+able to fly had disappeared. The howlings of the wolves now reached our
+ears, and the foxes, lynxes, cougars, bears, raccoons, opossums, and
+pole-cats were seen sneaking off, whilst eagles and hawks of different
+species, accompanied by a crowd of vultures, came to supplant them and
+enjoy their share of the spoil.
+
+It was then that the authors of all this devastation began their entry
+amongst the dead, the dying and the mangled. The pigeons were picked up
+and piled in heaps, until each had as many as he could possibly dispose
+of, when the hogs were let loose to feed on the remainder.
+
+Persons unacquainted with these birds might naturally conclude that
+such dreadful havoc would soon put an end to the species. But I have
+satisfied myself, by long observation, that nothing but the gradual
+diminution of our forests can accomplish their decrease, as they not
+infrequently quadruple their numbers yearly, and always at least double
+it. In 1805 I saw schooners loaded in bulk with pigeons caught up
+the Hudson River, coming into the wharf at New York, when the birds
+sold for a cent apiece. I knew a man in Pennsylvania, who caught and
+killed upward of five hundred dozens in a clap net in one day, sweeping
+sometimes twenty dozens or more at a single haul. In the month of
+March, 1830, they were so abundant in the markets of New York, that
+piles of them met the eye in every direction. I have seen the negroes
+at the United States' Salines or Saltworks of Shawnee Town, wearied
+with killing pigeons, as they alighted to drink the water issuing from
+the leading pipes, for weeks at a time; and yet in 1826, in Louisiana,
+I saw congregated flocks of these birds as numerous as ever I had seen
+them before, during a residence of nearly thirty years in the United
+States.
+
+The breeding of the wild pigeons, and the places chosen for that
+purpose, are points of great interest. The time is not much influenced
+by season, and the place selected is where food is most plentiful and
+most attainable, and always at a convenient distance from water. Forest
+trees of great height are those in which the pigeons form their nests.
+Thither the countless myriads resort, and prepare to fulfill one of
+the great laws of nature. At this period the note of the pigeon is a
+soft coo-coo-coo-coo much shorter than that of the domestic species.
+The common notes resemble the monosyllables kee-kee-kee-kee, the first
+being the loudest, the others gradually diminishing in power. The
+male assumes a pompous demeanor, and follows the female whether on
+the ground or on the branches, with spread tail and drooping wings,
+which it rubs against the part over which it is moving. The body is
+elevated, the throat swells, the eyes sparkle. He continues his notes,
+and now and then rises on the wing, and flies a few yards to approach
+the fugitive and timorous female. Like the domestic pigeon and other
+species, they caress each other by billing, in which action, the bill
+of the one is introduced transversely into that of the other, and both
+parties alternately disgorge the contents of their crops by repeated
+efforts. These preliminary affairs are soon settled, and the pigeons
+commence their nests in general peace and harmony. They are composed
+of a few dry twigs, crossing each other, and are supported by forks
+of the branches. On the same tree from fifty to a hundred nests may
+frequently be seen: I might say a much greater number, were I not
+anxious, kind reader, that however wonderful my account of the wild
+pigeons is, you may not feel disposed to refer it to the marvelous. The
+eggs are two in number, of a broadly elliptical form, and pure white.
+During incubation, the male supplies the female with food. Indeed, the
+tenderness and affection displayed by these birds toward their mates,
+are in the highest degree striking. It is a remarkable fact that each
+brood generally consists of a male and a female.
+
+Here again, the tyrant of the creation, man, interferes, disturbing
+the harmony of this peaceful scene. As the young birds grow up, their
+enemies armed with axes, reach the spot, to seize and destroy all
+they can. The trees are felled, and made to fall in such a way that
+the cutting of one causes the overthrow of another, or shakes the
+neighboring trees so much, that the young pigeons, or squabs, as they
+are named, are violently hurled to the ground. In this manner, also,
+immense quantities are destroyed.
+
+The young are fed by the parents in the manner described above; in
+other words, the old bird introduces its bill into the mouth of the
+young one in a transverse manner, or with the back of each mandible
+opposite the separations of the mandibles of the young bird, and
+disgorges the contents of its crop. As soon as the young birds are
+able to shift for themselves, they leave their parents, and continue
+separate until they attain maturity. By the end of six months they are
+capable of reproducing their species.
+
+The flesh of the wild pigeon is of a dark color, but affords tolerable
+eating. That of young birds from the nest is much esteemed. The skin
+is covered with small white filmy scales. The feathers fall off at
+the least touch, as has been remarked to be the case in the Carolina
+Turtle. I have only to add that this species, like others of the same
+genus, immerses its head up to the eyes while drinking.
+
+In March, 1830, I bought about three hundred and fifty of these birds
+in the market of New York, at four cents apiece. Most of these I
+carried alive to England, and distributed among several noblemen,
+presenting some at the same time to the Zoological Society.
+
+
+ADULT MALE
+
+Bill--straight, of ordinary length, rather slender, broader than deep
+at the base, with a tumid, fleshy covering above, compressed toward the
+end, rather obtuse; upper mandible slightly declinate at the tip, edges
+inflected. Head--small; neck, slender; body, rather full. Legs--short
+and strong; tarsus, rather rounded; anteriorly scutellate; toes,
+slightly webbed at the base; claws, short, depressed, obtuse.
+
+Plumage--blended on the neck and under parts, compact on the back.
+Wings--long, the second quill longest. Tail--graduated, of twelve
+tapering feathers.
+
+Bill--black. Iris--bright red. Feet--carmine purple, claws blackish.
+Head--above and on the sides light blue. Throat, fore-neck, breast,
+and sides--light brownish-red, the rest of the under parts white.
+Lower part of the neck behind, and along the sides, changing to gold,
+emerald green, and rich crimson. The general color of the upper parts
+is grayish-blue, some of the wing-coverts marked with a black spot.
+Quills and larger wing-coverts blackish, the primary quills bluish in
+the outer web, the larger coverts whitish at the tip. The two middle
+feathers of the tail black, the rest pale blue at the base, becoming
+white toward the end.
+
+Length, 16-1/4 inches; extent of wings, 25; bill, along the ridge,
+5/6, along the gap, 1-1/12; tarsus, 1-1/4 middle toe, 1-1/3.
+
+
+ADULT FEMALE
+
+The colors of the female are much duller than those of the male,
+although their distribution is the same. The breast is light
+grayish-brown, the upper parts pale reddish-brown, tinged with blue.
+The changeable spot on the neck is of less extent, and the eye of a
+somewhat duller red, as are the feet.
+
+Length, 15 inches; extent of wings, 23; bill, along the ridge, 3/4;
+along the gap, 5/6.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+As James Fenimore Cooper Saw It
+
+
+One of the most graphic descriptions ever written of a pigeon flight
+and slaughter is to be found in Cooper's novel, "The Pioneers," from
+which I make the following extracts:
+
+"See, cousin Bess! see, Duke, the pigeon-roosts of the south have
+broken up! They are growing more thick every instant. Here is a flock
+that the eye cannot see the end of. There is food enough in it to
+keep the army of Xerxes for a month and feathers enough to make beds
+for the whole country.... The reports of the firearms became rapid,
+whole volleys rising from the plain, as flocks of more than ordinary
+numbers darted over the opening, shadowing the field like a cloud;
+and then the light smoke of a single piece would issue from among the
+leafless bushes on the mountain, as death was hurled on the retreat of
+the affrighted birds, who were rising from a volley, in a vain effort
+to escape. Arrows and missiles of every kind were in the midst of the
+flocks; and so numerous were the birds, and so low did they take their
+flight, that even long poles, in the hands of those on the sides of the
+mountain, were used to strike them to the earth.... So prodigious was
+the number of the birds, that the scattering fire of the guns, with
+the hurtling missiles, and the cries of the boys, had no other effect
+than to break off small flocks from the immense masses that continued
+to dart along the valley, as if the whole of the feathered tribe were
+pouring through that one pass. None pretended to collect the game,
+which lay scattered over the fields in such profusion as to cover the
+very ground with the fluttering victims."
+
+The slaughter described finally ended with a grand finale when an old
+swivel gun was "loaded with handsful of bird-shot," and fired into the
+mass of pigeons with such fatal effect that there were birds enough
+killed and wounded on the ground to feed the whole settlement.
+
+The following description is from "The Chainbearer," also by J.
+Fenimore Cooper. The region of which he writes is in Central New York.
+
+"I scarce know how to describe the remarkable scene. As we drew near to
+the summit of the hill, pigeons began to be seen fluttering among the
+branches over our heads, as individuals are met along the roads that
+lead into the suburbs of a large town. We had probably seen a thousand
+birds glancing around among the trees, before we came in view of the
+roost itself. The numbers increased as we drew nearer, and presently
+the forest was alive with them.
+
+"The fluttering was incessant, and often startling as we passed ahead,
+our march producing a movement in the living crowd, that really became
+confounding. Every tree was literally covered with nests, many having
+at least a thousand of these frail tenements on their branches, and
+shaded by the leaves. They often touched each other, a wonderful degree
+of order prevailing among the hundreds of thousands of families that
+were here assembled.
+
+"The place had the odor of a fowl-house, and squabs just fledged
+sufficiently to trust themselves in short flights, were fluttering
+around us in all directions, in tens of thousands. To these were to
+be added the parents of the young race endeavoring to protect them
+and guide them in a way to escape harm. Although the birds rose as
+we approached, and the woods just around us seemed fairly alive with
+pigeons, our presence produced no general commotion; every one of
+the feathered throng appearing to be so much occupied with its own
+concerns, as to take little heed of the visit of a party of strangers,
+though of a race usually so formidable to their own.
+
+"The masses moved before us precisely as a crowd of human beings yields
+to a pressure or a danger on any given point; the vacuum created by its
+passage filling in its rear as the water of the ocean flows into the
+track of the keel.
+
+"The effect on most of us was confounding, and I can only compare the
+sensation produced on myself by the extraordinary tumult to that a
+man experiences at finding himself suddenly placed in the midst of an
+excited throng of human beings. The unnatural disregard of our persons
+manifested by the birds greatly heightened the effect, and caused me
+to feel as if some unearthly influence reigned in the place. It was
+strange, indeed, to be in a mob of the feathered race, that scarce
+exhibited a consciousness of one's presence. The pigeons seemed a world
+of themselves, and too much occupied with their own concerns to take
+heed of matters that lay beyond them.
+
+"Not one of our party spoke for several minutes. Astonishment seemed
+to hold us all tongue-tied, and we moved slowly forward into the
+fluttering throng, silent, absorbed, and full of admiration of the
+works of the Creator. It was not easy to hear each others' voices when
+we did speak, the incessant fluttering of wings filling the air. Nor
+were the birds silent in other respects.
+
+"The pigeon is not a noisy creature, but a million crowded together on
+the summit of one hill, occupying a space of less than a mile square,
+did not leave the forest in its ordinary impressive stillness. As we
+advanced, I offered my arm, almost unconsciously again to Dus, and
+she took it with the same abstracted manner as that in which it had
+been held forth for her acceptance. In this relation to each other, we
+continued to follow the grave-looking Onondago, as he moved, still
+deeper and deeper, into the midst of the fluttering tumult.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"While standing wondering at the extraordinary scene around us, a noise
+was heard rising above that of the incessant fluttering which I can
+only liken to that of the trampling of thousands of horses on a beaten
+road. This noise at first sounded distant, but it increased rapidly
+in proximity and power, until it came rolling in upon us, among the
+tree-tops, like a crash of thunder. The air was suddenly darkened,
+and the place where we stood as somber as a dusky twilight. At the
+same instant, all the pigeons near us, that had been on their nests,
+appeared to fall out of them, and the space immediately above our heads
+was at once filled with birds.
+
+"Chaos itself could hardly have represented greater confusion, or a
+greater uproar. As for the birds, they now seemed to disregard our
+presence entirely; possibly they could not see us on account of their
+own numbers, for they fluttered in between Dus and myself, hitting us
+with their wings, and at times appearing as if about to bury us in
+avalanches of pigeons. Each of us caught one at least in our hands,
+while Chainbearer and the Indian took them in some numbers, letting one
+prisoner go as another was taken. In a word, we seemed to be in a world
+of pigeons. This part of the scene may have lasted a minute, when the
+space around us was suddenly cleared, the birds glancing upward among
+the branches of the trees, disappearing among the foliage. All this was
+the effect produced by the return of the female birds, which had been
+off at a distance, some twenty miles at least, to feed on beechnuts,
+and which now assumed the places of the males on the nests; the latter
+taking a flight to get their meal in their turn.
+
+"I have since had the curiosity to make a sort of an estimate of the
+number of the birds that must have come in upon the roost, in that, to
+us, memorable moment. Such a calculation, as a matter of course, must
+be very vague, though one may get certain principles by estimating
+the size of a flock by the known rapidity of the flight, and other
+similar means; and I remember that Frank Malbone and myself supposed
+that a million of birds must have come in on that return, and as many
+departed! As the pigeon is a very voracious bird, the question is apt
+to present itself, where food is obtained for so many mouths; but, when
+we remember the vast extent of the American forests, this difficulty
+is at once met. Admitting that the colony we visited contained many
+millions of birds, and, counting old and young, I have no doubt it did,
+there was probably a fruit-bearing tree for each, within an hour's
+flight from that very spot!
+
+"Such is the scale on which Nature labors in the wilderness! I have
+seen insects fluttering in the air at particular seasons, and at
+particular places, until they formed little clouds; a sight every one
+must have witnessed on many occasions; and as those insects appeared,
+on their diminished scale, so did the pigeons appear to us at the roost
+of Mooseridge."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+The Wild Pigeon of North America
+
+By Chief Pokagon,[A] from "The Chautauquan," November, 1895. Vol. 22.
+No. 20.
+
+[Footnote A: Simon Pokagon, of Michigan, is a full-blooded Indian, the
+last Pottawattomie chief of the Pokagon band. He is author of the "Red
+Man's Greeting," and has been called by the press the "Redskin poet,
+bard, and Longfellow of his race." His father, chief before him, sold
+the site of Chicago and the surrounding country to the United States
+in 1833 for three cents an acre. He was the first red man to visit
+President Lincoln after his inauguration. In a letter written home at
+the time he said: "I have met Lincoln, the great chief; he is very
+tall, has a sad face, but he is a good man, I saw it in his eyes and
+felt it in his hand-shaking. He will help us get payment for Chicago
+land." Soon after $39,000 was paid. In 1874 he visited President Grant.
+He said of him: "I expected he would put on military importance, but
+he treated me kindly, give me a cigar, and we smoked the pipe of peace
+together." In 1893 he procured judgment against the United States for
+over $100,000 still due on the sale of the Chicago land by his father.
+He was honored on Chicago Day at the World's Fair by first ringing the
+new Bell of Liberty and speaking in behalf of his race to the greatest
+crowd ever assembled on earth. After his speech "Glory Hallelujah" was
+sung before the bell for the first time on the Fair grounds.]
+
+
+The migratory or wild pigeon of North America was known by our race as
+_O-me-me-wog_. Why the European race did not accept that name was, no
+doubt, because the bird so much resembled the domesticated pigeon; they
+naturally called it a wild pigeon, as they called us wild men.
+
+This remarkable bird differs from the dove or domesticated pigeon,
+which was imported into this country, in the grace of its long neck,
+its slender bill and legs, and its narrow wings. Its tail is eight
+inches long, having twelve feathers, white on the under side. The
+two center feathers are longest, while five arranged on either side
+diminished gradually each one-half inch in length, giving to the
+tail when spread an almost conical appearance. Its back and upper
+part of the wings and head are a darkish blue, with a silken velvety
+appearance. Its neck is resplendent in gold and green with royal purple
+intermixed. Its breast is reddish-brown, fading toward the belly into
+white. Its tail is tipped with white, intermixed with bluish-black. The
+female is one inch shorter than the male, and her color less vivid.
+
+It was proverbial with our fathers that if the Great Spirit in His
+wisdom could have created a more elegant bird in plumage, form, and
+movement, He never did. When a young man I have stood for hours
+admiring the movements of these birds. I have seen them fly in unbroken
+lines from the horizon, one line succeeding another from morning until
+night, moving their unbroken columns like an army of trained soldiers
+pushing to the front, while detached bodies of these birds appeared
+in different parts of the heavens, pressing forward in haste like raw
+recruits preparing for battle. At other times I have seen them move in
+one unbroken column for hours across the sky, like some great river,
+ever varying in hue; and as the mighty stream, sweeping on at sixty
+miles an hour, reached some deep valley, it would pour its living mass
+headlong down hundreds of feet, sounding as though a whirlwind was
+abroad in the land. I have stood by the grandest waterfall of America
+and regarded the descending torrents in wonder and astonishment, yet
+never have my astonishment, wonder, and admiration been so stirred as
+when I have witnessed these birds drop from their course like meteors
+from heaven.
+
+While feeding, they always have guards on duty, to give alarm of
+danger. It is made by the watch-bird as it takes its flight, beating
+its wings together in quick succession, sounding like the rolling beat
+of a snare drum. Quick as thought each bird repeats the alarm with a
+thundering sound, as the flock struggles to rise, leading a stranger to
+think a young cyclone is then being born.
+
+... About the middle of May, 1850, while in the fur trade, I was
+camping on the head waters of the Manistee River in Michigan. One
+morning on leaving my wigwam I was startled by hearing a gurgling,
+rumbling sound, as though an army of horses laden with sleigh bells
+was advancing through the deep forests towards me. As I listened more
+intently I concluded that instead of the tramping of horses it was
+distant thunder; and yet the morning was clear, calm and beautiful.
+Nearer and nearer came the strange commingling sounds of sleigh bells,
+mixed with the rumbling of an approaching storm. While I gazed in
+wonder and astonishment, I beheld moving toward me in an unbroken front
+millions of pigeons, the first I had seen that season. They passed like
+a cloud through the branches of the high trees, through the underbrush
+and over the ground, apparently overturning every leaf. Statue-like I
+stood, half-concealed by cedar boughs. They fluttered all about me,
+lighting on my head and shoulders; gently I caught two in my hands and
+carefully concealed them under my blanket.
+
+I now began to realize they were mating, preparatory to nesting. It
+was an event which I had long hoped to witness; so I sat down and
+carefully watched their movements, amid the greatest tumult. I tried to
+understand their strange language, and why they all chatted in concert.
+In the course of the day the great on-moving mass passed by me, but
+the trees were still filled with them sitting in pairs in convenient
+crotches of the limbs, now and then gently fluttering their half-spread
+wings and uttering to their mates those strange, bell-like wooing notes
+which I had mistaken for the ringing of bells in the distance.
+
+On the third day after, this chattering ceased and all were busy
+carrying sticks with which they were building nests in the same
+crotches of the limbs they had occupied in pairs the day before. On the
+morning of the fourth day their nests were finished and eggs laid. The
+hen birds occupied the nests in the morning, while the male birds went
+out into the surrounding country to feed, returning about ten o'clock,
+taking the nests, while the hens went out to feed, returning about
+three o'clock. Again changing nests, the male birds went out the second
+time to feed, returning at sundown. The same routine was pursued each
+day until the young ones were hatched and nearly half grown, at which
+time all the parent birds left the brooding grounds about daylight. On
+the morning of the eleventh day, after the eggs were laid, I found the
+nesting grounds strewn with egg shells, convincing me that the young
+were hatched. In thirteen days more the parent birds left their young
+to shift for themselves, flying to the east about sixty miles, when
+they again nested. The female lays but one egg during the same nesting.
+
+Both sexes secrete in their crops milk or curd with which they feed
+their young, until they are nearly ready to fly, when they stuff them
+with mast and such other raw material as they themselves eat, until
+their crops exceed their bodies in size, giving to them an appearance
+of two birds with one head. Within two days after the stuffing they
+become a mass of fat--"a squab." At this period the parent bird drives
+them from the nests to take care of themselves, while they fly off
+within a day or two, sometimes hundreds of miles, and again nest.
+
+It has been well established that these birds look after and take care
+of all orphan squabs whose parents have been killed or are missing.
+These birds are long-lived, having been known to live twenty-five years
+caged. When food is abundant they nest each month in the year.
+
+Their principal food is the mast of the forest, except when curd is
+being secreted in their crops, at which time they denude the country
+of snails and worms for miles around the nesting grounds. Because they
+nest in such immense bodies, they are frequently compelled to fly from
+fifty to one hundred miles for food.
+
+During my early life I learned that these birds in spring and fall
+were seen in their migrations from the Atlantic to the Mississippi
+River. This knowledge, together with my personal observation of their
+countless numbers, led me to believe they were almost as inexhaustible
+as the great ocean itself. Of course I had witnessed the passing away
+of the deer, buffalo, and elk, but I looked upon them as local in their
+habits, while these birds spanned the continent, frequently nesting
+beyond the reach of cruel man.
+
+Between 1840 and 1880 I visited in the States of Ohio, Indiana, and
+Michigan many brooding places that were from twenty to thirty miles
+long and from three to four miles wide, every tree in its limits being
+spotted with nests. Yet, notwithstanding their countless numbers, great
+endurance, and long life, they have almost entirely disappeared from
+our forests. We strain our eyes in spring and autumn in vain to catch
+a glimpse of these pilgrims. White men tell us they have moved in a
+body to the Rocky Mountain region, where they are as plenty as they
+were here, but when we ask red men, who are familiar with the mountain
+country, about them, they shake their heads in disbelief.
+
+A pigeon nesting was always a great source of revenue to our people.
+Whole tribes would wigwam in the brooding places. They seldom killed
+the old birds, but made great preparation to secure their young, out
+of which the squaws made squab butter and smoked and dried them by
+thousands for future use. Yet, under our manner of securing them, they
+continued to increase.
+
+White men commenced netting them for market about the year 1840. These
+men were known as professional pigeoners, from the fact that they
+banded themselves together, so as to keep in telegraphic communication
+with these great moving bodies. In this they became so expert as to be
+almost continually on the borders of their brooding places. As they
+were always prepared with trained stool-pigeons and flyers, which
+they carried with them, they were enabled to call down the passing
+flocks and secure as many by net as they were able to pack in ice and
+ship to market. In the year 1848 there were shipped from Catteraugus
+County, N. Y., eighty tons of these birds; and from that time to 1878
+the wholesale slaughter continued to increase, and in that year there
+were shipped from Michigan not less than three hundred tons of birds.
+During the thirty years of their greatest slaughter there must have
+been shipped to our great cities 5,700 tons of these birds; allowing
+each pigeon to weigh one-half pound would show twenty-three millions
+of birds. Think of it! And all these were caught during their brooding
+season, which must have decreased their numbers as many more. Nor is
+this all. During the same time hunters from all parts of the country
+gathered at these brooding places and slaughtered them without mercy.
+
+In the above estimate are not reckoned the thousands of dozens that
+were shipped alive to sporting clubs for trap-shooting, as well as
+those consumed by the local trade throughout the pigeon districts of
+the United States.
+
+These experts finally learned that the birds while nesting were frantic
+after salty mud and water, so they frequently made, near the nesting
+places, what were known by the craft as mud beds, which were salted,
+to which the birds would flock by the million. In April, 1876, I
+was invited to see a net over one of these death pits. It was near
+Petoskey, Mich. I think I am correct in saying the birds piled one upon
+another at least two feet deep when the net was sprung, and it seemed
+to me that most of them escaped the trap, but on killing and counting,
+there were found to be over one hundred dozen, all nesting birds.
+
+When squabs of a nesting became fit for market, these experts, prepared
+with climbers, would get into some convenient place in a tree-top
+loaded with nests, and with a long pole punch out the young, which
+would fall with a thud like lead on the ground.
+
+In May, 1880, I visited the last known nesting place east of the Great
+Lakes. It was on Platt River in Benzie County, Mich. There were on
+these grounds many large white birch trees filled with nests. These
+trees have manifold bark, which, when old, hangs in shreds like rags or
+flowing moss, along their trunks and limbs. This bark will burn like
+paper soaked in oil. Here, for the first time, I saw with shame and
+pity a new mode for robbing these birds' nests, which I look upon as
+being devilish. These outlaws to all moral sense would touch a lighted
+match to the bark of the trees at the base, when with a flash--more
+like an explosion--the blast would reach every limb of the tree, and
+while the affrighted young birds would leap simultaneously to the
+ground, the parent birds, with plumage scorched, would rise high in
+air amid flame and smoke. I noticed that many of these squabs were so
+fat and clumsy they would burst open on striking the ground. Several
+thousand were obtained during the day by this cruel process.
+
+That night I stayed with an old man on the highlands just north of the
+nesting. In the course of the evening I explained to him the cruelty
+that was being shown to the young birds in the nesting. He listened
+to me in utter astonishment, and said, "My God, is that possible!"
+Remaining silent a few moments with bowed head, he looked up and said,
+"See here, old Indian, you go out with me in the morning and I will
+show you a way to catch pigeons that will please any red man and the
+birds, too."
+
+Early the next morning I followed him a few rods from his hut, where
+he showed me an open pole pen, about two feet high, which he called
+his bait bed. Into this he scattered a bucket of wheat. We then sat in
+ambush, so as to see through between the poles into the pen. Soon they
+began to pour into the pen and gorge themselves. While I was watching
+and admiring them, all at once to my surprise they began fluttering
+and falling on their sides and backs and kicking and quivering like a
+lot of cats with paper tied over their feet. He jumped into the pen,
+saying, "Come on, you red-skin."
+
+I was right on hand by his side. A few birds flew out of the pen
+apparently crippled, but we caught and caged about one hundred fine
+birds. After my excitement was over I sat down on one of the cages,
+and thought in my heart, "Certainly Pokagon is dreaming, or this
+long-haired white man is a witch." I finally said, "Look here, old
+fellow, tell me how you did that." He gazed at me, holding his long
+white beard in one hand, and said with one eye half shut and a sly
+wink with the other, "That wheat was soaked in whisky." His answer
+fell like lead upon my heart. We had talked temperance together the
+night before, and the old man wept when I told him how my people had
+fallen before the intoxicating cup of the white man like leaves before
+the blast of autumn. In silence I left the place, saying in my heart,
+"Surely the time is now fulfilled, when false prophets shall show signs
+and wonders to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect."
+
+I have read recently in some of our game-sporting journals, "A warwhoop
+has been sounded against some of our western Indians for killing game
+in the mountain region." Now, if these red men are guilty of a moral
+wrong which subjects them to punishment, I would most prayerfully ask
+in the name of Him who suffers not a sparrow to fall unnoticed, what
+must be the nature of the crime and degree of punishment awaiting our
+white neighbors who have so wantonly butchered and driven from our
+forests these wild pigeons, the most beautiful flowers of the animal
+creation of North America.
+
+In closing this article I wish to say a few words relative to the
+knowledge of things about them that these birds seem to possess.
+
+In the spring of 1866 there were scattered throughout northern Indiana
+and southern Michigan vast numbers of these birds. On April 10, in the
+morning, they commenced moving in small flocks in diverging lines
+toward the northwest part of Van Buren County, Mich. For two days they
+continued to pour into that vicinity from all directions, commencing at
+once to build their nests. I talked with an old trapper who lived on
+the brooding grounds, and he assured me that the first pigeons he had
+seen that season were on the day they commenced nesting and that he had
+lived there fifteen years and never known them to nest there before.
+
+From the above instance and hundreds of others I might mention, it
+is well established in my mind beyond a reasonable doubt, that these
+birds, as well as many other animals, have communicated to them by
+some means unknown to us, a knowledge of distant places, and of one
+another when separated, and that they act on such knowledge with just
+as much certainty as if it were conveyed to them by ear or eye. Hence
+we conclude it is possible that the Great Spirit in His wisdom has
+provided them a means to receive electric communications from distant
+places and with one another.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+The Passenger Pigeon
+
+From "Life Histories of North American Birds,"[B]
+
+by Charles Bendire
+
+[Footnote B: The first volume of Captain Bendire's monumental work was
+published in 1892, by which time the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon
+was foretold as a matter of a few more years. His contribution to the
+subject therefore deals with a much later period in the history of the
+bird and links the studies of Wilson and Audubon with the present day.]
+
+
+Geographical Range: Deciduous forest regions of eastern North America;
+west, casually, to Washington and Nevada; Cuba.
+
+The breeding range of the Passenger Pigeon to-day is to be looked for
+principally in the thinly settled and wooded region along our northern
+border, from northern Maine westward to northern Minnesota; in the
+Dakotas, as well as in similar localities in the eastern and middle
+portions of the Dominion of Canada, and north at least to Hudson's
+Bay. Isolated and scattering pairs probably still breed in the New
+England States, northern New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin,
+Minnesota, and a few other localities further south, but the enormous
+breeding colonies, or pigeon roosts, as they were formerly called,
+frequently covering the forest for miles, and so often mentioned by
+naturalists and hunters in former years, are, like the immense herds
+of the American bison which roamed over the great plains of the West in
+countless thousands but a couple of decades ago, things of the past,
+probably never to be seen again.
+
+In fact, the extermination of the Passenger Pigeon has progressed so
+rapidly during the past twenty years that it looks now as if their
+total extermination might be accomplished within the present century.
+The only thing which retards their complete extinction is that it no
+longer pays to net these birds, they being too scarce for this now, at
+least in the more settled portions of the country, and also, perhaps,
+that from constant and unremitting persecution on their breeding
+grounds they have changed their habits somewhat, the majority no longer
+breeding in colonies, but scattering over the country and breeding in
+isolated pairs.
+
+Mr. William Brewster, in his article "On the Present Status of the
+Wild Pigeon," etc., writes as follows: "In the spring of 1888 my
+friend, Captain Bendire, wrote me that he had received news from a
+correspondent in central Michigan to the effect that wild pigeons had
+arrived there in great numbers and were preparing to nest. Acting on
+this information, I started at once, in company with Mr. Jonathan
+Dwight, Jr., to visit the expected 'nesting' and learn as much as
+possible about the habits of the breeding birds, as well as to secure
+specimens of their skins and eggs.
+
+"On reaching Cadillac, Michigan, May 8, we found that large flocks of
+pigeons had passed there late in April, while there were reports of
+similar flights from almost every county in the southern part of the
+State. Although most of the birds had passed on before our arrival, the
+professional pigeon netters, confident that they would finally breed
+somewhere in the southern peninsula, were busily engaged getting their
+nets and other apparatus in order for an extensive campaign against the
+poor birds.
+
+"We were assured that as soon as the breeding colony became established
+the fact would be known all over the State, and there would be no
+difficulty in ascertaining its precise location. Accordingly, we
+waited at Cadillac about two weeks, during which time we were in
+correspondence with netters in different parts of the region. No news
+came, however, and one by one the netters lost heart, until finally
+most of them agreed that the pigeons had gone to the far north, beyond
+the reach of mail and telegraphic communication. As a last hope,
+we went, on May 15, to Oden, in the northern part of the southern
+peninsula, about twenty miles south of the Straits of Mackinac. Here
+we found that there had been, as elsewhere in Michigan, a heavy flight
+of birds in the latter part of April, but that all had passed on.
+Thus our trip proved a failure as far as actually seeing a pigeon
+'nesting' was concerned; but partly by observation, partly by talking
+with the netters, farmers, sportsmen, and lumbermen, we obtained much
+information regarding the flight of 1888, and the larger nestings that
+have occurred in Michigan within the past decade, as well as many
+interesting details, some of which appear to be new about the habits of
+the birds.
+
+"Our principal informant was Mr. S. S. Stevens, of Cadillac, a veteran
+pigeon netter of large experience, and, as we were assured by everyone
+whom we asked concerning him, a man of high reputation for veracity
+and carefulness of statement. His testimony was as follows: 'Pigeons
+appeared that year in numbers near Cadillac, about the 20th of April.
+He saw fully sixty in one day, scattered about in beech woods near the
+head of Clam Lake, and on another occasion about one hundred drinking
+at the mouth of the brook, while a flock that covered at least 8
+acres was observed by a friend, a perfectly reliable man, flying in a
+north-easterly direction. Many other smaller flocks were reported."
+
+"The last nesting of any importance in Michigan was in 1881, a few
+miles west of Grand Traverse. It was only of moderate size, perhaps 8
+miles long. Subsequently, in 1886, Mr. Stevens found about fifty dozen
+pairs nesting in a swamp near Lake City. He does not doubt that similar
+small colonies occur every year, besides scattered pairs. In fact, he
+sees a few pigeons about Cadillac every summer, and in the early autumn
+young birds, barely able to fly, are often met with singly or in small
+parties in the woods. Such stragglers attract little attention, and no
+one attempts to net them, although many are shot.
+
+"The largest nesting he ever visited was in 1876 or 1877. It began
+near Petoskey, and extended northeast past Crooked Lake for 28 miles,
+averaging 3 or 4 miles wide. The birds arrived in two separate bodies,
+one directly from the south by land, the other following the east coast
+of Wisconsin, and crossing at Manitou Island. He saw the latter body
+come in from the lake at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It was a
+compact mass of pigeons, at least 5 miles long by 1 mile wide. The
+birds began building when the snow was 12 inches deep in the woods,
+although the fields were bare at the time. So rapidly did the colony
+extend its boundaries that it soon passed literally over and around
+the place where he was netting, although when he began, this point
+was several miles from the nearest nest. Nestings usually start in
+deciduous woods, but during their progress the pigeons do not skip
+any kind of trees they encounter. The Petoskey nesting extended 8
+miles through hardwood timber, then crossed a river bottom wooded with
+arborvitae, and thence stretched through white pine woods about 20
+miles. For the entire distance of 28 miles every tree of any size had
+more or less nests, and many trees were filled with them. None were
+lower than about 15 feet above the ground.
+
+"Pigeons are very noisy when building. They make a sound resembling
+the croaking of wood frogs. Their combined clamor can be heard 4 or 5
+miles away when the atmospheric conditions are favorable. Two eggs are
+usually laid, but many nests contain only one. Both birds incubate, the
+females between 2 o'clock P.M. and 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock the next
+morning; the males from 9 or 10 o'clock A.M. to 2 o'clock P.M. The
+males feed twice each day, namely, from daylight to about 8 o'clock
+A.M. and again late in the afternoon. The females feed only during the
+forenoon. The change is made with great regularity as to time, all the
+males being on the nest by 10 o'clock A.M.
+
+"During the morning and evening no females are ever caught by the
+netters; during the forenoon no males. The sitting bird does not leave
+the nest until the bill of its incoming mate nearly touches its tail,
+the former slipping off as the latter takes it place.
+
+"Thus the eggs are constantly covered, and but few are ever thrown out
+despite the fragile character of the nests and the swaying of the trees
+in the high winds. The old birds never feed in or near the nesting,
+leaving all the beech mast, etc., there for their young. Many of them
+go 100 miles each day for food. Mr. Stevens is satisfied that pigeons
+continue laying and hatching during the entire summer. They do not,
+however, use the same nesting place a second time in one season, the
+entire colony always moving from 20 to 100 miles after the appearance
+of each brood of young. Mr. Stevens, as well as many of the other
+netters with whom we talked, believes that they breed during their
+absence in the South in the winter, asserting as proof of this that
+young birds in considerable numbers often accompany the earlier spring
+flights.
+
+"Five weeks are consumed by a single nesting. Then the young are forced
+out of their nests by the old birds. Mr. Stevens has twice seen this
+done. One of the pigeons, usually the male, pushes the young off the
+nest by force. The latter struggles and squeals precisely like a tame
+squab, but is finally crowded out along the branch, and after further
+feeble resistance flutters down to the ground. Three or four days
+elapse before it is able to fly well. Upon leaving the nest it is often
+fatter and heavier than the old birds; but it quickly becomes much
+thinner and lighter, despite the enormous quantity of food it consumes.
+
+"On one occasion an immense flock of young birds became bewildered in
+a fog while crossing Crooked Lake, and descending struck the water and
+perished by thousands. The shore for miles was covered a foot or more
+deep with them. The old birds rose above the fog, and none were killed.
+
+"At least five hundred men were engaged in netting pigeons during the
+great Petoskey nesting of 1881. Mr. Stevens thought that they may
+have captured on the average 20,000 birds apiece during the season.
+Sometimes two carloads were shipped south on the railroad each day.
+Nevertheless he believed that not one bird in a thousand was taken.
+Hawks and owls often abound near the nesting. Owls can be heard hooting
+there all night long. The cooper's hawk often catches the stool-pigeon.
+During the Petoskey season Mr. Stevens lost twelve stool birds in this
+way.
+
+"There has been much dispute among writers and observers, beginning
+with Audubon and Wilson, and extending down to the present day, as to
+whether the wild pigeon has two eggs or one. I questioned Mr. Stevens
+closely on this point. He assured me that he had frequently found two
+eggs or two young in the same nest, but that fully half the nests which
+he had examined contained only one.
+
+"Our personal experience with the pigeon in Michigan was as follows:
+
+"During our stay at Cadillac we saw them daily, sometimes singly,
+usually in pairs, never more than two together. Nearly every large
+tract of old growth mixed woods seemed to contain at least one pair.
+They appeared to be settled for the season, and we were convinced that
+they were preparing to breed. In fact, the oviduct of a female, killed
+May 10, contained an egg nearly ready for the shell.
+
+"At Oden we had a similar experience, although there were perhaps fewer
+pigeons there than about Cadillac.
+
+"On May 24, Mr. Dwight settled any possible question as to their
+breeding in scattered pairs, by finding a nest on which he distinctly
+saw a bird sitting. The following day I accompanied him to this nest,
+which was at least 50 feet above the ground, on the horizontal branch
+of a large hemlock, about 20 feet out from the trunk. As we approached
+the spot an adult male pigeon started from a tree near that on which
+the nest was placed, and a moment later a young bird, with stub tail
+and barely able to fly, fluttered feebly after it. This young pigeon
+was probably the bird seen the previous day on the nest, for on
+climbing to the latter, Mr. Dwight found it empty, but fouled with
+excrement, some of which was perfectly fresh. A thorough investigation
+of the surrounding woods, which were a hundred acres or more in extent,
+and composed chiefly of beeches, with a mixture of white pines and
+hemlocks of the largest size, convinced us that no other pigeons were
+nesting in them.
+
+"All the netters with whom we talked believe firmly that there are
+just as many pigeons in the West as there ever were. They say the
+birds have been driven from Michigan and the adjoining States, partly
+by persecution, and partly by the destruction of the forests, and
+have retreated to uninhabited regions, perhaps north of the Great
+Lakes in British North America. Doubtless there is some truth in this
+theory; for, that the pigeon is not, as has been asserted so often
+recently, on the verge of extinction, is shown by the flight which
+passed through Michigan in the Spring of 1888. This flight, according
+to the testimony of many reliable observers, was a large one, and
+the birds must have formed a nesting of considerable extent in some
+region so remote that no news of its presence reached the ears of the
+vigilant netters. Thus it is probable that enough Pigeons are left to
+restock the West, provided that laws sufficiently stringent to give
+them fair protection be at once enacted. The present laws of Michigan
+and Wisconsin are simply worse than useless, for, while they prohibit
+disturbing the birds _within_ the nesting, they allow unlimited netting
+only a few miles beyond its outskirts _during the entire breeding
+season_. The theory is, that they are so infinitely numerous that their
+ranks are not seriously thinned by catching a few millions of breeding
+birds in a summer, and that the only danger to be guarded against is
+that of frightening them away by the use of guns or nets in the woods
+where their nests are placed. The absurdity of such reasoning is
+self-evident, but, singularly enough, the netters, many of whom struck
+me as intelligent and honest men, seem really to believe in it. As
+they have more or less local influence, and, in addition, the powerful
+backing of the large game dealers in the cities, it is not likely that
+any really effectual laws can be passed until the last of our Passenger
+Pigeons are preparing to follow the great auk and the American bison."
+
+In order to show a little more clearly the immense destruction of the
+Passenger Pigeon _in a single year and at one roost_ only, I quote the
+following extract from an interesting article "On the Habits, Methods
+of Capture, and Nesting of the Wild Pigeon," with an account of the
+Michigan nesting of 1878, by Prof. H. B. Roney, in the Chicago _Field_
+(Vol. X, pp. 345-347):
+
+"The nesting area, situated near Petoskey, covered something like
+100,000 acres of land, and included not less than 150,000 acres within
+its limits, being in length about 40 miles by 3 to 10 in width. The
+number of dead birds sent by rail was estimated at 12,500 daily, or
+1,500,000 for the summer, besides 80,352 live birds; an equal number
+was sent by water. We have," says the writer, "adding the thousands
+of dead and wounded ones not secured, and the myriads of squabs left
+dead in the nest, at the lowest possible estimate, a grand total of one
+billion pigeons sacrificed to Mammon during the nesting of 1878."
+
+The last mentioned figure is undoubtedly far above the actual number
+killed during that or any other year, but even granting that but a
+million were killed at this roost, the slaughter is enormous enough,
+and it is not strange that the number of these pigeons are now few,
+compared with former years.
+
+Capt. B. F. Goss, of Peewaukee, Wisconsin, writes me: "Ten years
+ago the wild pigeon bred in great roosts in the northern parts of
+Wisconsin, and it also bred singly in this vicinity; up to six or eight
+years ago they were plenty. The nest was a small, rough platform of
+twigs, from 10 to 15 feet from the ground. I have often found two eggs
+in a nest, but one is by far the more common. These single nests have
+been thought by some accidental, but for years they bred in this manner
+all over the county, as plentifully as any of our birds. I also found
+them breeding singly in Iowa. These single nests have not attracted
+attention like the great roosts, but I think it is a common manner of
+building with this species."
+
+Mr. Frank J. Thompson, in charge of the Zoological Gardens at
+Cincinnati, Ohio, gives the following account of the breeding of the
+wild pigeon in confinement: "During the spring of 1877, the society
+purchased three pairs of trapped birds, which were placed in one of the
+outer aviaries. Early in March, 1878, I noticed that they were mating,
+and procuring some twigs, I wove three rough platforms, and fastened
+them up in convenient places, at the same time throwing a further
+supply of building material on the floor. Within twenty-four hours two
+of the platforms were selected; the male carrying the material, whilst
+the female busied herself in placing it. A single egg was soon laid
+in each nest and incubation commenced. On March 16, there was quite
+a heavy fall of snow, and on the next morning I was unable to see
+the birds on their nests on account of the accumulation of the snow
+piled on the platforms around them. Within a couple of days it had all
+disappeared, and for the next four or five nights a self-registering
+thermometer, hanging in the aviary, marked from 14 deg. to 10 deg. In
+spite of these drawbacks both of the eggs were hatched and the young
+ones reared. They have since continued to breed regularly, and now I
+have twenty birds, having lost several eggs from falling through their
+illy-contrived nests and one old male."
+
+The Passenger Pigeon has been found nesting in Wisconsin and Iowa
+during the first week in April, and as late as June 5 and 12 in
+Connecticut and Minnesota. Their food consists of beech nuts, acorns,
+wild cherries, and berries of various kinds, as well as different kinds
+of grain. They are said to be very fond of, and feed extensively on,
+angle worms, vast numbers of which frequently come to the surface after
+heavy rains, also on hairless caterpillars.
+
+Their movements, at all seasons, seem to be very irregular, and are
+greatly affected by the food supply. They may be exceedingly common
+at one point one year, and almost entirely wanting the next. They
+generally winter south of latitude 36 deg.
+
+Their notes during the mating season are said to be a short "coo-coo,"
+and the ordinary call note is a "kee-kee-kee," the first syllable being
+louder and the last fainter than the middle one.
+
+Opinions differ as to the number of broods in a season; while the
+majority of observers assert that but one, a few others say that two,
+are usually raised. The eggs vary in number from one to two in a
+set, and incubation lasts from eighteen to twenty days, both sexes
+assisting. These eggs are pure white in color, slightly glossy, and
+usually elliptical oval in shape; some may be called broad elliptical
+oval.
+
+The average measurements of twenty specimens in the U. S. National
+Museum collection is 37.5 by 26.5 millimetres. The largest egg measures
+39.5 by 28.5, the smallest 33.5 by 26 millimetres.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Netting the Pigeons
+
+By William Brewster, from "The Auk," a Quarterly Journal of
+Ornithology, October, 1889.
+
+
+In the spring of 1888 my friend, Captain Bendire, wrote to me that
+he had received news from a correspondent in central Michigan to the
+effect that wild pigeons had arrived there in large numbers and were
+preparing to nest. Acting on this information I started at once, in
+company with Mr. Jonathan Dwight, Jr., to visit the expected "nesting"
+and learn as much as possible about the habits of the breeding birds,
+as well as to secure specimens of their skins and eggs.
+
+... Pigeon netting in Michigan is conducted as follows: Each netter
+has three beds; at least two, and sometimes as many as ten "strikes"
+are made on a single bed in one day, but the bed is often allowed to
+"rest" for a day or two. Forty or fifty dozen birds are a good haul for
+one "strike." Often only ten or twelve dozen are taken. Mr. Stevens'
+highest "catch" is eighty-six dozen, but once he saw one hundred and
+six dozen captured at a single "strike." If too large a number are on
+the bed, they will sometimes raise the net bodily and escape. Usually
+about one-third are too quick for the net and fly out before it falls.
+Two kinds of beds are used, the "mud" bed and the "dry" bed. The former
+is the most killing in Michigan, but, for unknown reason, it will not
+attract birds in Wisconsin.
+
+It is made of mud, kept in a moist condition and saturated with a
+mixture of saltpeter and anise seed. Pigeons are very fond of salt
+and resort to salt springs wherever they occur. The dry bed is simply
+a level space of ground carefully cleared of grass, weeds, etc., and
+baited with corn or other grain. Pigeons are peculiar, and their habits
+must be studied by the netter if he would be successful. When they are
+feeding on beech mast, they often will not touch grain of any kind, and
+the mast must be used for bait.
+
+A stool bird is an essential part of the netter's outfit. It is tied
+on a box, and by an ingenious arrangement of cords, by which it can be
+gently raised or lowered, is made to flap its wings at intervals. This
+attracts the attention of passing birds which alight on the nearest
+tree, or on a perch which is usually provided for that purpose. After a
+portion of the flock has descended to the bed, they are started up by
+"raising" the stool bird, and fly back to the perch. When they fly down
+a second time all or nearly all the others follow or accompany them and
+the net is "struck."
+
+The usual method of killing pigeons is to break their necks with a
+small pair of pincers, the ends of which are bent so that they do
+not quite meet. Great care must be taken not to shed blood on the
+bed, for the pigeons notice this at once and are much alarmed by it.
+Young birds can be netted in wheat stubble in the autumn, but this is
+seldom attempted. When just able to fly, however, they are caught in
+enormous numbers near the "nestings" in pens made of slats. A few dozen
+old pigeons are confined in the pens as decoys, and a net is thrown
+over the mouth of the pen when a sufficient number of young birds have
+entered it.
+
+Mr. Stevens has known over four hundred dozen young pigeons to be
+taken at once by this method. The first birds sent to market yield
+the netter about one dollar a dozen. At the height of the season the
+price sometimes falls as low as twelve cents a dozen. It averages about
+twenty-five cents.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+Efforts to Check the Slaughter
+
+By Prof. H. B. Roney, East Saginaw, Mich.
+
+  The following article appeared in "American Field," of Chicago, Jan.
+  11, 1879. Parts omitted here referred to an ineffectual attempt on the
+  part of the Saginaw and Bay City Game Protection Clubs to put a stop
+  to the illegal netting and shooting of pigeons. The Michigan law was
+  a bungling piece of business, working rather in the interest of the
+  netters than of the birds. Prof. Roney and Mr. McLean accompanied the
+  two representatives of the Game Protective Clubs sent North on this
+  mission. I make this explanation as certain parts of the article I
+  reproduce would otherwise not be as well understood.
+
+
+For many years Passenger Pigeon nestings have been established in
+Michigan, and by a noticeable concurrence, only in even alternate
+years, as follows: 1868, 1870, 1872, 1874, 1876, 1878. In 1876 there
+were no less than three nestings in the State, one each in Newaygo,
+Oceana, and Grand Traverse counties.
+
+Large numbers of professional "pigeoners," as they term themselves,
+devote their whole time to the business of following up and netting
+wild pigeons for gain and profit. These men carefully study the habits
+and direction of flight of the birds, and in the spring of the year can
+tell with considerable accuracy in about what locality a nesting is
+to form. The indications are soon known throughout the fraternity and
+the gathering of the clans commences. The netters follow up the pigeons
+in their flight for hundreds of miles. The past year there have been
+nestings in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan, though in the former two
+States they were of short duration, as they soon broke up and the birds
+turned their flight to the northwest. The flight of a pigeon is, under
+favorable conditions, sixty to ninety miles an hour, and these birds
+of passage leaving the Pennsylvania forests at daybreak can reach the
+Michigan nesting grounds by sunset.
+
+Many of the little travellers came from the westward, crossing the
+stormy waters of the lake with the speed of a dart. From the four
+quarters of the globe, seemingly, they gather. Over the mountains,
+lakes, rivers, and prairies they speed their aerial flight, through
+storm, in sunshine and rain. Actuated as if by a common impulse toward
+the same object, their swift wings soon reach the summer nursery,
+to which they are drawn from points hundreds of miles distant by an
+instinct which surpasses human comprehension.
+
+No less remarkable is the wisdom with which the nesting places are
+chosen, they being always in the densest woods, not in large and heavy
+timber, but generally in smaller trees with many branches, cedars,
+and saplings. The presence of large quantities of mast, which is the
+principal food of these birds, especially beech nuts, is a prominent
+consideration in the selection of a nesting ground. As the feed in the
+vicinity of the nesting becomes exhausted, the birds are compelled to
+go daily farther and farther for food, even as high as seventy-five or
+one hundred miles, and these trips, which are taken twice a day, are
+known as the morning and evening flights.
+
+The apparatus for the capture of wild pigeons consists of a net about
+six feet wide and twenty to thirty feet long. The operator first
+chooses the location for setting his net, which, it is needless to
+add, is in utter disregard of the State law, which prescribes certain
+limits within which nets must not be placed. A bed of a creek or low
+marshy spot is chosen, if possible at a natural salt lick, or a bed
+of muck, upon which the birds feed. The ground is cleared of grass
+and weeds, and to allure the birds the bed is "baited" with salt and
+sulphur several days before the net is to be placed. A bough house is
+made about twenty feet from the end of the bed, and all is ready for
+the net and its victims. A bird discovers the tempting spot, and with
+the instinct of the honey-bee, returns and brings several others, while
+these in turn bring a multitude, and in less than two days the bed is
+fairly blue with birds feeding on the seasoned muck.
+
+The net is then set by an adjustment of ropes and a powerful spring
+pole, the net being laid along one side of the bed, and the operator
+retires to his bough house, through which the ropes run, where he
+waits concealed for the flights.
+
+Many trappers use two nets ranged along opposite sides of the bed,
+which are thrown toward each other and meet in the center. When enough
+birds are gathered upon the beds to make a profitable throw, the
+operator gives a quick jerk upon the rope, the net flies over in an
+instant, while in its meshes struggle hundreds of unwilling prisoners.
+
+After pinching their necks the trapper removes the dead victims, resets
+the trap, and is ready for another haul. To lure down the birds from
+their flight overhead, most netters use "fliers" or "stool-pigeons."
+The former are birds held captive by a cord, tied to the leg, being
+thrown up into the air when a flight is observed approaching, and drawn
+fluttering down when the "flier" has reached its limit. The latter is a
+live pigeon tied to a small circular framework of wood or wire attached
+to the end of a slender and elastic pole, which is raised and lowered
+by the trapper from his place of concealment by a stout cord and which
+causes constant fluttering. A good stool-pigeon (one which will stay
+upon the stool) is rather difficult to obtain, and is worth from $5 to
+$25. Many trappers use the same birds for several years in succession.
+
+The number of pigeons caught in a day by an expert trapper will seem
+incredible to one who has not witnessed the operation. A fair average
+is sixty to ninety dozen birds per day per net and some trappers will
+not spring a net upon less than ten dozen birds. Higher figures than
+these are often reached, as in the case of one trapper who caught and
+delivered 2,000 dozen pigeons in ten days, being 200 dozen, or about
+2,500 birds per day. A double net has been known to catch as high as
+1,332 birds at a single throw, while at natural salt licks, their
+favorite resort, 300 and 400 dozen, or about 5,000 birds have been
+caught in a single day by one net.
+
+The prices of dead birds range from thirty-five cents to forty cents
+per dozen at the nesting. In Chicago markets fifty to sixty cents.
+Squabs twelve cents per dozen in the woods, in metropolitan markets
+sixty cents to seventy cents. In fashionable restaurants they are
+served as a delicious tid-bit at fancy prices. Live birds are worth
+at the trapper's net forty cents to sixty cents per dozen; in cities
+$1 to $2. It can thus be easily seen that the business, when at all
+successful, is a very profitable one, for from the above quotations a
+pencil will quickly figure out an income of $10 to $40 per day for the
+"poor and hard-working pigeon trapper." One "pigeoner" at the Petoskey
+nesting was reported to be worth $60,000, all made in that business. He
+must have slain at least three million pigeons to gain this amount of
+money.
+
+For several years violations of the laws protecting pigeons in brooding
+time have been notorious in the Michigan nestings. Professional
+"pigeoners" did not for an instant pretend to observe the law, and a
+lax and indifferent public opinion permitted the illegal slaughter
+to go on without let or hindrance, while itinerant pigeon trappers
+from all parts of the United States, grew rich at the expense of the
+commonwealth, and in intentional violation of its laws. Each succeeding
+year the news has been spread far and wide until it became useless
+to conceal the fact that pigeon trapping was a profitable business,
+the year of 1876 witnessing a magnitude in the traffic which exceeded
+anything heretofore known in the country.
+
+In the early part of March last, a pigeon nesting formed just north
+of Petoskey, Michigan. Not many days had passed before information
+was conveyed to the game protection clubs of East Saginaw and Bay
+City, that enormous quantities of pigeons were being killed in open
+and defiant violation of the law. On reaching Petoskey we found the
+condition of affairs had not been magnified; indeed, it exceeded
+our gravest fears. Here, a few miles north, was a pigeon nesting of
+irregular dimensions, estimated by those best qualified to judge, to
+be forty (40) miles in length, by three to ten in width, probably the
+largest nesting that has ever existed in the United States, covering
+something like 100,000 acres of land, and including not less than
+150,000 acres within its limits.
+
+At the hotel we met one we were glad to see, in the person of "Uncle
+Len" Jewell, of Bay City, an old woodsman and "land-looker." Len had
+for several weeks been looking land in the upper peninsula, and was
+on his return home. At our solicitation he agreed to remain for two
+or three days, and co-operate with us. In the village nothing else
+seemed to be thought of but pigeons. It was the one absorbing topic
+everywhere. The "pigeoners" hurried hither and thither, comparing
+market reports, and soliciting the latest quotations on "squabs." A
+score of hands in the packing-houses were kept busy from daylight until
+dark. Wagon load after wagon load of dead and live birds hauled up to
+the station, discharged their freight, and returned to the nesting for
+more. The freight house was filled with the paraphernalia of the pigeon
+hunter's vocation, while every train brought acquisitions to their
+numbers, and scores of nets, stool-pigeons, etc.
+
+The pigeoners were everywhere. They swarmed in the hotels, postoffice,
+and about the streets. They were there, as careful inquiry and the
+hotel registers showed, from New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania,
+Michigan, Maryland, Iowa, Virginia, Ohio, Texas, Illinois, Maine,
+Minnesota, and Missouri.
+
+Hiring a team, we started on a tour of investigation through the
+nesting. Long before reaching it our course was directed by the birds
+over our heads, flying back and forth to their feeding grounds. After
+riding about fifteen miles, we discovered a wagon-track leading into
+the woods, in the direction of the bird sounds which came to our ears.
+Three of the party left the wagon and followed it; the twittering
+grew louder and louder, the birds more numerous, and in a few minutes
+we were in the midst of that marvel of the forest and Nature's
+wonderland--the pigeon nesting.
+
+We stood and gazed in bewilderment upon the scene around and above us.
+Was it indeed a fairyland we stood upon, or did our eyes deceive us. On
+every hand, the eye would meet these graceful creatures of the forest,
+which, in their delicate robes of blue, purple and brown, darted hither
+and thither with the quickness of thought. Every bough was bending
+under their weight, so tame one could almost touch them, while in every
+direction, crossing and recrossing, the flying birds drew a network
+before the dizzy eyes of the beholder, until he fain would close his
+eyes to shut out the bewildering scene.
+
+This portion of the nesting was the first formed, and the young birds
+were just ready to leave the nests. Scarcely a tree could be seen but
+contained from five to fifty nests, according to its size and branches.
+Directed by the noise of chopping and falling trees, we followed on,
+and soon came upon the scene of action.
+
+Here was a large force of Indians and boys at work, slashing down the
+timber and seizing the young birds as they fluttered from the nest.
+As soon as caught, the heads were jerked off from the tender bodies
+with the hand, and the dead birds tossed into heaps. Others knocked
+the young fledglings out of the nests with long poles, their weak
+and untried wings failing to carry them beyond the clutches of the
+assistant, who, with hands reeking with blood and feathers, tears the
+head off the living bird, and throws its quivering body upon the heap.
+
+Thousands of young birds lay among the ferns and leaves dead, having
+been knocked out of the nests by the promiscuous tree-slashing, and
+dying for want of nourishment and care, which the parent birds, trapped
+off by the netter, could not give. The squab-killers stated that "about
+one-half of the young birds in the nests they found dead," owing to the
+latter reason. Every available Indian, man and boy, in the neighborhood
+was in the employ of buyers and speculators, killing squabs, for which
+they received a cent apiece.
+
+Early in the morning, Len, with his land-looker's pack and half-ax, and
+the writer, started out to "look land." Taking the course indicated
+by the obliging small boy, we soon struck into an old Indian trail
+which led us through another portion of the nesting, where the birds
+for countless numbers surpassed all calculation. The chirping and
+noise of wings were deafening and conversation, to be audible, had
+to be carried on at the top of our voices. On the shores of the lake
+where the birds go to drink, when flushed by an intruder, the rush
+of wings of the gathered millions was like the roar of thunder and
+perfectly indescribable. An hour's walk brought us to a ravine which we
+cautiously approached.
+
+Directed by the commotion in the air, we soon discovered the bough
+house and net of the trapper. Evidence being what we sought, we stood
+concealed behind some bushes to await the spring of the trap. The black
+muck bed soon became blue and purple with pigeons lured by the salt and
+sulphur, when suddenly the net was sprung over with a "whiz," retaining
+hundreds of birds beneath it, while those outside its limits flew to
+adjacent trees. We now descended from the brink of the hill to the net,
+and there beheld a sickening sight not soon forgotten.
+
+On one side of the bed of a little creek was spread the net, a double
+one, covering an area when thrown, of about ten by twenty feet. Through
+its meshes were stretched the heads of the fluttering captives vainly
+struggling to escape. In the midst of them stood a stalwart pigeoner
+up to his knees in the mire and bespattered with mud and blood from
+head to foot. Passing from bird to bird, with a pair of blacksmith's
+pincers, he gave the neck of each a cruel grip with his remorseless
+weapon, causing the blood to burst from the eyes and trickle down the
+beak of the helpless captive, which slowly fluttered its life away,
+its beautiful plumage besmeared with filth and its bed dyed with its
+crimson blood. When all were dead, the net was raised, many still
+clinging to its meshes with beak and claws in their death grip and were
+shaken off. They were then gathered, counted, deposited behind a log
+with many others and covered with bushes, and the death trap set for
+another harvest.
+
+Scarcely able to conceal our indignation, we sat upon the bank and
+questioned this hero, learning that he had pursued the business for
+years, and had caught as high as 87 dozen in one day, learning later
+that he caught and killed upon that day, 82 dozen, or 984 birds. This
+outrage was perpetrated within 100 rods of the nests and in plain
+hearing of the nesting sounds, instead of two miles away, as the law
+prescribes. After gaining some further information, the old gray-headed
+land-looker and his companion withdrew, bidding the pigeon pirate
+good-day, and leaving him none the wiser for the visit. Out of sight
+we worked our way back to the road, overtook the stage and returned to
+Petoskey. The next day the writer swore out a warrant and caused the
+arrest of the offender, who could not do otherwise than plead guilty,
+and had the satisfaction of seeing him pay over his fine of $50 for his
+poor knowledge of distances.
+
+The shooting done at the nesting was in the most flagrant violation of
+the protective laws. The five-mile limit was a dead letter. The shotgun
+brigade went where they listed, and shot the birds in the nesting as
+they sat in rows on the trees or passed in clouds overhead. Before we
+arrived, a party of four men shot 826 birds in one day and then only
+stopping from sheer fatigue. Other parties continued the fusillade
+until the guns became so foul they could not be used, and would return
+to the village with a wagon-box full of birds. Scores of dead pigeons
+were left on the grounds to decay, and the woods were full of wounded
+ones. H. Frayer, a justice of the peace, informed us that a few days
+previously he had picked up fifteen maimed birds, his neighbor, a Mr.
+Green, twenty, and a Mr. Crossman, thirty-six, all in one day, after a
+shooting party had passed through.
+
+The news of the formation of the nesting was not long in reaching the
+various Indian settlements near Petoskey, and the aborigines came in
+tens and fifties and in hordes. Some were armed with guns, but the
+majority were provided with powerful bows, and arrows with round, flat
+heads two or three inches in diameter. With these they shot under or
+into the nests, knocked out the squabs to the ground, and raked the
+old birds which loaded the branches. For miles the roads leading to
+the nesting were swarming with Indians, big and little, old and young,
+squaws, pappooses, bucks and young braves, on ponies, in carts and on
+foot. Each family brought its kit of cooking utensils, axes, a stock of
+provisions, tubs, barrels and firkins to pack the birds in, and came
+intending to carry on the business until the nesting broke up. In some
+sections the woods were literally full of them.
+
+[Illustration: UPPER SPECIMEN, PASSENGER PIGEON (_Ectopistes
+Migratoria_)
+
+LOWER SPECIMEN, MOURNING DOVE (_Zenaidura Macroura_)
+
+Frequently mistaken for Passenger Pigeon]
+
+With the aid of Sheriff Ingalls, who spoke their language like a
+native, we one day drove over 400 Indians out of the nesting, and
+their retreat back to their farms would have rivaled Bull Run. Five
+hundred more were met on the road to the nesting and turned back. The
+number of pigeons these two hordes would have destroyed would have
+been incalculable. Noticing a handsome bow in the hands of a young
+Indian, who proved to a son of the old chief, Petoskey, a piece of
+silver caused its transfer to us, with the remark, "Keene, kensau, mene
+sic" (now you can go and shoot pigeons), which dusky joke seemed to be
+appreciated by the rest of the young chief's companions.
+
+There are in the United States about 5,000 men who pursue pigeons
+year after year as a business. Pigeon hunters with whom we conversed
+incognito stated that of this number there were between 400 and 500
+at the Petoskey nesting plying their vocation with as many nests, and
+more arriving upon every train from all parts of the United States.
+When it is remembered that the village was alive with pigeoners, that
+nearly every house in the vast area of territory covered by the nesting
+sheltered one to six pigeon men, and that many camped out in the woods,
+the figures will not seem improbable. Every homesteader in the country
+who owned or could hire an ox team or pair of horses, was engaged in
+hauling birds to Petoskey for shipment, for which they received $4 per
+wagon load. To "keep peace in the family" and avoid complaint, the
+pigeon men fitted up many of the settlers with nets, and instructed
+them in the art of trapping.
+
+Added to these were the buyers, shippers, packers, Indians and boys,
+making not less than 2,000 persons (some placed it at 2,500) engaged
+in the traffic at this one nesting. Fully fifty teams were engaged
+in hauling birds to the railroad station. The road was carpeted with
+feathers, and the wings and feathers from the packing-houses were used
+by the wagon load to fill up the mud holes in the road for miles out of
+town. For four men to attempt to effect a work, having for opponents
+the entire country, residents and non-residents included, was no slight
+task.
+
+The majority of the pigeoners were a reckless, hard set of men, but
+their repeated threats that they would "buckshot us" if we interfered
+with them in the woods failed to inspire the awe that was intended. It
+was four against 2,000. What was accomplished against such fearful odds
+may be seen by the following:
+
+The regular shipments by rail before the party commenced operations
+were sixty barrels per day. On the 16th of April, just after our
+arrival, they fell to thirty-five barrels, and on the 17th down to
+twenty barrels per day, while on the 22d the shipments were only eight
+barrels of pigeons. On the Sunday previous there were shipped by
+steamer to Chicago 128 barrels of dead birds and 108 crates of live
+birds. On the next Sabbath following our arrival the shipments were
+only forty-three barrels and fifty-two crates. Thus it will be seen
+that some little good was accomplished, but that little was included
+in a very few days of the season, for the treasury of the home clubs
+would not admit of keeping their representatives longer at the nesting,
+the State clubs, save one, did not respond to the call for assistance,
+and the men were recalled, after which the Indians went back into the
+nesting, and the wanton crusade was renewed by pigeoners and all hands
+with an energy which indicated a determination to make up for lost time.
+
+The first shipment of birds from Petoskey was upon March 22, and the
+last upon August 12, making over twenty weeks, or five months, that the
+bird war was carried on. For many weeks the railroad shipments averaged
+fifty barrels of dead birds per day--thirty to forty dozen old birds
+and about fifty dozen squabs being packed in a barrel. Allowing 500
+birds to a barrel, and averaging the entire shipments for the season at
+twenty-five barrels per day, we find the rail shipments to have been
+12,500 dead birds daily, or 1,500,000 for the summer. Of live birds
+there were shipped 1,116 crates, six dozen per crate, or 80,352 birds.
+
+These were the rail shipments only, and not including the cargoes by
+steamers from Petoskey, Cheboygan, Cross Village and other lake ports,
+which were as many more. Added to this were the daily express shipments
+in bags and boxes, the wagon loads hauled away by the shotgun brigade,
+the thousands of dead and wounded ones not secured, and the myriads of
+squabs dead in the nest by trapping off of the parent birds soon after
+hatching (for a young pigeon will surely die if deprived of its parents
+during the first week of its life), and we have at the lowest possible
+estimate a grand total of 1,000,000,000 pigeons sacrificed to Mammon
+during the nesting of 1878.
+
+The task undertaken in behalf of justice and humanity was a Herculean
+one, but backed up by such true sportsmen as A. H. Mershon and Wm. J.
+Loveland, of East Saginaw, and Judge Holmes, S. A. Van Dusen, D. H.
+Fitzhugh, Jr., and others of Bay City, as well as by the sentiment of
+every humane citizen of the State, we could not do other than follow
+the advice of Davy Crockett, and being sure we were right, we decided
+to "go ahead." The question of a wise protection to the game and fish
+of our State is one in which the writer holds a deep and fervent
+interest, and in serving this cause, he will swerve from no duty, nor
+shrink from consequences in the discharge of that duty.
+
+The foregoing article is the result of an honest conviction that the
+best interests of the State demanded a full exposure of the methods by
+which the pigeon is threatened with extinction.
+
+  AMONG THE PIGEONS.
+
+  A Reply to Professor Roney's Account of
+  the Michigan Nestings of 1878.
+
+  --BY--
+
+  E. T. MARTIN,
+
+  In the Chicago Field, Jan. 25, 1879.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  E. T. Martin's Headquarters at Boyne Falls, Michigan, during the
+  Nesting of 1878.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Fac-simile reproduction of circular, issued 1879, showing E. T.
+Martin's pigeon headquarters at Boyne Falls, Mich.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+The Pigeon Butcher's Defense
+
+By E. T. Martin, from the "American Field," Chicago, January 25, 1879.
+
+  The preceding chapter by Prof. H. B. Roney in _American Field_, was
+  answered by E. T. Martin, a game dealer of Chicago, who afterwards
+  issued a pamphlet, the first page of which is herewith reproduced, and
+  I make quite extensive extracts from the body of the circular, which
+  incidentally advertises Martin as "the largest dealer in live pigeons
+  for trap shooting in the world, also a dealer in guns, glass balls,
+  traps, nets, etc."
+
+  I call the reader's attention to the following:
+
+  In the table given of the shipments from Petoskey and Boyne Falls,
+  etc., during 1878, Martin estimates the number shipped alive from
+  Cheboygan as 89,730, yet H. T. Phillips of Detroit, shows from his
+  records that he alone shipped from that point 175,000 that year. So if
+  Martin's estimates are all as far wrong as this one, he should account
+  for a total shipment of over 2,000,000 pigeons.
+
+  In Martin's circular, he seems to take offense at some remarks Prof.
+  Roney has made in this article that reflect upon the character of
+  these netters, for Martin uses in quotation marks the following: "A
+  reckless, hard set of men, pirates, etc.," which seems to have some
+  foundation in fact, as Martin says: "In proof of the pigeons feeding
+  squab indiscriminately, I may mention the fact that one of the men
+  in my employ this year, while at the Shelby nesting in 1876 in one
+  afternoon shot and killed six hen pigeons that came to feed the one
+  squab in the same nest." Further comment is unnecessary.--W. B. M.
+
+
+A little after the middle of March a body of birds began nesting some
+twelve miles north of Petoskey, near Pickerel Lake. About April 8
+another and larger body "set in" along Maple and Indian Rivers, and
+Burt Lake, and near Cross Village, there being in all some seven or
+eight distinct nestings, covering perhaps, of territory actually
+occupied by the nesting, a tract some fifteen miles long and three of
+average width, or forty-five square miles.
+
+The principal catch was made from the Crooked and Maple rivers
+nestings, and when the former "broke," which was about May 25, the
+pigeoners pulled up and left, many going home, and others to the Boyne
+Falls nesting, some thirty miles south, which "set in" at about the
+same time. This gave a duration of two and one-third months to the
+Petoskey nesting proper, though it is true that, feed being abundant,
+some very few birds remained around, roosting for a little longer.
+
+The Boyne Falls nesting lasted something over a month and broke early
+in July; from this the catch was very light. After that, the only catch
+was a few young birds taken "on bait."
+
+Besides these nestings, there was one further south on the Manistee
+River, some twenty-six miles long by five average width, or 130 square
+miles, in which the birds hatched three times, and from which not a
+bird was caught, as it was an impenetrable swamp, and the putting of
+birds on the market would be attended with such expense as to destroy
+the profit. There were also one or two smaller ones, east of this
+one. These comprised the Michigan nestings, in addition to which, at
+Sheffield, Pa., there was fully as large a body, and fully as large a
+catch as at the Crooked and Maple nestings, the birds hatching there,
+I think, three times, each hatching taking four weeks, from the
+beginning of nest building to the time the old birds leave the young.
+
+It is true, however, that birds were shipped from Petoskey the middle
+of August, but they were birds belonging to me that I was holding there
+for a market, my Chicago pens being full. Every bird of them had been
+in my possession for a month previous, and many for six weeks. So the
+actual pigeon business lasted not five months, as Prof. Roney says, but
+about three; part of which time the total catch was not fifty dozen per
+day.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+They (Prof. Roney et al.) came to Petoskey with a great flourish of
+trumpets, hired expensive livery rigs to ride around the country in,
+made one or two arrests, secured one conviction by default, were
+defeated in every case that came to trial, had one of the party play
+the role of "terrible example" in the trout case, and then went home,
+and in the face of the fact that they had eaten, or known of having
+been eaten, hundreds of pigeons, and of the certainty that the report
+was false, had published in the Saginaw paper a report that the pigeons
+then being caught in Michigan were feeding on poisoned berries, and
+the using them for food had caused much sickness, and in one or two
+instances loss of life.
+
+This was not only published in the home papers, but was telegraphed
+to New York, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis and Cincinnati, and marked
+copies of the notice sent to the press of neighboring cities, the
+avowed object being to cause such a decline in price as to force the
+netters to quit. It was based on the idea that most of them were men of
+small means, and that unless ready market offered for their birds, they
+must give out. The effect was to cause a drop in price of fifty cents
+a dozen in New York and Boston in a single day, to cause the price in
+Chicago to decline to twenty cents per dozen, and to take the last
+cent out of the pockets of a hundred netters, leaving many who became
+discouraged and had to walk long distances to their homes, dependent on
+chance for even a mouthful to eat. Many, though, held out. Telegrams
+of denial were sent, and the market in a week or two rallied somewhat,
+though it was a month before prices in the East touched the same figure
+as when the "poison-berry" telegrams were received. During the week
+when prices were lowest I refused to buy many dead birds offered me
+at five cents per dozen, preferring to lend the netter money, or to
+advance it on his next catch to be saved alive.
+
+And, by the way, let me say that killing the pigeons by pincers is an
+instantaneous and painless death, the neck being broken by a single
+movement, and the fluttering spoken of being the same seen in any bird
+shot through the head, or with the head cut off. But had the market
+remained unbroken, had this infamous poisoned berry story never been
+started, no such net results in way of profit would have been reached
+as Prof. Roney says. Under very favorable circumstances, a good netter
+in such a season as we had in 1878, would make from $100 to $200, but
+by far the larger portion would not reach $100 over expenses.
+
+At the Crooked and Maple nestings day in and day out the average catch
+was about twenty dozen per day to each net and two men. These sold,
+except immediately after the "poisoned berry story," at from twenty to
+thirty cents per dozen head, at the net, or if the catcher was saving
+alive, in which case his catch would be one-third smaller, owing to the
+trouble of handling the live birds, he would get from thirty-five to
+forty-five cents.
+
+The principal object in saving them alive was that no birds spoiled
+from warm weather, and at my pens close by the nesting they would be
+received at any hour, while to sell dead birds it was necessary to
+depend on some chance buyer or to haul to Petoskey, fourteen miles
+distant. At Boyne Falls prices were a little higher, say twenty-five
+for dead and fifty cents for live, but the average catch was not five
+dozen per day to each net. There were exceptions both ways, which
+went of course to make up the average, the most notable being that of
+the 2,000 dozen caught by one party, not in ten days, but in twenty,
+employing two nets and six men. This I know, for I was at the net and
+saw part of the catching, while Prof. Roney never got that far. This
+2,000 dozen was shipped East and netted the catchers just fifteen
+cents a dozen at the net, or $300 for twenty days' work for six men and
+two nets, while on the other hand, during the same time, many better
+catchers who had not been lucky in location hadn't made enough to pay
+for board. Names, locations, etc., can be furnished if Prof. Roney
+desires.
+
+The Professor then goes on to lament his failure before our Emmett
+County jury. The reason why is very simple, _he never proved his
+case_. This whole pigeon trade was a perfect Godsend to a large
+portion of Emmett County. The land outside of Petoskey is taken up
+by homesteaders, who, between clearing their land, scanty crops,
+poor soil, large families, and small capital, are poorer than Job's
+turkey's prodigal son, and in years past have had all they could do
+fighting famine and cold, and but a year or so since all Michigan was
+sending relief to keep them from starving, thousands of dollars being
+contributed, and then most harrowing tales being told of need and
+destitution.
+
+The "pirates and bummers" left some $35,000 in good greenbacks right
+among the most needy of these people. Many were enabled to buy a team,
+others to clear more land, more to increase their crops, and all to lay
+in provisions and clothing to meet the bitter winter we are now passing
+through, and this money did more to open up Emmett County than years
+of ordinary work. It put scores of honest, hard-working homesteaders
+on their feet; it increased trade, and, if sent by a special act of
+Providence, could not have done more good. Such being the case, can any
+blame be given an Emmett County jury if they required evidence direct
+and to the point before convicting? And in no case that came to trial
+was direct evidence given. So the four true "sportsmen" there in behalf
+of justice and humanity, had such a cold reception from all, that they
+concluded strategy beat that kind of work all to death, pulled up
+stakes and hurried home, and worked up the poisoned berry business.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now, about the merciless slaughter. Prof. Roney estimates 1,500,000
+dead and 80,000 live birds as the shipments, and then goes on to say
+that _one billion_ birds have been destroyed! What logic.
+
+I have official figures before me, and they show that the shipments
+from Petoskey and Boyne Falls were:
+
+  Petoskey, dead, by express                  490,000
+  Petoskey, alive, by express                  86,400
+  Boyne Falls, dead                            47,100
+  Boyne Falls, alive                           42,696
+  Petoskey, dead, by boat, estimated          110,000
+  Petoskey, alive, by boat, estimated          33,640
+  Cheboygan, dead, by boat, estimated         108,300
+  Cheboygan, alive, by boat, estimated         89,730
+  Other points, dead and alive, estimated     100,000
+                                            ---------
+        Total                               1,107,866
+
+This may be set down as accurate or nearly so, and 1,500,000 will
+cover the total destruction of birds by net, gun and Indians. The
+total number of nesting squabs taken by the Indians would not reach
+100,000 and not over fifty barrels of these ever reached a market,
+the Indians smoking the remainder for winter use. No one knows how
+many birds 1,500,000 are until they see them, and handle a few. As an
+illustration: To buy and sell 125,000 birds in four months, it took
+myself, two men and a boy all our time, working from daylight until
+after dark every day.
+
+I doubt if there were a billion birds in all the Crooked and Maple
+nestings. I am certain that there were not at any one time. I am also
+certain that more than double as many young birds left those nestings
+than all the birds caught, killed or destroyed. The morning that the
+Crooked nesting broke, I was out at daylight, and at the net to see and
+help one of my men make a strike; for an hour and a half a continuous
+body of birds half a mile wide and very thick was going out; our strike
+was twenty-nine dozen, twenty-five dozen young and four dozen old,
+about the same proportion as the other catchers. This showed that of
+the immense body over five-sixths were young birds, barely old enough
+ones remaining to guide the body of young, and this was out of the
+nesting from which the bulk of the birds had been caught, where the
+destruction had been the greatest. When it is considered that the
+Manistee birds hatched three times unmolested, that there was a body
+several times larger there, than at the Crooked and Maple, and that
+many from each body went further north entirely out of reach and nested
+at least once, possibly twice again, some idea may be formed of the
+immense addition to the army of pigeons from the Michigan nestings of
+1878. Many more young birds left the Crooked River nesting alone, than
+all, old or young, destroyed during the entire season's pigeoning.
+
+Prof. Roney's lament about the young dying when deprived of the parent
+bird, and his addition to the number "sacrificed to Mammon" from that
+source, compares favorably with the poisoned berry story, or the attack
+on Turner. Admitting that 1,500,000 birds were caught and killed, not
+more than half of these would be old birds, some of which would not be
+nesting, and from some of which the young had left the nest. If for
+every one of the 750,000 old birds caught and killed, the squab had
+died, this would make a total slaughter of 2,250,000, or about one four
+hundred and fiftieth of the number he says.
+
+I don't believe Prof. Roney knows what a billion is. However, there
+were not 750,000, no, nor 100,000 squabs killed by losing their
+parents. It is a well-proved fact that the old bird coming in will stop
+and feed any squab heard crying for food, that in this way they look
+out for one another's young, and the orphans or half-orphans are cared
+for. It is rare, however, for both old birds to be caught or killed,
+since the toms and hens when nesting always fly separately, and the
+chance of both the parents of the squab falling a "victim to Mammon,"
+particularly in a large nesting, is small. As proof of the pigeons
+feeding squabs indiscriminately, I may mention that one of the men in
+my employ this year, at the Shelby nesting in 1876, in one afternoon
+shot and killed six hen pigeons that came to _feed_ the _one squab_ in
+the _same nest_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Why, Prof. Roney, the catch went on all the same, your party made no
+difference of note, but the weather was rough and somewhat stormy; the
+birds didn't "stool" well, and during the days mentioned the catch was
+very small, hence the decrease in shipments. Now, regarding the law, it
+is well enough as it is; one shotgun near a nesting is more destructive
+than a dozen nets; the report of the gun causes the birds to rise in
+thousands, and, when repeated, to leave in a body, regardless of nest
+or squab, and never to return; as an example, may be mentioned, the
+Minnesota nesting of 1877, when the birds were driven entirely away.
+
+The net is silent; its work occasions no alarm; it makes no cripples,
+consequently it can be admitted nearer to the nests than its more noisy
+partner. Protect the pigeons entirely, and a law forbidding catching
+during nesting time is equivalent to entire protection, and you have
+northern Michigan overrun with a pest that will destroy the farmer's
+seed as fast as sown, and when harvest time approaches, pounce upon a
+wheat field ready for the reaper and in an hour not leave even enough
+for the gleaner. Their increase would be more rapid, their stay longer,
+and in four years not only would the law be repealed, but inducements
+to slaughter would be held out to rid the State of the rapidly
+increasing and destructive pests.
+
+The pigeon never will be exterminated so long as forests large enough
+for their nestings and mast enough for their food remain.
+
+In conclusion, the pigeons are as much an article of commerce as wheat,
+corn, hogs, beeves, or sheep. It is no more cruel to kill them for
+market by the thousand, than it is to countenance the killing at the
+stock yards in this or any other large commercial center. The paper
+to-night shows that in six cities over four million hogs have been
+killed since Nov. 1, 1878, or two and a half months, a larger slaughter
+than, during the same time, of pigeons at the nestings by nearly
+threefold. Yet this is not "sacrificing to Mammon." A farmer can market
+his poultry dead or alive at any time of the year, and the slaughter,
+the country over, is larger than that of pigeons, yet no one in the
+interest of "justice and humanity" interferes.
+
+The pigeon is migratory, it can care for itself. It nests in the
+impenetrable wilds of Arkansas, the Indian Territory, Canada and
+British America, as often as in the land of civilization where it
+can be reached for market. It is a source of profit to the poor, or
+pleasure to the rich. Its benefits to the Emmett County homesteaders,
+as felt through the cold of this winter alone, are enough to compensate
+for evils even as black as our Prof. Roney paints, and Emmett County is
+but a sample of whatever location the birds may settle in.
+
+Let the law, in regard to distance, stand as it is. Enforce it against
+all alike; make no exceptions; let the rule of supply and demand
+govern the catchings, and you will have something better than all
+the professors in Michigan suggest. Let the supply be so large that
+prices are low and wages can't be made, and law or no law, the catching
+will stop. But don't make a law that will take bread out of the
+homesteader's mouth, and work from hundreds of poor and honest men; no,
+not even if the birds should be sacrificed, to a certain extent, for
+man is above the beasts, and the "beasts of the field and the birds of
+the air" are given unto him for his benefit and his profit.
+
+[Illustration: H. T. PHILLIPS' STORE
+
+A typical game store of the early 70's]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+Notes of a Vanished Industry
+
+  I have corresponded with many men who were actively interested in
+  hunting and observing the Passenger Pigeon when its flocks still
+  numbered uncounted millions of birds. Some of the data supplied in
+  kind response to my queries is in the form of hastily jotted notes,
+  which, when they are brought together, include more or less repetition
+  of personal experiences. They have a certain value, however, when
+  taken _en masse_, for they are the testimony of eye-witnesses who will
+  soon be gone, after which the Passenger Pigeon will become as much a
+  matter of written history and tradition as the auk or the buffalo.
+
+  I am under obligation to Mr. Henry T. Phillips, of Detroit, for much
+  practical information regarding the capture of pigeons, and the
+  business of marketing them as he knew it in those earlier days. There
+  follows a portion of a letter written me by Mr. Phillips in October,
+  1904.--W. B. M.
+
+
+I am in receipt of your letter asking for information about the wild
+pigeon, but I do not know that I can be of much benefit to you, though
+I will give you what information I can.
+
+I began business in Cheboygan, Mich., in May, 1862, as a dealer in
+groceries and produce and added the commission business a little
+later, as I was fond of shooting, and I began advertising the sale
+of game. I have been credited by dealers in New York with being the
+largest shipper of venison in the United States. In 1864 (I think it
+was) I had a shipment of live wild pigeons which we brought down the
+Cheboygan River from Black Lake in crates holding six dozen each. All
+of these crates were made by hand by one E. Osborn, who was then one
+of the traveling pigeon catchers, the firm being Osborn & Thompson,
+well known by all men who traveled then. From that time I have handled
+live pigeons in quantities up to 175,000 per year until they left the
+country. The last nesting in Michigan was up on Crooked Lake near
+Petoskey in 1878, I believe, from which I shipped 150,000.
+
+In 1866, they nested in the town of Vassar, Tiscola County, Mich., and
+usually each alternate year, as the mast crop was every second season,
+beech nuts being their choice food. The other years they nested in
+Wisconsin on acorns, or in Minnesota, feeding on spring wheat. New York
+sometimes held them, and Pennsylvania often, for a nesting; but being
+a hard place they never caught many there, Michigan being the favorite
+trapping ground. 1874 there was a nesting at Shelby, Oceana County,
+Mich., on which it was estimated they made the heaviest catches I have
+ever known of: 100 barrels daily on an average of thirty days of dead
+birds, besides the live ones, of which I shipped 175,000.
+
+There were five nestings that year in the State, three going on at
+the same time, but all not heavily worked. That year I shipped by the
+steamer _Fountain City_, from Frankfort, 478 coops, six dozen each,
+one shipment going to Oswego, N. Y., for the Leather Stocking Club
+Tournament.
+
+I bought from Dr. Slyfield 600 dozen at $1 per dozen, agreeing to pay
+only in one-hundred-dollar bills. He traveled two days to get twelve
+dozen to make up the shortage. The pigeons at that time wintered in
+southern Missouri and the Indian Nation, and were shot at night by
+natives and marketed in St. Louis. As they fed on pine-oak acorns,
+which tainted the meat, the market was poor and prices low. The
+traveling netters usually worked at something else while South.
+
+The pigeons started north about the last of March, and usually located
+the last of May, according to weather. If food was plentiful they
+nested in large bodies; if not, they divided and nested in fewer
+numbers. In Wisconsin I have seen a continual nesting for 100 miles,
+with from one to possibly fifty nests on every oak scrub.
+
+In Michigan usually the feeding grounds were across the straits, where
+blueberries were abundant, until fall, when the birds scattered back in
+small bodies, feeding on stubble and elm seed. Frequently they would
+go into a roosting place, and make it a home for weeks before leaving
+for the South. Traveling north, they usually flew until about ten or
+eleven in the morning and again in the evening. I have known of large
+quantities being drowned in Lake Huron, crossing from Canada on the way
+north, and have had lake captains tell me of passing for three hours
+through dead birds, which had been caught in a fog.
+
+In 1874 there were over six hundred professional netters, and when
+the pigeons nested north, every man and woman was either a catcher
+or a picker. They used to catch them in different ways. What was
+known as flight-catching was in the early morning and evening, a spot
+being cleared of usually twelve to sixteen feet wide and twenty to
+twenty-four feet long, large enough for a net. This was known as the
+bed. About fifty feet from the bed a brush house was built and the
+net was staked down, two spring poles were set to spring the net out
+straight, but loose enough to fall easy and cover the full size of the
+bed. The front line of the net was tied to these stakes and they were
+sprung or set back as if all of the net was in a roll. A short stake
+with a line attached to the outside edge ran to the bough house, a
+stick about three feet long was placed under a catch called the hub,
+and the other end of this stick was placed against another peg driven
+in the ground. When the short stick was pulled from underneath the
+crotch, the spring poles forced the net over the bed; the short sticks
+raised the net about three feet; and of course it was all done very
+quickly.
+
+Another method was employed later in the season; a place was baited
+with buckwheat, sometimes with broomcorn seed, or wheat, for a week or
+two, and, when a large body of birds was collected, the net was set.
+A much larger net is used now. Then is when we got our live birds for
+shooting matches. In the spring time is money, and the netters could
+save many more dead than alive.
+
+I knew of a man paying $300 for the privilege of netting on one salt
+spring near White River. It was a spring dug for oil, boarded up
+sixteen feet square. He cut it down a little and built a platform, and
+caught once or twice each week. He got 300 dozen at one haul in this
+house. He said they were piled there three feet deep.
+
+I once pulled a net on a bait bed and we saved 132 dozen alive, but
+many got out from underneath the net, there being too many on the bed.
+The net used was 28 x 36 feet. I have lost 3,000 birds in one day
+because the railroad did not have a car ready on the date promised. I
+threw away what cost me $250 in eight hours, fat birds, because the
+weather was too hot. I have bought carloads in Wisconsin at 15 and 25
+cents per dozen, but in Michigan we usually paid from 50 cents to $1
+a dozen. I have fed thirty bushels of shelled corn daily at $1.20 per
+bushel, and paid out from $300 to $600 per day for pigeons.
+
+I never allowed game to be shipped to me out of season; if it came, I
+never paid for it.
+
+About two years ago I was told by a man who just got back from the
+Northwest, Calgary, that the birds were so thick in the north that
+they darkened the sun. They were probably nesting, as he said they
+were seen every morning.... Up to ten years ago I was shooting on the
+Mississippi bayous for twenty-five years, and used to see and kill some
+pigeons nearly every spring, from the middle of March to the middle of
+April. We have shot seventy-two pounds of powder in my camp in thirty
+days, the party consisting of three men; and two of us have killed
+twelve barrels of ducks (Mallards) in four days. On the Detroit River
+I have shot, in one week, mostly redheads, the following on different
+days: 102, 119, 142, 155....
+
+[I have quoted from the latter part of Mr. Phillips' letter to show how
+plentiful other kinds of birds were in the old days.]
+
+Under date of Nov. 1, 1904, Mr. Phillips writes as follows:
+
+"In regard to dates, would say that the last nesting of birds set in
+at about 5 P.M., May 5, 1878, on the southeast side of Crooked Lake.
+Express charges on barrels to New York from Michigan were $6.50, from
+Wisconsin $8; on live birds $3 per cwt."
+
+Mr. Phillips also incloses a letter written to him by Mr. Osborn, of
+Alma, Mich., under date of February 23, 1898, which reads:
+
+
+                                  Alma, Mich., February 23, 1898.
+
+Friend H. T. Phillips:
+
+Yours with the questions to be answered received, and will say:
+
+... There have been several bodies nesting in Michigan at the same
+time, and I will give the years and places that I was out. In 1861 a
+large body of birds were in Ohio roosting in the Hocking Hills, my
+first year out. We were at Circleville, and my company shipped over
+225 barrels, mostly to New York and Boston. The birds fed on the corn
+fields. In 1862 the birds nested at Monroe, Wis. We commenced in May
+and remained until the last of August. The several companies put up
+some ten thousand dozen for stall feeding after the freight shipment.
+Express charges on each barrel were from $7 to $9. In the fall of 1862
+we had fine sport shooting birds in the roost at Johnstown, Ohio (now
+Ada), some four weeks. Then the birds moved to Logan County. After two
+weeks the birds skipped South, it being December and snow on the ground.
+
+In 1863 the birds nested in Pennsylvania. We had some fine sport at
+Smith Port and at Sheffield. We located at Cherry Grove, six miles from
+Sheffield. The birds fed on hemlock mast. There were other nestings
+in Pennsylvania at the same time. In 1864, at St. Charles, Minn., we
+had some fine sport, but our freights were high to New York, so we
+came to Leon, Wis. A heavy body was nesting in the Kickapoo woods, and
+several companies of hunters located here. In 1865 a heavy nesting was
+in Canada, near Georgian Bay. We were at Angus Station on the Northern
+Railroad, and the snow was two feet under the nesting. We next went
+to Wisconsin, where a heavy snowstorm broke up the roosts. We were at
+Afton, Brandon and Appleton. We then went to Rochester, Minn., the end
+of the railroad. At that time birds nested in the Chatfield timber. We
+then went to Marquette in the Upper Peninsula and camped on Dead River.
+A heavy body had got through nesting, but worlds of birds were feeding
+on blueberries.
+
+This was the year the _Pewabic_ sunk. Mr. George Snook had 1,400
+barrels of trout and whitefish on her. We went up on the _Old Traveler_
+and came down on the _Meteor_. In 1866 the birds nested in a heavy body
+near Martinsville, Ind. We caught some birds at Cartersburg. After we
+closed up in Indiana we went to Pennsylvania. There was a heavy nesting
+near Wilcox, at Highlands. In gathering squabs five of us got a barrel
+apiece, which netted us $75 to $100 per barrel in New York. They struck
+a bare market.
+
+In July we had a big time with young birds at Fort Gratiot, near Port
+Huron, from the Forestville nesting. Mr. H. T. Phillips of Detroit was
+chief of a party which had fine shooting on a Mr. Palmer's place. In
+six days I shipped thirteen barrels to Tremain & Summer, New York, and
+received a check for over $400. They returned me about one-half what
+they sold for.
+
+In 1867 we were in Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and caught more or
+less birds on bait. The birds were broken up by shooting and deep
+snow. In 1868 there was a large nesting near Manistee, and we did
+some big catching, shipped by steamer to Grand Haven, then via rail.
+In April and May was also at Mackinac and North Port and in June did
+some catching at Cheboygan, and here I made our crates of split cedar
+and floated the birds down the river six miles on two canoes lashed
+together, and had to transfer over the dam before reaching the little
+steamer to Mackinac, twelve miles, and then transferred to the Detroit
+boat. The birds were shipped to H. T. Phillips & Co. At Cheboygan I fed
+over one hundred bushels of corn and wheat for bait.
+
+In 1869 the birds were in Canada, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin,
+all at the same time, and shooters broke them up. We located a body
+at Oakfield, Wis., and had a big catch until the farmers broke them
+up. The birds were pulling wheat badly; other feed was gone. The birds
+nested in Michigan, up from Mt. Pleasant, but too far inland to get
+them out. In 1870 the birds nested near Goderich, Can. Did not do much
+there. We then went to Glen Haven and caught some birds. Then we went
+to Cheboygan; sent more or less live birds to H. T. Phillips & Co.,
+of Detroit. In 1871 we located a large body at Tomah, Wis., and did
+some heavy shipping. We used three tiers of ice from a large icehouse,
+and the express per barrel was $12 to New York and Boston. We also
+shipped from Augusta, Wis., express, $13.50 per barrel. A nesting at
+Eau Claire, but we could not get to do much with them there. In 1872 a
+large nesting near South Haven, Mich. We located at Bangor and had a
+big catch in some big snowstorms. Another body near Clam Lake, end of
+railroad. In 1873 we did baiting in Ohio and Wisconsin, but located no
+nesting. In 1874 the birds nested at Shelby in two different locations
+and another at Stanton, Mich.; small body at Stanton. We did heavy
+shipping at Shelby, from one to three cars per day, both alive and
+dead. The birds nested this year at Shelby, two places, and at Stanton,
+and one at Mill Brook and at Frankfort and at Leeland, and probably at
+other points we did not learn of. In 1875 was not out, only baiting
+near St. Johns, Mich. In 1876 a heavy nesting at Shelby, Mich., and
+at Frankfort. I caught at Shelby and at Glen Haven heavy shipments.
+In 1877 was not out, but did some baiting at Eureka. In 1878 a heavy
+nesting between Petoskey and Cheboygan. H. T. Phillips located at
+Cheboygan. I caught at several points between the two cities.
+
+The above is part of my experience with the birds, since which time
+I have kept no record of the movements, but will say that during the
+winter season birds have nested in large numbers in the southern
+States; in Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri. For a great many
+years the birds have been moving west. Last winter I was in Southern
+California, and a body of pigeons were west of Los Angeles, among the
+acorn timber. There are worlds of feed in the foothills, for thousands
+of miles, to feed the birds. They are a greedy bird and will eat
+everything from a hemlock seed to an acorn. I have known them to nest
+on hemlock mast alone in Pennsylvania, and in Michigan on the pine mast
+after the beech mast was gone. Most of the nesting in Michigan happens
+March to July, and then they skip farther north and return in wheat
+seeding.
+
+                                     Alma, Mich., February 24, 1898.
+
+Friend H. T. Phillips:
+
+I will give you a few catches. In 1862, at Monroe, Wis., George Paxon,
+of Evans Center, N. Y., and myself made one haul of 250 dozen five
+miles south of the city on corn bait in a pen 32 x 64 feet with nets
+sprung across the top. We fed at this bed over five hundred bushels
+of corn at 25 cents per bushel, and at our other beds nearly as much.
+After the flight-birds were over, with a single net sprung on the
+ground we have taken 100 dozen at a time.
+
+At Augusta, Wis., in 1871, Charles Curtin, then of Indiana (dead now),
+over one hundred dozen; William W. Cone of Masonville, N. Y., Samuel
+Schook of Circleville, Ohio, and some other boys, 100 dozen and over.
+L. G. Parker of Camden, N. Y., C. S. Martin, the Rocky Mountain hunter
+of Wisconsin, E. G. Slayton of Chetek, Wis., are old trappers and could
+tell of big catches. In 1868, at Cheboygan, I took over six hundred
+fat birds before sunrise. I sold to the United States officers at
+Mackinac for trap shooting, also to Island House. In 1861 there were
+only a few professionals: Dr. E. Osborn of Saratoga, N. Y; William N.
+Cone, Masonville, N. Y; John Ackerman, Columbus, Ohio; L. G. Parke,
+Camden, N. J.; James Thompson, Hookset, N. H.; S. K. Jones, Saratoga,
+N. Y.; George and Charles Paxon of Evans Center, N. Y., and maybe a few
+others. After this time, trappers increased fast. More salt was used in
+Michigan for bait than any other State. I paid at Shelby $4 per barrel.
+Big bodies of pigeons were drowned off Sleeping Bear Point because of
+fog and wind, while trying to cross Lake Michigan. I have seen them.
+
+In the Logan County roost, Ohio, I killed with two barrels, of a
+six-bore shoulder gun, 144 birds. The other boys killed nearly as many
+with smaller guns; we shot on the roost in the dark. Our plan was to
+fire one barrel on the roost and the other as the pigeons flew. The
+highest price paid per dozen was in New York City--$3--by Trimm &
+Summer from Pennsylvania.
+
+For a good many years the birds were in the eastern States, with heavy
+catching in Massachusetts and New York, also Pennsylvania, and the
+hunters worked into Canada, then into Ohio, and so on to Michigan and
+Indiana, long before they took in Wisconsin and Minnesota, after they
+left the eastern country for the west. A big body was at Grand Rapids
+in 1858 or 1859, before I joined the band.
+
+The trappers at Grand Rapids were Dr. Osborn, Cone, Ackerman, the
+two Paxons, Latimer, and a few others, who did some heavy shipping,
+catching the birds on the salt marshes. I have no earlier records for
+Michigan.
+
+I kept no record of the amounts shipped from different points. The old
+books of the express will show if they have kept them. I wait to see
+your report, and remain,
+
+                          Yours truly,
+
+                                                       E. Osborn.
+
+
+                                Detroit, Mich., November 2, 1904.
+
+W. B. Mershon:
+
+Dear Sir:--Last evening I looked over some old papers and found a
+few memoranda that lead to my making some changes in my notes to you
+in regard to the date of last nestings in our State. I also find my
+later surmise confirmed by a letter from one of the first traveling
+pigeon-catchers in the business, Ephraim Osborn, whose uncle, Dr.
+Osborn of Saratoga, N. Y., was one of the original catchers. You will
+note by Mr. Osborn's letter that he has been a shipper of mine for
+a long time. I am well acquainted with him and knew all the men he
+mentioned (with many others) at the Shelby nesting. There were nearly
+six hundred names in the register book of pigeoners in Wisconsin.
+Nearly every one of the farmers, and their wives and daughters, were
+pigeon catchers.
+
+In regard to the dates of last nesting: 1878 was the last year that
+the catch amounted to enough to keep men in the business. I find I was
+at Cheboygan part of the time, and got only a small number of birds in
+1880, but some few nested (small body) that year.
+
+                          Yours truly,
+
+                                                    H. T. Phillips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Recollections of "Old Timers"
+
+
+Mr. Oscar B. Warren, now of Houghton, Mich., has been interested for
+years in collecting data about the Passenger Pigeon, and kindly turned
+over to me his entire budget. Among his letters is the following from
+Mr. H. T. Blodgett, Superintendent of Public Schools, Ludington, Mich.,
+dated November 19, 1904:
+
+... Your pigeon is a stranger to me, or rather has been a stranger for
+six or more years. I can distinctly remember clouds of them, darkening
+the sky, almost, in Pennsylvania, thirty years ago. Later, in Michigan,
+they were abundant, coming to this part of the State as soon as the
+snow was gone, picking up the beech nuts and "shack" of the woods.
+After a few weeks' flying about and feeding they would disappear;
+reappearing again in June, young pigeons, fat, and the choicest eating.
+They would stay a few weeks, not more than about three weeks, going
+about July 1. During this visit the birds haunted the thick woods, and
+would call from the shade of the leaves of beech, maple, and hemlock
+trees through the heat of the day, feeding mornings and evenings on
+the sprouted beech nuts under the leaves.
+
+There would often be a third appearance in September, when I have seen
+buckwheat fields blue with them. Also fall-sowed wheat fields would be
+so covered with them that the farmer had to watch his fields to save
+the seed he had sowed.
+
+During the spring and also the fall visit, flocks searching for feeding
+ground could be called down from flight and induced to light on trees
+near where the call was sounded. The call was one in imitation of the
+pigeon's own call, given either as a peculiar throat sound (liable to
+make the throat sore if too often repeated) or with a silk band between
+two blocks of wood, like this
+
+[Illustration: The pigeon call]
+
+held between the lips and teeth and blown like a blade of grass between
+the thumbs. By biting or pressing with the teeth at (A) (A) the tension
+upon the silk band would be increased, raising the tone of the call or
+relaxing for a lower note. Cleverly used, it was very successful in
+calling pigeons feeding in small flocks to alight.
+
+Much to my regret I have seen none of the beautiful birds for about
+six years. The savage warfare upon them, from nesting place to nesting
+place by pot-hunters and villainous fellows who barreled them for
+market, with nets and every brutal means for wholesale destruction, has
+driven them, I know not whither. If there are considerable flocks of
+them anywhere, I should be glad to know it.
+
+I wish I might help you. Such things as are here hastily recalled and
+written will not be likely to afford anything of interest, but if there
+is any thought or anything in it, it is cheerfully given.
+
+On the great sand bluffs which line our shores in many places, flocks
+of pigeons in passing would fly so low that a man with a club could
+knock them down. At Lincoln, three miles north of here, nets were put
+on the top of the hills, like gill nets, to catch them in their flight.
+
+They were never very successful.
+
+[Illustration: Showing the method of placing pigeon net]
+
+   (_Notes by the Allen Brothers, Joseph and Isaac, of Manchester, Mich.
+  A copy of their letter was received through kindness of L. Whitney
+  Watkins, of Manchester, Mich._)
+
+We have had about fifty years' experience in the business [pigeon
+catching], as we used to help our father as long ago as we can
+recollect, he being one of the best pigeoners in his day, working a
+great deal at the business in the summer season. Until we were twenty
+years old we lived on the shores of Lake Ontario in Wayne County, N. Y.
+
+The pigeons used to have a flying course along the shore of the lake on
+their way to the Montezuma marshes after salt. Pigeons are very fond of
+salt, or, rather, brine. It seems to be a necessary article for them.
+Their course was generally from west to east. They seldom flew west by
+the same route. How far they came, we could not tell; perhaps from this
+State or perhaps farther west. Sometimes they would go west by the same
+route. If so, they were much easier to catch than when going east. When
+going east they were looking for salt; when west, for food.
+
+They used to commence to fly about the 1st of April and keep it up
+until the middle of June. After that time they would scatter over the
+country, and did not fly in large flocks as in the spring.
+
+It would be hard to make any estimate of their numbers that people
+would believe at this late day. I was going to say that a thousand
+million could have been seen in the air all at once. There would
+be days and days when the air was alive with them, hardly a break
+occurring in a flock for half a day at a time. Flocks stretched as far
+as a person could see, one tier above another. I think it would be safe
+to say that millions could have been seen at the same time.
+
+In the year 1854 we moved to Michigan, settling near Adrian, where we
+found pigeons quite plentiful. When they were flying here (Adrian) they
+seemed to scatter over the State, having no regular course.
+
+The supply of pigeons kept very regular here for about twenty-five or
+thirty years. About the time we came west the pigeons became scarce in
+New York, and very few have been seen there since. It is five years
+(1890) since we have seen or heard of any being seen in this State
+(Michigan) or in any other.
+
+Our "pigeoning" was more for sport than profit, and we liked a nice
+broiled pigeon for breakfast about as well as anything we could have,
+especially when they were worth $6.00 per dozen. If the pigeons had
+been sent to the New York market they could have been sold for big
+prices, as pigeons sold for larger and better prices than any other
+game in that market. Our father did not like the idea of sending
+pigeons to New York for a market.
+
+After we came to where we now live (Cambridge), and when I was going
+to Adrian, I stopped at father's on my road. He had been out catching
+pigeons that morning and had secured 600 by 10 o'clock. He said to me:
+
+"I wish you would take these pigeons to Adrian and sell them if you
+can. Take them to the depot and sell them for 10 cents per dozen. If
+you cannot sell them, give them to the workingmen in the shops."
+
+I thought 10 cents was pretty cheap, so I went to selling at 20 cents
+per dozen. When the men came out of the work-shops I sold them all at
+25 cents per dozen. After I left for town, father caught 500 more, and
+took them to Adrian the same day and sold them for 10 cents per dozen.
+If the same lot of pigeons had been shipped to New York, they would
+probably have brought $2 or more per dozen.
+
+About a year from that time we caught 600 in one day, and made up our
+minds we would ship them to New York. We took them to Adrian to ship.
+When we got to Adrian we saw father, who, after inquiring about our
+intentions concerning their shipment, said:
+
+"It is foolish for you to send them, as they will never be heard from."
+
+He advised us to dispose of them for 25 cents per dozen; this was the
+highest price pigeons were worth in Adrian. To please him we tried
+to sell them for that price, but could not, so, taking them to the
+express office, we shipped them. In about four days the returns came,
+netting us 70 cents per dozen, about the lowest price we ever got. They
+explained that the pigeons had been poorly handled or they would have
+brought more. This was thirty-five years ago, _and these were probably
+the first pigeons shipped from this State to New York_.
+
+We have shipped thousands since. They would probably average $2 per
+dozen. We have sold them as high as $3.75 per dozen and have seen them
+quoted as high as $6 per dozen. A pigeoner from Pennsylvania told us
+he shipped two barrels at one time and got $5.50 per dozen. We caught
+2,400 one week, having them all on hand at one time. We got a market
+report from New York where they were quoted at $6.50 per dozen. We
+packed and shipped ours as soon as possible. When they reached market
+they sold for $1.50 per dozen. The army of pigeoners had struck a big
+nesting in the State of Wisconsin the same week we caught ours, and
+they shipped them to market by the wholesale. The market dropped from
+$6.50 to $1.25 in one week.
+
+The pigeon business was very profitable for men who were used to it,
+and there were probably from one to three hundred men in the trade.
+When the pigeons changed their location, the pigeoners would follow
+them, sometimes going over a thousand miles.
+
+When this army of men had good luck they would ship them by the
+hundreds of barrels. Probably as many as five hundred barrels have
+been shipped to New York and Boston in one day. Our commission man in
+New York wrote us that 100 barrels a day could be sold there without
+affecting the market but very little.
+
+I was at a pigeon nesting in the State of Pennsylvania where there were
+from three to five hundred men catching pigeons and squabs. It was a
+great sight to see the birds going back and forth after food. When
+nesting in such large bodies, they leave the food in the near vicinity
+for their young. If they can find plenty of food, they nest in large
+bodies; if not, they scatter over the country and nest in scattered
+colonies.
+
+The nesting I mentioned in Pennsylvania was within one mile of the
+cleared lands. We camped within two miles of the nesting. The pigeons
+kept up a continual roaring by their combined twittering and cooing, so
+that it could be heard for miles away by night as well as day.
+
+Sometimes it is almost impossible to catch the pigeons. At the nesting
+mentioned the most experienced hands found it impossible to take large
+numbers. The whole crowd of men could not catch more than one man ought
+to have caught under the circumstances.
+
+The young pigeons (squabs) were much sought after in New York and
+Boston, and if sent in moderate numbers brought big prices, usually
+about two dollars per dozen. When the squabs were old enough to
+market, the army of pigeoners (estimated to be about five hundred)
+commenced taking them. Entering the woods in which the nesting was
+located, they cut down the trees right and left, cutting the timber
+over thousands of acres. When a tree fell, bringing with it the squabs,
+they picked the young birds up, sometimes getting as many as two dozen
+from one tree. The large trees, which might have yielded fifty or a
+hundred, were left standing. Our company of five took in two days
+thirteen barrels of squabs, averaging 400 to the barrel.
+
+There were shipped from two stations on the Erie road in one day 200
+barrels of these young pigeons. If they had been old birds, they would
+not have broken the market, but this was too many squabs, and the price
+dropped 25 to 45 cents per dozen.
+
+Osborn told me that he once caught 3,500 at one catch. It was at a big
+nesting in the State of Wisconsin. He had an enormous flock baited.
+He said that he put out as high as forty bushels of shelled corn at
+one time on the bed where he caught this large number. For a trap, he
+had constructed a board pen built up from the ground four or five feet
+high. This pen was about one hundred feet long by twenty feet wide. He
+took three large-sized nets, and, tying them together, set them on this
+pen. He had feeding pens built by the side of the trap-pen, so when
+he made a catch he could drive the pigeons into the feeding pens and
+fatten them for market, these "stall-fed" birds bringing much higher
+prices than poor birds. This large catch filled all his feeding pens.
+He said he could have made another catch fully as large as the one just
+mentioned, in one-half hour afterward but, having no room, he could not
+take care of any more.
+
+This method of catching pigeons was much the best when they were to be
+preserved alive. It was rather a late invention in the pigeon-netting
+business. We have caught with one net in the same way as many as four
+hundred at one time. With a net set on the ground we have taken from
+three to five hundred a great many times. In this latter manner, a
+brother of mine caught 556 with one net. Without help, in one day I
+have caught from thirteen to fourteen hundred out of a flock as they
+were flying over.
+
+We have two ways of pigeoning. One is catching out of flocks as they
+are flying over; the other is catching baited pigeons. One way of
+bringing the flocks out of the air was by using live pigeons kept for
+that purpose. These we called "fliers" and "stool-pigeons;" generally
+from three to five fliers and two stool-pigeons. For the "fliers" and
+"stools" we made what we called "boots" of soft leather. These were
+slipped on the leg a little above the foot. To the boots of the fliers
+were fastened small stout cords from two to four rods long, on the
+other end of which was fastened a small bush. If the birds were flying
+high, we used a longer string.
+
+The stool-pigeons were fastened to stools and set on the "bed"; when
+the net was sprung the birds were under it. The bed over which the net
+was sprung was the same size as the net, or from thirty to forty feet
+long by twelve to fifteen feet wide. It was made by clearing the ground
+of all rubbish, and making it as clean as a garden. Before the net was
+set it covered the bed. We tied a rope to each of the front corners. On
+the front side we used two spring stakes fastened in the ground at the
+ends of the ropes, which were tied to the stake about five feet from
+the ground. At one of the stakes we built a bough house so that the
+rope from the net would pass through the house. The back corners were
+fastened with small, notched stakes which were driven in the ground so
+that the notches faced the bough house. We used what we called "flying
+staffs"--small stakes about four feet long and the thickness of a broom
+handle, with a notch cut in one end. We also used two more small stakes
+to set the flying staffs against, to hold the net when set. It took two
+to properly set a net. Each one took a staff, stepped in front, one
+at each corner, caught hold of the rope, and crowded the front edge
+back of the back edge about six inches. Then the flying staffs were
+placed against the small stakes, notch end against the ropes. The net
+was now crowded to the ground and the staffs slipped into the notches
+of the stakes to hold the net in place. The slack of the net was laid
+alongside the rope on the ground. By crowding the net back, it sprung
+the stakes over, which sprung the net. The stool-pigeons were made
+to hover by pulling a line reaching into the bough house, where the
+pigeoner awaited them with his fliers.
+
+When a flock of pigeons came near enough to spy the fliers, the
+pigeoner threw the tethered birds into the air. They quickly flew the
+length of the line and then hovered near the ground. They had the
+appearance of feeding on the bed, which, of course, has been supplied
+with food. The wild flock alighted and began feeding. The net rope
+passing through the bough house was pulled by the pigeoner, and this
+drew the flying staffs from under the hooks, the staffs raised the
+front edge of the net up about four feet, and over it went as quick as
+a flash, covering or catching perhaps five hundred at once.
+
+[Illustration: BAND-TAILED PIGEON (_Columba fasciata_)
+
+Often mistaken for Passenger Pigeon]
+
+
+Letter from James B. Purdy, of Plymouth, Mich.:
+
+                                                   November, 1894.
+
+Oscar B. Warren,
+
+    Palmer, Mich.
+
+Dear Sir:--Yours of November 24 received, asking me to send notes
+on the Passenger Pigeon. In the beginning I would say that I am now
+fifty-one years of age, and I am writing this under the roof of the old
+homestead where I was born, hence my memory of the passenger pigeon
+for this locality extends back to my early boyhood, when millions of
+pigeons visited this locality on their spring and fall migrations, and
+during their spring migrations comparatively few halted with us to
+feed, but the great majority of them winged their way in a high-flying
+flock of unbroken columns, sometimes half a mile in length, to the
+north and west, probably to their breeding grounds; but on their
+return, from the first to the fifteenth of September, they would swarm
+down on our newly sowed wheat fields until acres of ground would be
+blue, and when they arose they would darken the air and their wings
+would sound like distant thunder. They were not so shy at this time
+of the year, as part of them were young birds, which were easily
+distinguished from the old ones by their speckled breasts; and I would
+here state that, during both spring and fall migrations, their greatest
+flight seemed to be from sunrise until about nine or ten o'clock A.M.
+
+My father was an old pigeon catcher, and it was during these fall
+migrations that he would go out in the middle of a wheat field, build
+his bough house, set his net, and prepare for the finest sport in which
+it was ever my good fortune to participate; and many a time have I been
+with him when he has caught hundreds of them in a single morning. You
+may ask, What did you do with so many pigeons? Well, I will tell you.
+We skinned out the breasts, pickled them for two or three days in weak
+brine, and then strung them on strings, from one hundred and fifty to
+two hundred on a string, and hung them up to dry in the same manner
+as dried beef (I mean the breasts). Of course the remainder of the
+carcasses we cooked for immediate use, or as much of them as we needed
+for the family. Let me tell you that those pigeon breasts were a dainty
+morsel, and would last as long as dried beef and was far its superior
+in taste.
+
+While rummaging through the attic a few days since, I came across
+the old pigeon stool upon which the stool-pigeon was tied, which my
+father used so many years ago, and it carried me back to my boyhood and
+conveyed to my mind vivid memories of the past.
+
+The pigeons continued to visit us in great abundance for a number of
+years, although there would be an occasional season when there would
+not be so many. As the years rolled by they became fewer in number
+until in the fall of 1876, when I saw my last Passenger Pigeons (a
+small flock of ten or fifteen), I tried hard to procure some for my
+cabinet, but failed.
+
+One peculiar habit of the Passenger Pigeons was that during their
+migrations, should they alight and their crops were filled with
+inferior food, they would vomit it up in order to fill themselves with
+something better should they find it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+F. N. Lawrence stated in _Forest and Stream_ of February 18, 1899,
+that when a boy, in the late forties, he spent most of his time on
+his grandfather's country seat at Manhattanville, on the North River.
+In those years the wild pigeon flew south on both sides of the North
+River by the thousands in the fall, and in lesser numbers flew north in
+the spring.
+
+He also wrote: "These migrations occurred with the utmost regularity.
+The first easterly storm after September 1st, clearing up with a strong
+northwest wind, was as surely followed by a flight of wild pigeons as
+the sun was to rise. During such storms, I have passed many a sleepless
+night watching to catch the first change of wind, and when it veered
+northwest, daybreak found me on the river bank watching for the flight
+that never failed. Ah! how my heart jumped as flock after flock of wild
+pigeons came flying over Fort Washington like small clouds. I have
+shot a great many of them, but alas, like the buffalo, they are almost
+exterminated."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have run across what was evidently my first diary, dated 1872, when I
+was fourteen years old. I make the following extracts from it:
+
+April 6th. "Pigeon flew this morning."
+
+Then on April 8th I mention 9 pigeons shot in the afternoon by my
+father, and say "they flew very thick in the morning."
+
+The record, like most boys' diaries, seems to have many skips, for the
+next item about pigeons is on the 11th of May, saying that I shot 2
+that day and on the 1st of June I mention that I killed 3 pigeons in
+the morning, "the most I ever have shot at one time."
+
+My marksmanship seems to have improved after that, for on the 7th
+of June I mention shooting 7, and on the 8th 8 (I used to go every
+morning), and on the 10th I got 8 again and on the 11th 12, and so on
+with varying success. On June 11 I mention that the young ones were
+beginning to fly plentifully.
+
+                                                         W. B. M.
+
+
+Extract from a letter written by the late Alexander McDougall of
+Duluth, February 8, 1905:
+
+I have been about Lake Superior since 1863. Have never known any
+rookery near the lake or in Lake Superior Basin, although I think they
+did breed near Lake Superior, for they were in such great quantities
+about the lake during the whole summer. In 1871 when this town (Duluth)
+was first building, there were millions of them about here. In the Lake
+Superior region there are lots of berries but no beech nuts, except
+near Grand Island, 40 miles east of Marquette. It is likely if there
+was any roosting on Lake Superior, this would be the most favorable
+place.... The pigeon was numerous on Lake Superior in 1872, for I have
+recollections of catching some that year while captain of the Steamer
+_Japan_. During foggy weather and at night, they would alight on the
+boat in great numbers, tired out. On foggy mornings, the blowing of
+our whistle would start them up. Often, when they would light on the
+eave of our overhanging deck, we could sneak along under the deck and
+quickly snatch one. I remember having caught several in that way. As
+clearly as I can remember, they left all at once along about 1875.
+I have seen a few here along about 1882, and one fall in October, I
+think, of 1884, I saw two or three, the last I remember of them.
+
+
+                                  Kalamazoo, Mich., June 13th, 1905.
+
+Wm. B. Mershon, Saginaw, Mich.:
+
+   *   *   *   *   *
+
+It seems too bad that this noble bird should have been blotted out. The
+last flock, a small one, that I ever saw was in 1891. I saw pigeons in
+1883, 1885 and 1886.
+
+I have been in their nesting grounds. The males and the females sit on
+the nest on alternate days. When their big nesting was near South Haven
+in this State, the birds used to fly over this town every day in their
+quest for food, some of them going fully seventy-five miles in an air
+line from their nesting. One day it would be a continuous stream of
+male birds and the next day it would be the females.
+
+How the netters did massacre them and ship them away by thousands and
+thousands. Many were kept alive and shipped all over the country for
+pigeon shoots. The last wild pigeons ever used for this purpose that
+I know of was at John Watson's Grand Grossing, Chicago, Illinois, in
+1886. I asked Watson, in February last, where he got those birds, and
+he said from Indian Territory, so I think the netters finally cleaned
+up what was left of the big flight that perished from the sleet and fog
+at their last nesting in Michigan, near Petoskey, in 1881.
+
+Their nests were built and eggs laid in late April. A big wind and
+storm of sleet came up just at dusk and the birds left; there was a big
+fog on Lake Michigan, and the birds were swallowed up by the storm;
+anyhow they disappeared then and there. I have heard tell of the beach
+being strewn for miles with dead pigeons, and I heard an old woodsman
+tell of the stench arising from dead pigeons in the woods.
+
+It was that storm of ice that surely wiped them out.
+
+I was at Petoskey in 1882, and no pigeons showed up that year.
+
+What a host of memories of boyhood days are recalled, when one thinks
+of the wild pigeons. I can see myself a boy again, equipped with a
+long, single barrel shot gun, shot pouch and powder flask a-dangling, a
+box of G. D. caps in my pocket, and I a-sneakin' and a-sneakin' up for
+a shot at an old cock pigeon perched away up on a dead limb at the top
+of a tall tree. How handsome is that old cock with neck outstretched
+and tail a-streamin', the richness of his coloring, the red of the
+breast, the metallic sheen of that outstretched neck is of marvelous
+luster as bathed in the glories of the morning sunlight. He turns
+his head! He is onto that boy who is sneaking so carefully along the
+old rail fence. Carefully the gun is raised and aimed; the trigger
+is pressed. "Ker-whang" in a cloud of smoke is the loud report. The
+old cock, startled, flies away. "Missed him, by gosh!" is the boy's
+lament as he starts to reload, whilst in unison with the rattle of the
+grains of powder in the flask, there comes drifting down on the morning
+breeze, slowly wafting here and there, a long tail feather from that
+noble bird to show that though missed, yet the aim was true.
+
+                          Yours truly,
+
+                                                        Ben O. Bush.
+
+
+                                   Kalamazoo, Mich., June 17th, 1905.
+
+Dear Mershon:
+
+Do not understand me as to my assertion, that in nesting time the wild
+pigeons in feeding, the males always alternate with the females, each
+having a day off and a day on throughout the period of incubation and
+the rearing of the young. It depended upon the amount of food and the
+distance that they had to go to get it, and they changed their habit
+according to the conditions. If they had to make a long flight, as was
+the case when they passed over here, then they alternated; but I will
+agree with you that their habit in nesting time when food was plenty
+and not far away, was for the males to sit first in the morning, then
+the females, and sometimes the males a second time, all in the same
+day. Pigeons require a great deal of water, and sometimes their crops
+would show that they had been to water prior to their return flight,
+while at other times the food in their crops would be dry.
+
+Some other boys and I had a lot of wild birds that we bought alive
+from a netter. We put the birds in the loft of a big barn where there
+was a lot of beans that had not been threshed. We would put in a big
+trough of water for them every day. The way those birds threshed out
+those bean pods was a caution. They became very fat and fairly tame.
+What wouldn't I give to hear the call note of Tete! Tete! Tete! of the
+pigeons once more.
+
+                          Yours truly,
+
+                                                         Ben O. Bush.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+J. S. Van Cleef of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., wrote in _Forest and Stream_ of
+May 20, 1899, as follows:
+
+For many years up to about 1850, flocks of wild pigeons in the fall
+were quite abundant, and were very often taken with nets, which was
+a very favorite way of capturing them at that time, but very few, if
+any, have been taken in this manner since that time. A few small flocks
+appeared in the fifties, but not to such an extent that an attempt was
+made to capture them through the aid of pigeon nets, and I find upon
+inquiry that the experience of others agrees with my own.
+
+The last flight of pigeons of which I have any knowledge occurred in
+the seventies, where they nested in the mountain range south of the
+Beaverkill in the lower part of Ulster County. There were two flights
+about this time, one small one, and in the course of two or three years
+this was followed by a flight where the pigeons appeared in great
+numbers.
+
+This flock had nested in Missouri in the month of April, and the
+most of the squabs were killed by those who were in the business of
+furnishing squabs for the market.
+
+When the nesting was over the entire flock went to Michigan, where they
+nested again, and they were followed there by the same persons who
+again destroyed most of the squabs. When they left Michigan they took
+their flight eastward, and telegrams were sent all over that part of
+the country where the pigeons would be likely to nest a third time, and
+as soon as they settled in the Catskills these persons were apprised of
+the location and very soon appeared on the scene.
+
+The party, about thirty strong, stopped at Monson's, whose house was
+located on the upper Beaverkill, about three miles from the nest.
+
+This nest was a mile from the Willewemoc Lodge, where I happened to
+be during the whole time that the pigeons were in their roost. It was
+claimed at the time that the squabs were sent down to New York by the
+ton, but as to this I have no personal knowledge, though I do know that
+during the nesting all, or nearly all, of the squabs were destroyed,
+and this was done by invading the grounds at night and striking the
+trunks of the trees with a heavy axe or sledge hammer, upon which the
+squabs would tumble out of the nests on the ground, and be picked up
+and carried to Monson's and shipped to New York the next day.
+
+I do know, however, that from a natural ice house and the ice house
+belonging to our club, these persons obtained not less than fifteen
+tons of ice for the purpose of preserving the squabs.
+
+This is the last flight of pigeons that has ever taken place in this
+part of the country, so far as I have any knowledge, and I am very sure
+that if there had been any I would have known it.
+
+  Poughkeepsie, N. Y., May 12.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+The Last of the Pigeons
+
+  From "The Auk," July, 1897, under the title "Additional Records of the
+  Passenger Pigeon (_Ectopistes migratorius_.)"
+
+
+Most of the notes on the Passenger Pigeon recorded in the past year
+have referred to single birds or pairs. It is with much pleasure that
+I now call attention to a flock of some fifty, observed in southern
+Missouri. I am not only greatly indebted to Mr. Chas. H. Holden, Jr.,
+for this interesting information, but for the present of a beautiful
+pair which he sent me in the flesh, he having shot them as they flew
+rapidly overhead. Mr. Holden was, at the time (December 17, 1896),
+hunting quail in Attie, Oregon County, Mo. The residents of this hamlet
+had not seen any pigeons there before in some years.
+
+Simon Pokagon, Chief of the remaining Pottawattamie tribe, and probably
+the best posted man on the wild pigeon in Michigan, writes me under
+date of October 16, 1896: "I am creditably informed that there was a
+small nesting of pigeons last spring not far from the headwaters of
+the Au Sable River in Michigan." Mr. Chase S. Osborn, State Game and
+Fish Warden of Michigan, under date, Sault Ste. Marie, March 2, 1897,
+writes: "Passenger Pigeons are now very rare indeed in Michigan, but
+some have been seen in the eastern parts of Chippewa County, in the
+upper peninsula, every year. As many as a dozen or more were seen in
+this section in one flock last year, and I have reason to believe that
+they breed here in a small way. One came into this city last summer
+and attracted a great deal of attention by flying and circling through
+the air with the tame pigeons. I have a bill in the Legislature of
+Michigan, closing the season for killing wild pigeons for ten years."
+
+                                            Ruthven Deane,
+                                                    Chicago, Ill.
+
+
+  From "The Auk," April, 1898, Vol. 15, Page 184, under the title, "The
+  Passenger Pigeon (_Ectopistes migratorius_) in Wisconsin and Nebraska."
+
+Our records of this species during the past few years have referred
+in most instances, to very small flocks and generally to pairs or
+individuals. In _The Auk_ for July, 1897, I recorded a flock of some
+fifty pigeons from southern Missouri, but such a number has been very
+unusual. It is now very gratifying to be able to record still larger
+numbers and I am indebted to Mr. A. Fugleberg of Oshkosh, Wis., for
+the following letter of information, under date of September 1, 1897:
+"I live on the west shore of Lake Winnebago, Wis. About 6 o'clock on
+the morning of August 14, 1897, I saw a flock of wild pigeons flying
+over the bay from Fisherman's Point to Stony Beach, and I assure you
+it reminded me of old times, from 1855 to 1880, when pigeons were
+plentiful every day. So I dropped my work and stood watching them.
+This flock was followed by six more flocks, each containing about
+thirty-five to eighty pigeons, except the last, which only contained
+seven. All these flocks passed over within half an hour. One flock
+of some fifty birds flew within gunshot of me, the others all the
+way from one hundred to three hundred yards from where I stood." Mr.
+Fugleberg is an old hunter and has had much experience with the wild
+pigeon. In a later letter dated September 4, 1897, he writes: "On Sept.
+2, 1897, I was hunting prairie chickens near Lake Butte des Morts,
+Wis., where I met a friend who told me that a few days previous he had
+seen a flock of some twenty-five wild pigeons and that they were the
+first he had seen for years." This would appear as though these birds
+were instinctively working back to their old haunts, as the Winnebago
+region was once a favorite locality. We hope that Wisconsin will follow
+Michigan in making a close season on wild pigeons for ten years,
+and thus give them a chance to multiply, and, perhaps, regain, in a
+measure, their former abundance.
+
+In _Forest and Stream_ of Sept. 25, 1897, appeared a short notice of
+"Wild Pigeons in Nebraska," by "W. F. R." Through the kindness of
+the editor he placed me in correspondence with the observer, W. F.
+Rightmire, to whom I am indebted for the following details given in
+his letter of Nov. 5, 1897: "I was driving along the highway north of
+Cook, Johnson County, Neb., on August 17, 1897. I came to the timber
+skirting the head stream of the Nemaha River, a tract of some forty
+acres of woodland lying along the course of the stream, upon both
+banks of the same, and there feeding on the ground or perched upon the
+trees were the Passenger Pigeons I wrote the note about. The flock
+contained seventy-five to one hundred birds. I did not frighten them,
+but as I drove along the road the feeding birds flew up and joined the
+others, and as soon as I had passed by they returned to the ground and
+continued feeding. While I revisited the same locality, I failed to
+find the pigeons. I am a native of Tompkins County, N. Y., and have
+often killed wild pigeons in their flights while a boy on the farm,
+helped to net them, and have hunted them in Pennsylvania, so that I
+readily knew the birds in question the moment I saw them." I will here
+take occasion to state that in my record of the Missouri flock (_Auk_,
+July, 1897, p. 316) the date on which they were seen (Dec. 17, 1896)
+was, through error, omitted.
+
+                                            Ruthven Deane,
+                                                    Chicago, Ill.
+
+
+  From "The Auk," January, 1896, under the title, "Additional Records
+  of the Passenger Pigeon (_Ectopistes migratorius_) in Wisconsin and
+  Illinois."
+
+I am indebted to my friend, Mr. John L. Stockton, of Highland Park,
+Ill., for information regarding the occurrence of this pigeon in
+Wisconsin. While trout fishing on the Little Oconto River in the
+Reservation of the Menominee Indians, Mr. Stockton saw, early in June,
+1895, a flock of some ten pigeons for several consecutive days near his
+camp. They were first seen while alighting near the bank of the river,
+where they had evidently come to drink. I am very glad to say that they
+were not molested.
+
+Mr. John F. Ferry of Lake Forest, Ill., has kindly notified me of the
+capture of a young female pigeon which was killed in that town on
+August 7, 1895. The bird was brought to him by a boy who had shot it
+with a rifle ball, and although in a mutilated condition he preserved
+it for his collection.
+
+I have recently received a letter from Dr. H. V. Ogden, Milwaukee,
+Wis., informing me of the capture of a young female pigeon which
+was shot by Dr. Ernest Copeland on the 1st of October, 1895. These
+gentlemen were camping at the time in the northeast corner of Delta
+County, Mich. (Northern Peninsula), in the large hardwood forest that
+runs through that part of the State. They saw no other of the species.
+
+                                            Ruthven Deane,
+                                                    Chicago, Ill.
+
+
+  From "The Auk," July, 1895, under the title, "Additional Records of
+  the Passenger Pigeon in Illinois and Indiana."
+
+The occurrence of the wild pigeon (_Ectopistes migratorius_) in this
+section of the country, and, in fact, throughout the West generally, is
+becoming rarer every year, and such observations and data as come to
+our notice should be of sufficient interest to record.
+
+I have, in the past few months, made inquiry of a great many sportsmen
+who are constantly in the field and in widely distributed localities,
+regarding any observations on the wild pigeon, and but few of them have
+seen a specimen in the past eight or ten years. N. W. Judy & Co., of
+St. Louis, Mo., dealers in poultry, and the largest receivers of game
+in that section, wrote as follows: "We have had no wild pigeons for two
+seasons; the last we received were from Siloam Springs, Ark. We have
+lost all track of them, and our netters are lying idle."
+
+I have made frequent inquiry among the principal game dealers in
+Chicago and cannot learn of a single specimen that has been received in
+our markets in several years. I am indebted to the following gentlemen
+for notes and observations regarding this species, which cover a period
+of eight years. I have various other records of the occurrence of the
+pigeon in Illinois and Indiana, but do not consider them sufficiently
+authentic to record, as to the casual observer this species and the
+Carolina dove are often confounded.
+
+A fine male pigeon was killed by my brother, Mr. Chas. E. Deane, April
+18, 1887, while shooting snipe on the meadows near English Lake, Ind.
+The bird was alone and flew directly over him. I have the specimen now
+in my collection.
+
+In September, 1888, while teal shooting on Yellow River, Stark County,
+Ind., I saw a pigeon fly up the river and alight a short distance off.
+I secured the bird which proved to be a young female.
+
+On Sept. 17, 1887, Mr. John F. Hazen and his daughter Grace, of
+Cincinnati, Ohio, while boating on the Kankakee River near English
+Lake, Ind., observed a small flock of pigeons feeding in a little oak
+grove bordering the river. They reported the birds as quite tame and
+succeeded in shooting eight specimens.
+
+Mr. Frank M. Woodruff, Assistant Curator, Chicago Academy of Sciences,
+informs me that on Dec. 10, 1890, he received four Passenger Pigeons
+in the flesh, from Waukegan, Ill., at which locality they were said to
+have been shot. Three of the birds were males and one was a female.
+One pair he disposed of, the other two I have recently seen in his
+collection. In the fall of 1891, Mr. Woodruff also shot a pair at Lake
+Forest, Ill., which he mounted and placed in the collection of the Cook
+County Normal School, Englewood, Ill.
+
+In the spring of 1893, Mr. C. B. Brown, of Chicago, Ill., collected a
+nest of the wild pigeon containing two eggs at English Lake, Ind., and
+secured both parent birds. Mr. Brown describes the nest as being placed
+on the horizontal branch of a burr oak about ten feet from the trunk
+and from forty to fifty feet from the ground. He did not preserve the
+birds, but the eggs are still in his collection. The locality where
+this nest was found was a short distance from where the Hazens found
+their birds six years before.
+
+Mr. John F. Ferry informs me that three pigeons were seen near the Des
+Plaines River in Lake County, Ill., in September, 1893. One of these
+was shot by Mr. F. C. Farwell.
+
+In an article which appeared in the Chicago _Tribune_ Nov. 25, 1894,
+entitled "Last of His Race," Mr. E. B. Clark related his experience in
+observing a fine male wild pigeon in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Ill., in
+April, 1893. I quote from the article: "He was perched on the limb of
+a soft maple and was facing the rising sun. I have never seen in any
+cabinet a more perfect specimen. The tree upon which he was resting
+was at the southeast corner of the park. There were no trees between
+him and the lake to break from his breast the fullness of the glory of
+the rising sun. The pigeon allowed me to approach within twenty yards
+of his resting place and I watched him through a powerful glass that
+permitted as minute an examination as if he were in my hand. I was more
+than astonished to find here, close to the pavements of a great city,
+the representative of a race which always loved the wild woods, and,
+which I thought had passed away from Illinois forever."
+
+Mr. R. W. Stafford of Chicago, Ill., who has shot hundreds of pigeons
+in former years within the present city limits of Chicago, informs me
+that in the latter part of September, 1894, while shooting at Marengo,
+Ill., he saw a flock of six flying swiftly over and apparently alight
+in a small grove some distance off.
+
+The above records will show that while in this section of the country
+large flocks of Passenger Pigeons are a thing of the past, yet they are
+still occasionally observed in small detachments or single birds.
+
+A. B. Covert of Ann Arbor, Mich., wrote under date of Oct. 27, 1894:
+"Prior to the spring of 1881 the wild pigeon was everywhere a common
+bird of passage throughout the southern part of Michigan and nested
+commonly in the northern part. My home, in 1880, and for a few years
+after, was at Cadillac, Mich., and there was at that time a nesting
+place near Muskrat Lake in Missaukee County. Thousands of the birds
+were killed there. In the spring of 1881 the birds failed to make
+their appearance, and since then have been very rare. Nov. 23, 1892,
+I secured one male and two young females; these were killed in Scio,
+Washtenaw County, Oct. 9, 1893; one male near Ypsilanti, Mich., Sept.
+27, 1894; one female killed at Honey Brook, Scio, Washtenaw County.
+There is also a female bird in this city that was killed in Livingston
+County in October, 1892."
+
+In a bulletin of the Michigan Ornithological Club, Vol. II, No. 3-4,
+July to December, 1898, Mr. A. B. Covert, the club's president, tells
+of seeing a flock of about two hundred pigeons. On Oct. 1, 1898, in
+Washtenaw County, Mich., he watched a large number of them all day.
+
+Mr. Stewart E. White writes from Ann Arbor under date of Feb. 9, 1894:
+"My notebooks are not here so I cannot give exact dates, but I can
+remember distinctly every specimen I ever saw. I observed one flock of
+about sixty in Kent County in the fall, the last of October or first
+of November, 1890. At Mackinac Island at various times in September
+of 1889 I saw parts of a large flock, of say two hundred. My field
+experience in the western part of Michigan has been quite extensive and
+thorough, but these two flocks are all I ever recorded."
+
+F. M. Falconer of Hillsdale, Mich., on Dec. 3, 1904, writes to Mr.
+Warren as follows: "During the last week of March, 1892, one of the
+students here shot a nice male. There were two together, but only one
+was secured. That summer I saw a small flock feeding in some thick
+woods along the banks of a stream in which I was fishing, in Chautauqua
+County, N. Y. There were eight or ten birds at least, and perhaps many
+more, as they scattered along in spots."
+
+Mr. T. E. Douglas of Grayling, Mich., reports that in the year 1900
+he saw three Passenger Pigeons on the East Branch of Au Sable River,
+Michigan, and about five years previous to that date a flock of ten
+was seen around George's Lake, which is eight miles southwest of West
+Branch, Michigan.
+
+I also have a record of one pigeon taken by Mr. John H. Sage, in
+Portland, Conn., in October, 1889.
+
+In May, 1904, Hon. Chase S. Osborn wrote:
+
+  Dear Mr. Mershon: I haven't much information relating to the pigeons
+  in this section of the country. In fact, the pigeon was practically
+  gone from the north when I first visited the country in 1880. I
+  remember seeing a flock of about three hundred in Florence County,
+  Wis., which would probably be on a line fifty miles south of here,
+  in 1883. In 1884 I saw a flock in that same section, in the woods
+  northwest of Florence, of about fifty. In 1890 I six of these birds
+  near the mouth of the Little Munoskong River in this county. This
+  river empties into Munoskong Bay, about thirty miles southeast of
+  here. In 1897 I saw a single wild pigeon, flying with the tame
+  pigeons around this town. It was a remarkable sight and attracted the
+  attention of many local bird lovers. There is no doubt that it was a
+  pigeon, and it was absolutely alone as far as we could discover.
+
+Upon inquiry here among old residents, I am told that there was quite
+a large roost on a beech ridge about forty miles west of here, which
+would be at a point north of the present station of Eckerman. I have
+been unable to learn just when this roosting place was discontinued,
+but as near as I can make out from comparing statements and records, it
+must have been in '78, '79, or '80.
+
+I have heard of a large roosting place in northern Wisconsin which was
+used as late as 1874 by vast numbers of birds. It was located to the
+south and a little west of Lac Vieux Desert. At the head of the Pike
+River in Wisconsin, a point probably sixty-five miles south of here,
+and west into that State, the pigeons were seen in large numbers until
+1872. As I understand it, in the early days they were very likely to
+frequent the same section year after year when not too much disturbed.
+
+Mr. Newell A. Eddy of Bay City, Mich., under date of Aug. 7, 1905,
+wrote me as follows:
+
+  I find that I have but few notes regarding this species. On Sept. 13,
+  1880, I took a single bird near the city of Bangor, Maine. The sex
+  was not determined. This was an unusual capture for the place and the
+  time. A few years previous to that time, on a canoeing trip to the
+  headwaters of the Penobscot River, I fell in with a small flock of a
+  dozen or more in an old burnt-over swamp, but was unable to secure
+  any of them.
+
+  I presume that you have an abundance of notes on the Passenger Pigeon
+  in this section of the country at the time it was so abundant here, as
+  such information is readily obtainable from any of the old inhabitants
+  of this locality. I had a very interesting interview the other day
+  with Mr. C. E. Jennison of this city, who was one of our earliest
+  settlers, and he gave me a great deal of information about this bird
+  in the earlier days of Bay City. He also stated, which was quite
+  interesting, that six or seven years ago he saw a few birds at Thunder
+  Bay Island, near Alpena. This appears to be his last record of this
+  species.
+
+  The most interesting information I have was obtained from Mr. Birney
+  Jennison, his son, who advised me a few days ago while we were on
+  our way to Point Lookout, Saginaw Bay, that about the 15th of July,
+  this year, he saw a pair of these birds in a swale at Point Lookout
+  while roaming through the woods. He and I visited the same locality
+  about two weeks after that, but saw nothing of them. Of course there
+  is some likelihood that the birds Mr. Jennison saw may have been the
+  common Carolina doves. Mr. Birney Jennison also had a great deal of
+  experience with this bird in his younger days about Bay City, and
+  there would appear to be no question as to his ability to accurately
+  identify the bird.
+
+From Mr. Neal Brown, Warsaw, Wis., May 20, 1904:
+
+Mr. W. B. Mershon, Saginaw, Mich.
+
+Dear Sir:--Your favor at hand with reference to the wild pigeon.
+It was, I think, three or four years ago that, in hunting with Mr.
+Emerson Hough near Babcock in this State in September, we killed an
+unmistakable wild pigeon. I saw a few pigeons in the woods in Forest
+County, in this State, about fifteen years ago. About seven years ago
+I saw three near Wausau and shot one of them. There was a pigeon roost
+for many years in Wood County, in this State, but it has long since
+disappeared.
+
+When I was a boy in southern Wisconsin in the 60's and 70's, wild
+pigeons were so numerous as to almost darken the air. In the early 70's
+there was a small roost on Bark River, near Ft. Atkinson, in this State.
+
+The wild pigeon had practically disappeared in southern Wisconsin as
+early as 1880, in fact, it was two or three years before that that I
+saw the last of them.
+
+Charles W. Ward of Queens, L. I., New York, reports that in October,
+1883, he saw a flock of at least one hundred Passenger Pigeons along
+the Manistee River in Township 26-5 and the following year about one
+dozen nested in a Spruce swamp near Orchard Lake on his old homestead.
+He often saw the nest and the birds. He remembers the time as being
+the season of the year when huckleberries were ripe, for he was
+berry-picking when he first observed them.
+
+The writer of the following newspaper clipping of recent date is
+emphatically skeptical regarding the present-day existence of even an
+isolated pigeon:
+
+
+LAST PIGEON FLIGHT IN IOSCO IN 1880
+
+MILLIONS PASSED THROUGH THEN, BUT THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN THERE SINCE
+
+Tawas, Mich., July 27.--John Sims, county game and fish warden,
+ridicules the idea of flocks of wild pigeons being found in Iosco
+County, as was reported in some of the State papers. He says: "There
+are no wild pigeons in Iosco County; nor have there been any here since
+April 1, 1880. There fell about six inches of snow on that day, then
+the weather cleared and the sun rose bright and clear, but it was but
+for a short time, as the air was clouded with pigeons going westward.
+That was the first time they had been here for a number of years, and,
+although it was Sunday, everyone who had a gun was shooting or trying
+to shoot, and there were lots of pigeons killed that day in nearly
+all the streets of Tawas. There were simply millions of them going
+westward, and those that were killed were picked up out of the snow.
+Since that day there have been no wild pigeons here. We have lots of
+mourning doves here, and the writer has probably seen these. There
+is a certain magazine that offers $50 for a pair of wild pigeons, and
+I think the sportsmen would add another $50 to it to have the wild
+pigeons with us again."
+
+In the report of the Massachusetts commissioners on fisheries and game
+for the year ending December 31, 1903, is to be found the following:
+
+The occurrence of the wild pigeon is a matter of public and scientific
+interest, and for this reason, and not because it is a game bird,
+reference to it is introduced here. Deputy Samuel Parker, who is
+perfectly familiar with the wild pigeon, makes mention of its
+appearance at Wakefield this year as follows: "In September a flock of
+wild pigeons, twenty-five or thirty in number, came over Crystal Lake."
+This notice of the presence of a species believed to be extinct is
+interesting and must be important to ornithologists.[C]
+
+[Footnote C: I believe that this informant was mistaken--W. B. M.]
+
+George King, guide and trapper, living in Otsego County, Michigan, told
+me in 1904 that four years before he had seen along Black River a flock
+of wild pigeons, a dozen or more birds. He said there is no mistake
+about it, because he was familiar with the wild pigeon early in life.
+These alighted in a tree near him. He said that in 1902, also, he heard
+the call of two wild pigeons, although he hunted for the birds and did
+not find them.
+
+[Illustration: COMPARATIVE SIZE OF PIGEON AND DOVE
+
+From photo furnished by Prof W. B. Burrows, of the Michigan
+Agricultural College]
+
+I believe that six wild pigeons were actually seen in the latter part
+of April of 1905 near Vanderbilt, Mich., by this George King. I have
+tested his honesty and truthfulness time and time again. He told me
+he was seated in the branches of an apple tree when he saw six wild
+pigeons alight in another tree near him. He kept perfectly still and
+watched their movements for about thirty minutes. They flew from the
+old tree in which they had alighted, underneath a beech tree and began
+feeding on beech nuts from the ground. He says he heard them call and
+they made the same old crowing call of the wild pigeon. He was close to
+them; he is perfectly familiar with the dove and knows that these six
+were Passenger Pigeons. King has for many years lived in the section
+that formerly was the great pigeon nesting and feeding ground of
+northern Michigan.
+
+                                     Michigan Agricultural College,
+                                                      July 14, '05.
+
+Dear Sir:--I have been away for the past three weeks and find your
+letter of June 27 here on my return. The photographs sent you were
+those of the Passenger Pigeon and the Carolina dove, the one of the two
+birds being intended to show relative size and appearance. It was taken
+from two of the best specimens in the museum, placed at exactly the
+same distance from the camera so that the picture shows the comparative
+size exactly. The birds being so similar in general appearance, the
+smaller one looks as if it were further away than the larger, and
+this, I think, shows clearly how impossible it is for the ordinary
+observer to discriminate between these two species when seen separately
+in the field. Of course a mixed flock would be a different proposition,
+but so far as I know the two species never mingle, and, at least in
+this State, it is an unusual thing to find the Carolina dove in large
+compact flocks such as are characteristic of the Passenger Pigeon. In
+several cases, however, during August and September I have seen large
+scattered flocks of the Carolina dove which were feeding on weed seeds
+and grain in open fields, and which when disturbed, gathered into small
+bands of twenty to fifty each and flew and perched very much like
+Passenger Pigeons. In one case I saw at least five hundred Carolina
+doves acting this way, and had hard work to convince a sportsman friend
+of mine that they were not Passenger Pigeons. Finally, after getting
+directly under a small tree on which a dozen or more were perched, he
+was able to see that characteristic black dot on the side of the neck,
+and was also able to estimate more correctly the actual size of the
+birds.
+
+                                  Yours very truly,
+                                          Walter B. Burrows,
+                                             _Professor of Zoology._
+
+
+                                               Agricultural College,
+                                   Ingham Co., Mich., June 17, 1905.
+
+Mr. W. B. Mershon, Saginaw, Mich.
+
+Dear Sir:--Yours of the 16th is at hand and in reply I would say that
+the Carolina dove is _rarely_ found north of the Au Sable River, and I
+should not expect _ever_ to see it there in flocks in the spring; on
+the other hand it is just as likely to be found _early_ in the season
+as the Passenger Pigeon, since the Carolina dove winters regularly in
+southern Michigan and is one of the first birds to appear in the spring
+in this county, in fact not infrequently staying _here_ through the
+winter. On the whole, however, I think there can be little doubt that
+Mr. King's report relates to the Passenger Pigeon and not to the dove.
+I have had some photographs taken of the Carolina dove and Passenger
+Pigeon together, and will ask my assistant, Mr. Myers, to mail you
+prints of these within a few days as soon as he has time to make some
+good ones. If these do not show what you desire we will try again.
+
+                                  Yours very truly,
+                                          Walter B. Burrows,
+                                             _Professor of Zoology._
+
+Mr. George E. Atkinson, to whom I am indebted for much valuable data in
+this book, writes from Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, July 21, 1905, as
+follows:
+
+I was on a holiday trip on the Assiniboia River last week, and a pair
+of birds flew by me at a few yards' distance, flashing the pigeon color
+to all appearances in the sun and alighting on the bank. I turned my
+boat and until after I shot the bird, I would have sworn it was a
+pigeon, but it proved to be a large, bright plumaged dove. Atmospheric
+conditions considerably affected the size so that I am convinced that
+it is possible for even the best of us to be deceived, and a scientific
+record must not be formed on any supposition.
+
+                                              Iron Mountain, Mich.,
+
+                                                      May 30, 1904.
+
+Mr. W. B. Mershon, Saginaw, Mich.
+
+Dear Sir:--In reply to your letter of inquiry respecting the Passenger
+Pigeon, I will say that my knowledge of it is very limited except from
+hearsay, but I am credibly informed that it nested at the east end of
+Deerskin Lake, Sec. 30, N44 W31, as late as 1888. Mr. Armstrong, a
+timber cruiser, late a resident of this city, gave me this information.
+He said there was a small colony of less than a hundred birds then.
+Fire has since destroyed the timber there and he doubted if they were
+still there when he told me about them. Mr. A. was a keen observer and
+thoroughly reliable; had been familiar with the species when abundant
+in lower Michigan, and I have great confidence in the accuracy of his
+reports. I used to see them as late as 1883 in this vicinity. They
+were shot in the summer of 1883 during the blueberry season. I should
+estimate that as many as fifty birds were taken that summer. I cannot
+imagine why they should have disappeared from this region. I have no
+reports concerning the birds from the north shore.
+
+In 1897 a young bird was taken in the neighboring town of Norway with a
+broken wing and identified by hunters who had known the species in the
+day of its abundance.
+
+Dr. J. D. Cameron of this city informs me that he saw a flock of about
+fifty birds flying over the St. George Hospital of this place on the
+28th of October, 1900. He was positive that he was not mistaken, as
+the birds were flying low, and he had formerly been well acquainted
+with the species in Canada. You can take this latter for what it is
+worth. Dr. C's. veracity is beyond question, but whether he could have
+mistaken some other birds for the pigeons I am not prepared to say.
+He is not interested in ornithology and I would not expect him to
+recognize ordinary birds, but he may have hunted the wild pigeon in his
+younger days and so be familiar with its manner of flight. I cannot
+imagine any other birds that he could mistake for them.
+
+I have an idea that I may have seen one myself in the summer of 1900,
+but am not sufficiently well acquainted with it to recognize it at
+sight. I fired at it with a .22 rifle, and the peculiar maneuvers
+which it executed in the air as the bullet passed, attracted my
+attention. I was afterward told that the wild pigeon tumbled in the air
+that way when fired at. I thought at first that it was hit.
+
+                          Yours truly,
+
+                                                     E. E. Brewster.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+What Became of the Wild Pigeon?
+
+  By Sullivan Cook, from "Forest and Stream," March 14, 1903.[D]
+
+[Footnote D: I think that anyone who reads this article will be, like
+myself, satisfied that the destruction of the pigeons was wrought to
+gratify the avarice and love of gain of a few men who slaughtered them
+until they were virtually exterminated.--W. B. M.]
+
+
+When a boy and living in northern Ohio, I often had to go with a gun
+and drive the pigeons from the newly sown fields of wheat. At that time
+wheat was sown broadcast, and pigeons would come by the thousands and
+pick up the wheat before it could be covered with the drag. My father
+would say, "Get the gun and shoot at every pigeon you see," and often I
+would see them coming from the woods and alighting on the newly sowed
+field. They would alight until the ground was fairly blue with these
+beautiful birds.
+
+I would secrete myself in a fence corner, and as these birds would
+alight on the ground they would form themselves in a long row,
+canvassing the field for grain, and as the rear birds raised up and
+flew over those in front, they reminded one of the little breakers on
+the ocean beach, and as they came along in this form, they resembled a
+windrow of hay rolling across the field.
+
+I would wait until the end of this wave was opposite my hiding place
+and then arise and fire into this windrow of living, animated beauty,
+and I have picked up as many as twenty-seven dead birds killed at a
+single shot with an old flintlock smooth bore. Later in the fall these
+birds would come in countless millions to feed on the wild mast of
+beech nuts and acorns, and every evening they would pass over our home,
+going west of our place to what was known as Lodi Swamp.
+
+Many and many a time have I seen clouds of birds that extended as far
+as the eye could reach, and the sound of their wings was like the roar
+of a tempest. And for those who are not acquainted with the habits
+and flight of these birds, I wish to say that once in the month of
+November, while these pigeons were going from their feeding grounds
+to this roost in the Lodi Swamp, they were met with a storm of sleet
+and snow. The wind blew so hard that they could not breast it and were
+compelled to alight in a sugar orchard near our place. This orchard
+consisted of twenty acres, where the timber had all been cut out,
+except the maples, and when they commenced alighting, the trees already
+partially loaded with snow and ice, and the vast flock of pigeons being
+attracted by those alighting, all sought the same resting place.
+
+Such vast numbers alighted that in a short time the branches of the
+trees were broken and as fast as one tree gave way those birds would
+alight on the already loaded tree adjoining, and, that, too, was
+stripped of its long and limber branches. Suffice it to say that in a
+half hour's time this beautiful sugar orchard was entirely ruined by
+the loads of birds which had attempted to rest from the storm.
+
+About this time I enjoyed my first pigeon hunt in a roost. Being a boy
+about sixteen years of age, having a brother about thirteen, and as we
+had seen the pigeons going by to their roost for hours and knowing that
+many people went there every night to shoot pigeons on the roost, my
+brother and I were seized with a desire to go and enjoy this exciting
+sport. Then arose the difficulty of a gun suitable for the occasion.
+As we had nothing but a small-bore rifle and not owning a shotgun, we
+appealed to father as to what we should do for a gun. We had previously
+gained his consent to our going. He suggested that we take the old
+horse pistol; one of the Revolutionary time, which had been kept in the
+family as a reminder of troublesome years.
+
+Let the young man of to-day, who hunts with the improved breechloader,
+think of two boys starting pigeon hunting, their only outfit consisting
+of a horse pistol, barrel twelve inches long, caliber 12-gauge,
+flintlock, one pound of No. 4 shot, a quarter of a pound of powder, a
+pocket full of old newspaper for wadding, a two-bushel bag to carry
+game in, and a tin lantern. Thus equipped, we started for the pigeon
+roost a little after dark. Although three miles from the roost when
+we started from home, we could hear the sullen roar of that myriad of
+birds, and the sound increased in volume as we approached the roost,
+till it became as the roar of the breakers upon the beach.
+
+As we approached the swamp where the birds roosted, a few scattered
+birds were frightened from the roost along the edge of the swamp. These
+scattering birds we could not shoot, but kept advancing further into
+the swamp. As we approached this vast body of birds, which bent the
+alders flat to the ground, we could see every now and then ahead of us
+a small pyramid which looked like a haystack in the darkness, and as
+we approached what appeared to be this haystack, the frightened birds
+would fly from the bended alders, and we would find ourselves standing
+in the midst of a diminutive forest of small trees of alders and
+willows.
+
+We now found these apparent haystacks were only small elms or willows
+completely loaded down with live birds. My brother suggested that I
+shoot at the next "haystack." So we advanced along very carefully among
+the now upright alders till we came to where it was a perfect roar of
+voices and wings, and just ahead of us we saw one of those mysterious
+objects which so resembled a haystack.
+
+My brother suggested that I aim at the center of it and let the old
+horse pistol go. I instantly obeyed his suggestion, pointing as best I
+could in the dim light at the center of that form, and pulled. There
+was a flash and a roar, and the very atmosphere seemed to be alive
+with flying, chattering birds. The old tin lantern was lighted. The
+horse pistol was hunted for, as it had recoiled with such force I had
+lost hold of it. The gun being found, we then approached as nearly as
+we could the place where I had shot at the stack. From this discharge
+we picked up eighteen pigeons and saw some hobbling away into thick
+brush, from which we could not recover them. After an hour of this kind
+of hunting our bag was full of pigeons, and our tallow candle in the
+lantern nearly consumed. We retraced our steps out of the swamp, and
+about 11 o'clock at night arrived home well satisfied with the night's
+hunt in the pigeon roost. We had had acres of enjoyment and had brought
+home bushels of pigeons.
+
+This is only to give an idea of what pigeons were in northern Ohio in
+the days of my boyhood. This was in the years of 1844 to 1846. In 1854,
+having grown to man's estate, I moved to Michigan and settled in Cass
+County, where I built a log house and began clearing up a farm. After
+having cleared three or four fields around my house, one morning one of
+my girls came running in from out of doors and said: "Pa, come out and
+see the pigeons."
+
+I went to the door and saw scooting across my fields, as it seemed
+skimming the surface of the earth, flock after flock of the birds,
+one coming close upon the heels of another. I hastened into the house
+and grasped my double barreled shotgun, powder flask and shot pouch;
+my little girl, then a miss of twelve summers, following me. I took a
+stand on a slight rise in the middle of a five-acre field and commenced
+shooting, you might say, at wads of pigeons, so closely huddled were
+they as they went by. Letting the birds get opposite me and firing
+across the flock, I was enabled to kill from three to fifteen pigeons
+at a shot. And my girl was wildly excited, picking up the dead birds
+and catching the winged ones and bringing them to me.
+
+You never saw two mortals more busy than we were for a half hour. At
+this time my wife called for breakfast, as we were near the house, and
+I found my stock of ammunition nearly exhausted. We went into the house
+for our breakfast and when we came out the birds were flying as thickly
+as ever. She says, let us count the pigeons and see how many we have.
+We found we had killed and picked up in this short time twenty-three
+dozen. My wife said I had better take them to Three Rivers, which
+was our nearest town, and sell them. And as my ammunition was about
+exhausted, I hitched up my team, took twenty dozen of the birds and
+drove ten miles to the station, sold my birds for sixty-five cents a
+dozen and returned home well satisfied with my day's work, and having
+on hand a good supply of ammunition for the next morning's flight.
+
+Now I wish to pass along, the lapse of time being about sixteen years.
+During this time I had removed from Cass County to Van Buren County,
+where I had located in the beautiful village of Hartford. In the year
+1869 or 1870, the pigeoners, a class of men who lived in Hartford, made
+a business of netting pigeons, and they are living here yet, and not
+one of them feels any pride in the part he took in the destruction of
+these beautiful birds. In March, 1869, word was received that a large
+flight of pigeons were coming north through the State of Indiana. These
+men, who had followed the pigeons for years, said, "As we have snow on
+the ground they will be sure to nest near here, and as we have had a
+big crop of beech nuts and acorns last fall they will be sure to stop
+to get the benefit of this mast." A queer thing about the pigeon was
+that he always built his nest on the borders of the snow, that is,
+where the ground underneath was covered with snow.
+
+Sure enough, as predicted, in two days after receiving notice of the
+flight of the birds from Indiana, myriads of pigeons were passing north
+along the east shore of Lake Michigan, and soon scattering flocks
+were seen going south towards the bare ground. In a few days word was
+received that pigeons had gone to nesting in what was then called
+Deerfield Township, a vast body of hardwood and hemlock timber. Then it
+was that the pigeon killers, with their nets, stool birds and flyers
+commenced making preparations for the slaughter of the beautiful birds
+when they began laying their eggs. This takes place only three or four
+days after they commence nesting, as a pigeon's nest is the simplest
+nest ever built by a bird seen in a tree. It consists of a few little
+twigs laid crosswise, without moss or lining of any kind, and the lay
+of eggs is but one. As soon as one egg is laid, they commence sitting,
+and the male pigeon is quite a gentleman in his way, taking his turn
+and sitting one-half of the time.
+
+In about twelve or fourteen days--some claim twenty--the young pigeon
+is hatched. As soon as hatched the male and female birds commence
+feeding on what is known as marsh feed, that is, on low, springy
+ground. And from this feed is supplied to both the male and female bird
+what is known as pigeon's milk, forming inside of the crop a sort of
+curd, on which the young pigeon is fed by both father and mother, who
+supply this food. The young bird is gorged with this food, and in a few
+days becomes as heavy as the parent bird. Another singular thing about
+the wild pigeon is that as the snow melts and the ground is left bare
+where the nesting is, the old birds never eat the nuts in the nesting,
+but leave them for the benefit of the young one, and so when he comes
+off the nest he always finds an abundance of food at his very door,
+as it were. As soon as the young birds are able to leave the nest and
+begin feeding on the ground in the nesting, the old birds immediately
+forsake them, move again on to the borders of the snow and start
+another nesting. In five or ten days the young birds will follow in
+the direction of the old birds.
+
+When the young birds first come off the nest and commence feeding on
+the ground, they are fat as balls of butter, but in ten days from this
+time, when they start on their northern flight to follow their mother
+bird, they are poor as snakes, and almost unfit to eat, while, when
+they first leave the nest they are the most palatable morsel man ever
+tasted. However, in about forty days from the time they began nesting
+to the time they took their northern flight, there were shipped from
+Hartford and vicinity, three carloads a day of these beautiful meteors
+of the sky. Each car containing 150 barrels with 35 dozen in a barrel,
+making the daily shipment 24,750 dozen.
+
+Young men who are now hunting for something to shoot and wondering
+what has become of our game, must hear with anger and regret such
+reports as this from western Michigan in the days gone by: "In three
+years' time there were caught and shipped to New York and other eastern
+cities 990,000 dozen pigeons, and in the two succeeding years it was
+estimated by the same men who caught the pigeons at Hartford that there
+were one-third more shipped from Shelby than from Hartford; and from
+Petoskey, Emmett County, two years later, it is now claimed by C. H.
+Engle, a resident of this town, who was a participant in this ungodly
+slaughter, that there were shipped five carloads a day for thirty
+days, with an average of 8,250 dozen to the carload. Now, when one asks
+you what has become of the wild pigeons, refer them to C. H. Engle,
+Stephen Stowe, Chas. Sherburne, and Hiram Corwin, and a man by the name
+of Miles from Wisconsin, Mr. Miles having caught 500 dozen in a single
+day. And when you are asked what has become of the wild pigeons, figure
+up the shipping bills, and they will show what has become of this, the
+grandest game bird that ever cleft the air of any continent."
+
+My young friends, I want to humbly ask your forgiveness for having
+taken a small part in the destruction of this, the most exciting of
+sport. And there is not one of us but is ashamed of the slaughter which
+has robbed you of enjoyment. If we had been restrained by laws of
+humanity, you, too, could have enjoyed this sport for years to come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A Novel Theory of Extinction
+
+By C. H. Ames and Robert Ridgway
+
+
+                                             Boston, March 8, 1906.
+
+Mr. W. B. Mershon:
+
+Dear Sir:--Thank you for your note of the third in reply to mine of
+the first, in regard to your book on the Passenger Pigeon. I note that
+you say:
+
+  "There is room to make additions if you think you have something
+  that would be interesting, and would like to submit it to me for my
+  consideration."
+
+Thanking you for your courtesy in the matter, I beg to say that I have
+long had great interest in the problem of the so sudden and complete
+destruction of this great species, and have from the first been quite
+unable to believe that the ordinarily assigned agencies for the
+destruction of the pigeon were adequate, or anywhere near adequate, to
+make a destruction so sudden and complete.
+
+Several accounts which have come to my notice have strengthened my
+view. I know well that the attack of man and beast upon the pigeons
+in their rookeries, or breeding places, was fierce, persistent and
+enormously destructive, and that at these breeding places the
+destroyers gathered in great numbers, but, with my vivid recollection
+of the tremendous flights of pigeons which I myself saw in the '60's
+in northern Illinois, the wide distribution of the bird, and what I
+know of its migratory habits (I wish I knew very much more about these
+habits), I cannot think that in so few years the practical destruction
+of the species could be effected by the means referred to.
+
+Years ago--I cannot tell how many, but I am confident it must have been
+at about the time of the disappearance of the great pigeon flights--I
+read an account, either in or quoted from a New Orleans newspaper,
+giving the stories of several ship captains and sailors who had arrived
+in New Orleans from the Gulf of Mexico. They stated that they had, in
+crossing the Gulf, sailed over leagues and leagues of water covered,
+and covered thickly, with dead pigeons. The supposition was that an
+enormous flight of the pigeons crossing the waters of the Gulf had been
+overwhelmed by a cyclone, or some such atmospheric disturbance, and
+that the birds had been whirled into the surf and drowned.
+
+I have been told by competent ornithologists connected with the Boston
+Society of Natural History that Pigeon Cove, a well-known and much
+frequented extremity of Cape Ann, near Gloucester, Mass., received
+its name from the fact that a large flight of pigeons was similarly
+overwhelmed in flying along the Atlantic near that place, and that
+their bodies covered the shore in "windrows."
+
+Not more than two years ago, if so long, I read a lengthy and signed
+account in a Montreal paper of a similar catastrophe to a great flight
+of pigeons in attempting to cross Lake Michigan, and similar statement
+was made that for miles the beach above Milwaukee was heaped and piled
+with "windrows" of dead pigeons.
+
+Within two or three years several accounts have reached us, bearing
+every mark of believability, that considerable flights of geese, swans
+and ducks have been drowned in the surf off the New Jersey and Maryland
+shores. These flights of birds have been overwhelmed in a sudden storm
+or gale of wind, which beat them down into the surf where they were
+drowned, their bodies drifting about, and some of them being thrown up
+on the shore.
+
+These accounts have come from fishermen, sportsmen and others, and I
+see no reason whatever to doubt that a flight of birds of any species
+known could easily be destroyed if caught off shore in some of the
+wind storms of which we have so many instances. I have frequently in
+_Forest and Stream_ propounded my theory and asked for information
+about it before it became too late. The whole theory stands or falls,
+as it seems to me, with the ascertainment of the southern limit of the
+migration of the great pigeon flight. If the birds did not cross the
+Gulf of Mexico there is far less likelihood of my theory being the
+correct one, though my inquiries in _Forest and Stream_ elicited one
+very circumstantial account of an enormous destruction of pigeons on
+the Gulf Coast, the birds being blown into the Gulf and destroyed by
+a fierce "norther" which beat down the coast for two or three days.
+Persons familiar with this phenomena of the Texas "norther" need no
+help to their imaginations in seeing how a pigeon flight, being caught
+on the shores of the Gulf by such a wind could be practically destroyed.
+
+I do not know that you will think my theory worth any consideration,
+but I have finally interested a number of ornithologists who share my
+view that the final and sudden wiping out of the great bulk of the
+pigeon flight must have been by some cataclysmic agency. It seems to
+me that the question is one of great interest from the point of view
+of the naturalist and biologist, and well worth serious investigation
+by all who care for these things. I shall be pleased to know if what I
+have said seems to you of interest and to have any weight.
+
+Wishing you all success in your admirable undertaking, and anticipating
+with great pleasure the results of your studies in your proposed book,
+I am,
+
+                          Yours very truly,
+
+                                                        C. H. Ames.
+
+
+  _Memorandum prepared by Mr. Robert Ridgway, Curator of the Division
+  of Birds, U. S. National Museum, to accompany letter to Mr. W. B.
+  Mershon, Saginaw, Mich._
+
+If Mr. Mershon will communicate on the subject of Passenger Pigeons
+with Mr. William Brewster,[E] 145 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Mass., he
+may get some data which will (or ought to) dismiss from consideration
+the idea that the passenger pigeon could have been exterminated in the
+manner suggested by Mr. Ames. During a visit to northern Michigan, Mr.
+Brewster talked with a great many pigeon netters. I have forgotten
+the figures, and may be very inexact in my recollection of them, but
+my recollection is that at one "roost" there were one hundred netters
+who averaged one thousand (it may have been ten thousand) pigeons per
+day. When it is considered that this was the rate of destruction at one
+locality in one State only, that the same was going on in other States,
+and that tens of thousands were being killed by hunters and others, and
+this year after year, I cannot see anything surprising in the eventual
+extermination of the species, no matter how numerously represented
+originally.
+
+[Footnote E: See Chapter VII, "Netting the Pigeon" by Wm. Brewster.]
+
+Nothing in the history of the Passenger Pigeon is more certainly known
+than the fact that its range to the southward _did not extend beyond
+the United States_. There is a single Cuban record, but the occurrence
+was purely accidental. The migrations of the Passenger Pigeon were
+wholly different in their character from those of true emigrants, that
+is to say, they were influenced or controlled purely by the matter of
+food supply, as in the case of the robin and some other birds, and the
+flights were as often from west to east and _vice versa_ as from south
+to north or north to south; in short, the flocks moved about in various
+directions in their search for food or nesting places. For myself, I
+do not believe in the story of drowning in the Gulf of Mexico for two
+reasons. In the first place the birds are extremely unlikely to have
+been there, a hurricane from the _northward_ being absolutely necessary
+to explain their presence in that quarter, and, in the second place,
+no such explanation is needed in view of what is known to be the facts
+concerning their wholesale destruction by human agency alone.
+
+The range of the Passenger Pigeon was limited to the mixed hardwood
+forest region of the eastern United States and Canada, and any that
+occurred beyond were stragglers, pure and simple. Consequently it was
+not found, except as stragglers, in the long-leaf pine belt of the
+Gulf Coast, but only on the uplands from northern or middle Alabama,
+Mississippi, and Louisiana, northward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+News from John Burroughs
+
+
+When the following report from so high an authority as John Burroughs
+appeared in _Forest and Stream_ it seemed too important to be
+overlooked. I therefore ventured to open a correspondence with this
+famous naturalist, even suggesting that his informants might have
+mistaken some other species of migratory bird for a flight of wild
+pigeons. I had once made a similar mistake in Texas when the northern
+migration of the curlews was in full flight. Countless flocks of them
+were streaming past at a considerable distance from me, and I could
+have sworn they were wild pigeons until I was lucky enough to see them
+at much closer range. Even now the newspapers east and west contain
+an annual crop of wild pigeon reports, most of which are to be found
+fake reports upon careful investigation. It has happened often that
+hunters and woodsmen mistake the wild dove for the pigeon, and refuse
+to believe otherwise. The correspondence explains itself, however, and
+is a valuable contribution to the subject in hand.
+
+                                                            W. B. M.
+
+
+A FLOCK OF WILD PIGEONS[F]
+
+[Footnote F: From _Forest and Stream_, May 19, 1906.]
+
+                                         West Park, N. Y., May 11th.
+
+Editor _Forest and Stream_:
+
+I have received evidence which is to me entirely convincing that a
+large flock of Passenger Pigeons was seen to pass over the village
+of Prattsville, Greene County, this State, late one afternoon about
+the middle of April. The fact was first reported in the local paper,
+the Prattsville _News_. An old boyhood schoolmate of mine, Charles
+W. Benton, was, with others, reported to have seen them. I have
+corresponded with Mr. Benton and have no doubt the pigeons were seen
+as stated. Mr. Benton saw pigeons, clouds of them, in his boyhood, and
+could not well be mistaken. He says it was about 5 o'clock, and that
+the flock stretched out across the valley about one-half mile and must
+have contained many hundreds. It came from the southeast, and went
+northwest. Mr. Benton says that a large flock was reported last year as
+having passed over the village of Catskill, and that a wild pigeon was
+shot near Prattsville last fall. A friend of mine saw two pigeons in
+the woods at West Point a year or so ago.
+
+I have no doubt, therefore, that the wild pigeon is still with us, and
+that if protected we may yet see them in something like their numbers
+of thirty years ago.
+
+                                                       John Burroughs.
+
+
+                                      West Park, N. Y., May 27, 1906.
+
+To W. B. Mershon:
+
+Dear Sir:--I can give you no more definite information about that flock
+of pigeons than I reported to _Forest and Stream_. I have no doubt
+about the fact. If you will write to C. W. Benton, Prattsville, N. Y.,
+he can put you in communication with several people who saw the flock.
+
+I am just about to write to _Forest and Stream_ of another very large
+flock of pigeons that was seen to pass over the city of Kingston,
+N. Y., on the morning of the 15th. I have written to Judge A. T.
+Clearwater of that city, who replies that he has talked with many
+persons who saw the pigeons and who had seen the pigeons years ago.
+The flock is described as a mile long. I am going up to Kingston soon
+to question the persons who saw the flock. If I learn anything to
+discredit the story I will let you know. We never have a flight of any
+birds here that could be mistaken for pigeons by any one who had ever
+seen the latter. If these flocks were pigeons, where have they been
+hiding all these years?
+
+                         Very sincerely yours,
+
+                                                       John Burroughs.
+
+
+                                     Prattsville, N. Y., June 9, 1906.
+
+W. B. Mershon, Saginaw, Mich.:
+
+Dear Sir:--Yours of the 6th inst. is before me and I hasten to reply.
+Now, in the first place, you speak of John Burroughs. Mr. Burroughs
+and I went to school together when we were boys, and, as you say, he is
+a good authority on natural history, and I have had some communication
+with him on the pigeon question. I live in the heart of the Catskill
+Mountains, which was once a great resort for wild pigeons, and I have
+seen a vast number of them, dating back as far as 1848, when this
+country was literally covered with them, and for some years after.
+Now in regard to the wild pigeons I saw this spring. I was going to
+my home in the village of Prattsville, in company with a man by the
+name of M. E. Kreiger, one Sunday afternoon, and when near my house we
+stopped to talk a few minutes, when, on looking up, we saw the flock of
+pigeons. They were coming from the southeast and went to the northwest.
+The flock was about one-half mile long and flew in the same manner as
+pigeons of old. There were thousands of them. Now in regard to ducks,
+teal and plover, we never see any of them here in the mountains, though
+once in a while a few ducks, but only in small flocks of seven or eight
+in a bunch; and there are no birds that gather in flocks here but crows
+in the fall, but never at any other time. Wild geese fly over here in
+the fall.
+
+The _Daily Leader_, a daily paper published in Kingston, Ulster County,
+N. Y., contained an item a few weeks since stating that a flock of wild
+pigeons passed over the city a short time ago. The flock was about one
+mile long and contained many thousands. And in the spring of 1905, the
+_Catskill Recorder_, a newspaper published in this county, reported
+seeing a flock similar to the one seen at Kingston.
+
+Wishing you success on your fishing trip, I am,
+
+                          Yours truly,
+
+                                                         C. W. Benton.
+
+
+THE SULLIVAN COUNTY PIGEONS
+
+                                          West Park, N. Y., June 30th.
+
+Editor _Forest and Stream_:
+
+Since I wrote you a few weeks ago, I have been looking up the men who
+were reported to have seen wild pigeons recently. I have seen six men
+who are positive they have seen flocks of wild pigeons--some of them
+two years ago, and some of them this past spring. As these men were all
+past middle age and had been familiar with the pigeon thirty and forty
+years ago and were, moreover, men reported truthful and sober by their
+neighbors, and who impressed me as being entirely reliable, I feel
+bound to credit their several statements. At De Bruce, Sullivan County,
+Mr. Cooper, the postmaster and village blacksmith, said he had seen a
+large flock of pigeons in the fall two years ago. They were about a
+buckwheat field. He pointed out the hill about which they were flying.
+Mr. Cooper had shot and trapped a great many pigeons years ago, and was
+sure he could not mistake any other bird for a pigeon. A farmer, whose
+name I do not now remember and who heard Mr. Cooper's statement, said
+he saw a large flock last fall about a buckwheat field, in the same
+town. This man was reported to me as perfectly reliable, and he gave me
+that impression.
+
+At Port Ewen, I met a Hudson River shad fisherman, Mr. Van Vliet, who
+said he had seen early one morning in April or May, two years ago,
+a flock of wild pigeons over the Hudson. He estimated the flock as
+containing seventy or eighty birds. Mr. Van Vliet is a man nearly
+seventy years old, and one cannot look into his face and have him speak
+and doubt for a moment the truth of what he is saying. When I asked him
+if he knew the wild pigeon, he smiled good-humoredly and said he knew
+them as well as he knew anything; he had lived in the time of pigeons,
+and had killed hundreds of them.
+
+Another man, one of the leading grocerymen of Port Ewen, said he had
+seen a very large flock of pigeons between 4 and 5 o'clock on May 15
+last, flying over as he was on his way to open his store. His hired
+man, who was with him, also saw them. Mr. Van Leuven had also seen
+pigeons in his youth and described to me accurately their manner of
+flight and the form of the flock against the sky. A neighbor of his
+told me he had seen a flock of fifteen or twenty pigeons on a foggy
+morning only a few days before. The rush of their wings overhead first
+attracted his attention to them. But he had never seen wild pigeons,
+and might have been deceived, though he was sure they were pigeons by
+their speed and general look.
+
+None of these men could have had any motive in trying to deceive me,
+and I feel bound to credit their stories. Their statements, taken in
+connection with the statement of my old schoolfellow at Prattsville, N.
+Y., of whom I wrote you, makes me believe that there is a large flock
+of wild pigeons that still at times frequents this part of the State,
+and perhaps breeds somewhere in the wilds of Sullivan or Ulster County.
+But they ought to be heard from elsewhere--from the south or southwest
+in winter.
+
+                                                       John Burroughs.
+
+P. S.--Just as I finished the above, I came upon the following in the
+Poughkeepsie _Sunday Courier_:
+
+"We noticed recently an item asking whether wild pigeons are returning.
+Sullivan County people seem to be taking the lead in answering the
+question, but a Dutchess County farmer named David Rosell, living near
+Fishkill Plains, who was familiar with the aforesaid birds in old days,
+reports having seen a flock of about thirty feeding on his buckwheat
+patch one morning last week, which gives evidence that the birds are
+not extinct as supposed, but a flock may merely be taking a tour around
+the world like Magellan of old. Mr. Rosell stated that he had not
+seen any before in about forty years. At first sight, he could hardly
+believe his eyes, but he was not long in becoming convinced of their
+identity."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+The Pigeon in Manitoba[G]
+
+By George E. Atkinson
+
+[Footnote G: This paper was read at a meeting of the Manitoba
+Historical and Scientific Society at Winnepeg in 1905, by the author, a
+naturalist, residing at Portage la Prairie.]
+
+
+While the biological history of any country records the decrease
+and disappearance of many forms of life due to just or unjust
+circumstances, it remains for the historical records of North America
+to reveal a career of human selfishness which may be considered the
+paragon. Within four centuries of North American civilization (or
+modified barbarism) we can be credited with the wiping into the past
+of at least three species of animal life originally so phenomenally
+abundant and so strikingly characteristic in themselves as to evoke
+the wonder and amazement of the entire world. And, sad to relate,
+so effectual has been the extermination, that it is doubtful if our
+descendants a few generations hence will be able to learn anything
+whatever about them save through the medium of books. While herein
+again we shall be just subjects of their censure for having manifestly
+failed to preserve in history's archives any material amount of
+specific information.
+
+The early settlers landing upon the Atlantic coast between Newfoundland
+and the Carolinas found them in possession of armies of great auks, and
+the few scraps of authenticated history which we now possess disclose a
+most iniquitous course of wanton slaughter and destruction which ended
+in the complete extinction of the bird over sixty years ago. Yet in the
+face of this destruction there remain but four mounted specimens and
+two eggs in the collections of North America to-day, while but seventy
+skins remain in the collections of the entire world.
+
+If possible, more ruthless and inhuman was the carnage waged against
+the noble buffalo, the countless thousands of which roaming over virgin
+prairies excited the wonder and amazement of the entire sporting and
+scientific world, and which, to-day, are represented only in the
+zoological parks, where all individuality will eventually be lost in
+domestication.
+
+Coincident almost with the passing of the buffalo we have to record
+the decline and fall of the Passenger Pigeon, a bird which aroused
+the excitement and wonder of the entire world during the first half
+of the last century because of its phenomenal numbers; a bird also
+which stood out unique in character and individuality among the 300
+described pigeons of the world and which won the admiration of every
+ornithologist who was fortunate enough to have experience with it
+living or dead. Yet it was not exempt from the oppression of its human
+foe, who has been instrumental, through interference with the breeding
+and feeding grounds and through a continued persecution and ruthless
+slaughter for the market, in reducing the species almost beyond the
+hope of salvation.
+
+The Passenger Pigeon, the species under observation, was first
+described under the genus _Columba_, or type pigeons, but subsequently
+Swainson separated it from these and placed it under the genus
+_Ectopistes_ because of the greater length of wing and tail.
+
+Generically named _Ectopistes_, meaning moving about or wandering, and
+specifically named _Migratoria_, meaning migratory, we have a technical
+name implying not only a species of migrating annually to and from
+their breeding ground, but one given to moving about from season to
+season, selecting the most congenial environment for both breeding and
+feeding.
+
+... With all the knowledge we have possessed of the inestimable
+multitudes which existed during the early part of the last century,
+and with their decline, begun and noted generally in the later sixties
+and early seventies, we still find that no steps whatever were taken
+to prevent their possible depletion, and few records of any value are
+made of the continuance or speed of this decrease; and not until the
+last decade of the century do we awake to the fact that the pigeons
+are gone beyond the possibility of a return in any numbers. When a
+few years later reports are made that pigeons still exist and are
+again increasing, scientific investigation shows that the mourning
+dove has been mistaken for the pigeon or that the band-tailed pigeon
+of California is taken for the old Passenger Pigeon, and so we have
+continued since the early nineties investigating rumors of their
+appearance from all over America, north and south, and the West India
+Islands, but all reports point us to the past for the pigeon and some
+other species under suspicion.... I doubt very much if the historian
+desirous of compiling any historical work would find himself confronted
+with such a decided blank in historical records during an important
+period as that confronted in the compilation of a historical record of
+the Passenger Pigeon within any district which it formerly frequented
+during the period from about 1870, when the decline was first noticed,
+to 1890, when the birds had practically passed away....
+
+In this matter, Mr. J. H. Fleming of Toronto, in writing me, says:
+"The pigeons seem to have gone off like dynamite. Nobody expected it
+and nobody prepared a series of skins"; and to this I can add that no
+one seems to have made any series of records of the birds from year
+to year. Since their disappearance, however, things have changed:
+everybody is alert for pigeons, and everybody has a theory; but beyond
+offering subject of social conversation, or awakening a recital of old
+pigeon experiences from the old timers, these rumors and theories seem
+to return to the winds from whence they came.
+
+The latest theory advanced to me by a correspondent is the possibility
+of some disturbance of the elements in the shape of a cyclone, or a
+storm striking a migrating host in crossing the Gulf of Mexico and
+destroying them almost completely. This is a plausible theory, but I am
+unable to conceive how such immense hosts of pigeons as are recorded up
+to 1865 could possibly have met with sudden disaster in this manner,
+even in the center of the Gulf, without leaving some wreckage to tell
+the story, and such is not recorded. While again I do not think that
+the entire host would cross the Gulf, but that a large portion of
+the migrating birds would take an overland route through Mexico and
+Central America to the southern boundary of their flight. Personally
+I am inclined to cherish my original contentions that the continued
+disturbance of the breeding and feeding grounds, both by the slaughter
+of the birds for market and by the dissipating of the original immense
+colonies by the clearing of the hardwood and pine forests of the United
+States and eastern Canada, compelling these sections of the main column
+to travel farther in search of congenial environment, curtailing the
+breeding season, and, I have no doubt, frequently preventing many from
+breeding for several seasons.
+
+While the persistent persecution and destruction for the market was
+in no way proportionately lessened in the vicinity of these smaller
+colonies as long as a sufficient number of the birds remained to make
+the traffic profitable, it can at once be seen that this continued
+drain upon these smaller colonies, when other conditions were becoming
+more difficult for the birds to contend with, would be instrumental in
+depleting the entire former main column to a point when netting and
+shooting were no longer profitable; and, the remnant of these colonies
+having to run a gantlet of persecution over their entire course of
+migration to and from winter quarters, there could be but one result to
+such proceeding, and that one we now face; extermination.
+
+Of these records made during the pigeons' day, as we might call it,
+the earliest we have are those made by a Mr. T. Hutchins, who was a
+Hudson's Bay Company trader, operating for some twenty-five years
+in the district adjacent to Hudson's Bay, during which time he made
+copious notes of the birds frequenting that district, which were
+afterwards published by Pennant in his "Arctic Zoology" in 1875. He
+says in part:
+
+"The first pigeon I shall take note of is one I received at Severn in
+1771; and, having sent it home to Mr. Pennant, he informed me that it
+was the _migratoria_ species. They are very numerous inland and visit
+our settlement in the summer. They are plentiful about Moose Factory
+and inland, where they breed, choosing an arboreous situation. The
+gentlemen number them among the many delicacies the Hudson's Bay
+affords our tables. It is a hardy bird, continuing with us until
+December. In summer their food is berries, but after these are covered
+with snow, they feed upon the juniper buds. They lay two eggs and
+are gregarious. About 1756 these birds migrated as far north as York
+Factory, but remained only two days."
+
+In a report issued in 1795, Samuel Hearne also reports the birds being
+abundant inland from the southern portion of Hudson's Bay, but states
+that, though good eating, they were seldom fat.
+
+The first provincial record is that made by Sir John Richardson in
+1827, in which he says: "A few hordes of Indians who frequent the low
+floods districts at the south end of Lake Winnipeg subsist principally
+on the pigeons during the period when the sturgeon fishing is
+unproductive and the wild rice is still unripened, but farther north
+the birds are too few in numbers to furnish material diet."
+
+I presume that he means farther up the Lake Winnipeg shores, since
+Hutchins and Hearne both reported them common nearer Hudson's Bay.
+
+The early records of the birds in eastern Canada in later years
+corroborate the earlier statements of Wilson and Audubon in almost
+every particular; and one acquainted with the timbered conditions of
+the country to the immediate west of the Red River Valley and north of
+the American boundary line can readily appreciate the utter inadequacy
+of an acceptable food supply for these countless millions of pigeons;
+and we can also readily understand how very soon the breaking up of
+the original hardwood forests of eastern Canada would tend to decrease
+the visible food supply and cause these hungry millions to seek new
+pastures.
+
+The breaking of these feeding grounds would first be instrumental in
+scattering or breaking up the largest flocks, and even the very long
+distances the bird was able to fly from breeding to feeding ground
+would be exceeded, necessitating next the nesting in smaller colonies,
+where careless nesting habits with continued changing conditions
+would tend to continue to decline their numbers, while the tenacity
+with which even the smaller roosts were clung to by man, like leeches
+to a frog, and the hapless victim shot, netted and stolen from the
+nest before maturity, was but another effectual and not the least
+responsible agent in the relegation of the pigeon to that past from
+which none return.
+
+When I decided to attempt the preparation of a review history of the
+pigeon in Manitoba, I felt that, having had practically no experience
+with the bird myself, I should have to depend upon the reports of
+representative pioneers of the country for my facts as to the numbers
+of the birds formerly found here, and the period of their decline
+and disappearance. I accordingly drafted a series of questions which
+I submitted to these gentlemen, and I have to tender them all my
+sincere thanks, as well as that of the scientific world, for the ready
+responses and the conciseness of the information received.
+
+One of the earliest residents of Portage la Prairie, Mr. George A.
+Garrioch, informs me:
+
+"I was born in Manitoba and came to Portage la Prairie about 1853. I
+was then only about six years old, and as far back as I can remember
+pigeons were very numerous.
+
+"They passed over every spring, usually during the mornings, in very
+large flocks, following each other in rapid succession.
+
+"I do not think they bred in any numbers in the province, as I only
+remember seeing one nest; this contained two eggs.
+
+"The birds, to my recollection, were most numerous in the fifties, and
+the decline was noticed in the later sixties and continued until the
+early eighties, when they disappeared. I have observed none since until
+last year, when I am positive I saw a single male bird south of the
+town of Portage la Prairie."
+
+Mr. Angus Sutherland of Winnipeg, in reply to my interrogation, states:
+
+"I was born in the present city of Winnipeg and have lived here over
+fifty years. The wild pigeons were very numerous in my boyhood. They
+frequented the mixed woods about the city, and while undoubtedly
+many birds bred here, I remember no extensive breeding colonies in
+the province, and believe the great majority passed farther north to
+breed. About 1870 the decrease in their numbers was most pronouncedly
+manifest, this decline continuing until the early eighties, when they
+had apparently all disappeared, and I have seen only occasional birds
+since, and none of late years."
+
+Mr. W. J. McLean, formerly of the Hudson's Bay Company and at present
+a resident of Winnipeg, sends me some valuable information, which
+supports my contention regarding the influence of food supply. He
+writes:
+
+"I came to the Red River Settlement in 1860 and found the pigeons
+very plentiful on my arrival. The birds came in many thousands, and
+great numbers of them bred in the northeastern portion of the province
+through the district north of the Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake,
+where the cranberry and blueberry are abundant. These fruits constitute
+their chief food supply, as they remain on the bushes and retain much
+of their food properties until well on into the summer following their
+growth. They also feed largely on acorns wherever they abound. The
+decline began about the early seventies, and 1877 was the first year
+in which I encountered large flocks of them passing northwesterly from
+White Sand River near Fort Pelly. This was on a dull, drizzling day
+about the middle of May, and I presume they were then heading towards
+the Barren Grounds district, where the blueberry and the cranberry are
+very abundant."
+
+Mr. E. H. G. G. Hay, formerly police magistrate of Portage la Prairie,
+now of St. Andrews, reports:
+
+"I came to the country in June, 1861, and found that the pigeons were
+abundant previous to my arrival. To give you an idea of their numbers,
+a Mr. Thompson of St. Andrews some mornings caught with a net about ten
+feet square as many as eighty dozen, and in the spring of 1864 I fired
+into a flock as they rose from the ground and picked up seventeen birds.
+
+"The birds were mostly migratory in what is now known as Manitoba,
+and most of them went farther north after the seeding season. I never
+heard of any extensive rookeries such as those observed in the east
+and south. The few that bred here frequented mixed poplar and spruce.
+They seemed most numerous in the sixties and began to show signs of
+decreasing about 1869 or 1870, and by 1875 they had all disappeared and
+I have only seen an occasional bird since."
+
+Mr. William Clark of the Hudson's Bay Company, Winnipeg, informs me:
+
+"The first place I remember having seen pigeons in Manitoba was at
+White Horse Plains (St. Francois Xavier) in 1865, where they were very
+numerous, breeding in the oak trees in that district. Two years after
+this I went to Oak Point on Lake Manitoba, but do not remember the
+birds there then nor since."
+
+Mr. Charles A. Boultbee of Macgregor, Man., replies as follows:
+
+"I have resided in Manitoba since 1872, and have taken pigeons as far
+north as Fort Pelly in the fall of 1874, but know nothing of them
+previously. In our district they usually made their appearance in the
+fall and fed upon the grain. They continued fairly numerous until about
+1882, at which time we had to drive them from the grain stocks, but
+they then disappeared and only stragglers have been noted since."
+
+There is no doubt that many other reports could have been secured, but,
+as all seem to tend toward the one conclusion, I shall save time and
+space by summarizing the information at hand.
+
+Some months ago I made a statement in an article, written for local
+interest, to the effect that Manitoba had never been the home of the
+wild pigeon. By this I meant that, because of unfavorable breeding and
+feeding conditions within the province, only the smallest percentage
+of the enormous flocks recorded for the south and east could possibly
+exist here. The records here collected support me in this contention
+so far as that portion of the province west of the Red River is
+concerned, but the record of Sir John Richardson tends to show that
+favorable conditions must have existed immediately south of Lake
+Winnipeg, through what he calls a low-lying district, and where we can
+assume that the cranberry and blueberry were abundant, as they were
+through the district subsequently reported by Mr. McLean to the east
+and northeast of this district. There is no doubt that the difference
+in the character of the country east of the Red River from that of
+the west would present more favorable conditions for the birds, but
+not in one case has it been shown that the birds nested in colonies
+approaching the size of the famous eastern and southern roosts. Reports
+seem rather to show that those which bred within the province were more
+generally scattered over the country, at the same time being numerous
+enough to permit the shooter and the netter to make a profitable
+business of killing the birds.
+
+All evidence seems to show that large numbers passed through the
+province to and from a northern breeding ground, possibly that recorded
+by Hutchins near Hudson's Bay and to the westward, and that they were
+excessively numerous up to about 1870, when they began to decrease. As
+to the latest authenticated records, I quote from notes in my pamphlet
+on "Rare Bird Records:"
+
+"The beautiful specimen of the Passenger Pigeon that I have been able
+to secure for illustration is loaned me by Mr. Dan Smith of Winnipeg,
+who shot it in St. Boniface, southeast of the cathedral, in the fall
+of 1893; and, so far as I have been able to discover, it was the last
+bird found in the vicinity of Winnipeg, while the only specimen in the
+flesh which I was ever privileged to handle in Manitoba was killed at
+Winnipegosis on April 10, 1896, and sent me to be mounted."
+
+[Illustration: Photo by C. O. Whitman (University of Chicago)
+
+                                                  October 16, 1906.
+
+Mr. W. B. Mershon,
+
+Dear Sir:--I am much chagrined over my carelessness in overlooking
+your request for a photo of a young Passenger Pigeon. I had best of
+intentions, but crowded work threw this out of mind. I should have
+attended to it at first, had it been easy to get at the picture. I have
+been away all summer and found things misplaced on my return. I fear it
+is now too late, but send the picture to be used if you are still able
+to do so. I shall be very much interested to see your book. I still
+have two female pigeons and two hybrids between a former male pigeon
+and the common Ring-dove. The hybrids are unfortunately infertile males.
+
+                          Very truly,
+
+                                                      C. O. Whitman.]
+
+Since that time I have expended much effort in following up rumors of
+the bird's presence in various districts with a view of locating a
+breeding pair. Not only have I sought to secure a bird to mount, but
+also to get a live pair, or the eggs while fresh, to assist in the
+preservation of the pigeon in a partially domesticated state, since
+the only specimens now living in captivity are those owned by Prof.
+Whitman of the University of Chicago, who, in writing me, says: "My
+stock seems to have come to a complete standstill, having raised no
+young for the last four years. The weakness is due to long inbreeding,
+as my birds are from a single pair captured about twenty-five years
+ago in Wisconsin. I have long tried to secure new stock, but have been
+unsuccessful. A single pair would enable me to save them, for they
+breed well in confinement.
+
+"I have crossed them with ring doves, and still have three hybrids,
+but as these are infertile there is no hope of even preserving these
+half-breeds alive. Of all the wild pigeons in the world the Passenger
+Pigeon is my favorite. No other pigeon combines so many fine qualities
+in form, color, strength and perfection of wing power."
+
+I am enabled through the kindness of Prof. Whitman to exhibit a
+photograph of one of his younger birds taken in his aviary at Chicago.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+The Passenger Pigeon in Confinement
+
+(_Ectopistes migratorius_)
+
+From "The Auk," July, 1896.
+
+
+In the _American Field_ of December 5, 1895, I noticed a short
+note, stating that Mr. David Whittaker of Milwaukee, Wis., had in a
+spacious inclosure a flock of fifty genuine wild pigeons. Being much
+interested of late in this bird, I at once wrote to Mr. Whittaker,
+asking for such information in detail regarding his birds as he could
+give me, but, owing to absence from the city, he did not reply. Still
+being anxious to learn something further regarding this interesting
+subject, I recently wrote to a correspondent in Milwaukee, asking him
+to investigate the matter. In due time I received his reply, stating
+that he had seen the pigeons, but that the flock consisted of fifteen
+instead of fifty birds, and inviting me to join him and spend a few
+hours of rare pleasure.
+
+On March 1, 1896, I visited Milwaukee, and made a careful inspection of
+this beautiful flock. I am greatly indebted to Mr. Whittaker, through
+whose courtesy we saw and heard so much of value and interest, not only
+in regard to his pet birds, but also about his large experience with
+the wild pigeon in its native haunts; for, being a keen observer of
+nature, and having been a prospector for many years among the timber
+and mining regions of Wisconsin, Michigan and Canada, his opportunities
+for observation have been extensive. In the fall of 1888 Mr. Whittaker
+received from a young Indian two pairs of pigeons, one of adults and
+the other quite young. They were trapped near Lake Shawano, in Shawano
+County in northeastern Wisconsin.
+
+Shortly after being confined, one of the old birds scalped itself by
+flying against the wire netting, and died; the other one escaped. The
+young pair were, with much care and watching, successfully raised,
+and from these the flock has increased to its present number, six
+males and nine females. The inclosure, which is not large, is built
+behind and adjoining the house, situated on a high bluff overlooking
+Milwaukee River. It is built of wire netting and inclosed on the top
+and two sides with glass. There is but slight protection from the cold,
+and the pigeons thrive in zero weather as well as in summer. A few
+branches and poles are used for roosting, and two shelves, about one
+foot wide and partitioned off, though not inclosed, are where the nests
+are built and the young are raised. It was several years before Mr.
+Whittaker successfully raised the young, but, by patient experimenting
+with various kinds of food, he has been rewarded. The destruction of
+the nests and egg, at times by the female, more often by others of the
+flock, and the killing of the young birds, after they leave the nest,
+by the old males, explains in part the slow increase in the flock.
+
+When the pigeons show signs of nesting, small twigs are thrown onto
+the bottom of the inclosure; and, on the day of our visit, I was so
+fortunate as to watch the operations of nest building. There were three
+pairs actively engaged. The females remained on the shelf, and, at a
+given signal which they only uttered for this purpose, the males would
+select a twig or straw, and in one instance a feather, and fly up to
+the nest, drop it and return to the ground while the females placed the
+building material in position and then called for more.
+
+In all of Mr. Whittaker's experience with this flock he has never known
+of more than one egg being deposited. Audubon, in his article on the
+Passenger Pigeon, says: "A curious change of habits has taken place
+in England in those pigeons which I presented to the Earl of Kirby
+in 1830, that nobleman having assured me that, ever since they began
+breeding in his aviaries, they have laid only one egg." The eggs are
+usually laid from the middle of February to the middle of September,
+some females laying as many as seven or eight during the season, though
+three or four is the average.
+
+The period of incubation is fourteen days, almost to a day, and, if
+the egg is not hatched in that time, the birds desert it. As in the
+wild state, both parents assist in incubation, the females sitting
+all night, and the males by day. As soon as the young are hatched
+the parents are fed on earth worms, beetles, grubs, etc., which are
+placed in a box of earth, from which they greedily feed, afterwards
+nourishing the young, in the usual way, by disgorging the contents from
+the crop. At times the earth in the inclosure is moistened with water
+and a handful of worms thrown in, which soon find their way under the
+surface. The pigeons are so fond of these tid-bits they will often
+pick and scratch holes in their search, large enough to almost hide
+themselves.
+
+When the birds are sitting during cold weather, the egg is tucked up
+under the feathers, as though to support the egg in its position. At
+such times the pigeon rests on the side of the folded wing, instead
+of squatting on the nest. During the first few days, after the young
+is hatched, to guard against the cold, it is, like the egg, concealed
+under the feathers of the abdomen, the head always pointing forward.
+In this attitude, the parents, without changing the sitting position
+or reclining on the side, feed the squab by arching the head and neck
+down, and administering the food. The young leave the nest in about
+fourteen days, and then feed on small seeds, and later, with the old
+birds, subsist on grains, beech nuts, acorns, etc.
+
+The adults usually commence to molt in September and are but a few
+weeks in assuming their new dress, but the young in the first molt are
+much longer. At the time of my visit the birds were all in perfect
+plumage. The young in the downy state are a dark slate-color.
+
+The pigeons are always timid, and ever on the alert when being watched,
+and the observer must approach them cautiously to prevent a commotion.
+They inherit the instincts of their race in a number of ways. On the
+approach of a storm the old birds will arrange themselves side by
+side on the perch, draw the head and neck down into the feathers, and
+sit motionless for a time, then gradually resume an upright position,
+spread the tail, stretch each wing in turn, and then, as at a given
+signal, they spring from the perch and bring up against the wire
+netting with their feet as though anxious to fly before the disturbing
+elements. Mr. Whittaker has noticed this same trait while observing
+pigeons in the woods.
+
+It was with a peculiar sense of pleasure and satisfaction that I
+witnessed and heard all the facts about this flock, inasmuch as but
+few of us expect to again have such opportunities with this pigeon in
+the wild state. It is to be hoped that, if Mr. Whittaker continues to
+successfully increase these birds, he will dispose of a pair to some
+zoological gardens; for what would be a more valuable and interesting
+addition than an aviary of this rapidly diminishing species?
+
+
+LETTERS OF COMMENT FROM CHIEF POKAGON.
+
+                                    Hartford, Mich., Dec. 17, 1896.
+
+Ruthven Deane, Chicago, Ill.
+
+Dear Sir:--Your article on wild pigeons (_O-me-me-oo_) received and
+just read with much interest. I am now satisfied you are deeply
+interested in those strange birds, or you would not have gone to
+Milwaukee to see them. I would like to have Whittaker's full name and
+address so I can learn the come-out of that little flock. You note
+his flock stands zero weather. Many times in my life I have known
+O-me-me-oo, while nesting, to be obliged to search for food in from
+four to six inches of snow, and have seen the snow at such times
+upturned and intermixed with forest leaves for miles and miles. They
+would move out of the nesting grounds in vast columns, flying one over
+the other. I have seen them at such times reminding me of a vast flood
+of water rolling over a rocky bottom, sending the water in curved lines
+upwards and falling farther down the stream.
+
+I have seen them many times building nests by the thousand within
+sight, both male and female assisting in building the nest. I have
+counted the number of sticks used many times; they number from seventy
+to one hundred and ten, sometimes so frail I have plainly seen the eggs
+from the ground.
+
+I visited a nesting north of Kilburn City, Wis., about twenty-five
+years ago, and I there counted as high as forty nests in scrub oaks not
+over twenty-five feet high; in many places I could pick the eggs out of
+the nests, being not over five or six feet from the ground.
+
+I stopped then with the Win-a-ba-go Indians, and was much interested in
+seeing them play mog-i-cin. I had heard the fathers explain the game
+when a boy, but never saw it before. I call it a gambling game. Certain
+it is, when nesting in a wild state, the male goes out at break of day;
+returning from eight to eleven he takes the nest; the hen then goes
+out, returning from one to four, and takes the nest; then the male goes
+out, returning, according to feed, between that time and night.
+
+After the young leave their nests, I have always noticed that a few,
+both males and females, stay with them. I have seen as many as a dozen
+young ones assemble about a male, and, with drooping wings, utter the
+plaintive begging notes to be fed, and never saw them misused at such
+times by either gender. Certain it is, while feeding their young they
+are frantic for salt. I have seen them pile on top of each other, about
+salt springs, two or more deep. I wonder if your friend gives his
+birds, while brooding, salt.
+
+
+                                     Hartford, Mich., Dec. 18, 1896.
+
+Dear Sir:--Yours of December 17th at hand. It is indeed surprising to
+me that your place of business is so close to old Fort Dearborn. In
+writing you yesterday, I overlooked what you said about the Milwaukee
+man's experience with his birds just hatching. I understand they were
+young birds. Thirty-two years ago there was a big nesting between South
+Haven and St. Joseph on Lake Michigan. About one week after the main
+body commenced nesting, a new body of great size, covering hundreds of
+acres, came and joined them. I never saw nests built so thick, high
+and low. I found they were all young birds less than a year old, which
+could be easily explained from their mottled coloring. To my surprise,
+soon as nests were built, they commenced tearing them down--a few eggs
+scattered about told some had laid; within three days they all left,
+moving in a body up the lake shore north. I have had like facts told
+me by others who have witnessed the same thing; and therefore conclude
+that your friend's experience accurately portrays the habits of these
+birds in their wild state.
+
+
+                                             University of Chicago,
+
+                                                      May 30, 1904.
+
+Dear Sir:--I have ten of the wild pigeons; they are from a single pair
+obtained by Mr. Whittaker of Milwaukee about twenty years ago. Mr. W.
+bred from this pair until he had a dozen or more. I obtained a few
+pairs from him, and they bred fairly well for a few years, but lately
+have failed to accomplish anything. This season a single egg was
+obtained. It developed for about a week and then halted. The stock is
+evidently weakened by inbreeding so long. I can give no information as
+to time of disappearance. I have sought information far and near. Only
+a few birds have been reported the last three years. One was reported
+on pretty reliable grounds from Toronto last summer.
+
+Sorry I can give you no satisfactory details.
+
+                          Yours truly,
+
+                                                      C. O. Whitman.
+
+[Under date of June 6, 1905, Prof. Whitman of the University of Chicago
+wrote to me that his flock had been reduced from ten to four since he
+last wrote. He says that one pair were then beginning the maneuvers
+preceding nesting, but he doubted very much if they would accomplish
+anything.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+Nesting Habits of the Passenger Pigeon
+
+By Eugene Pericles (Dr. Morris Gibbs), from "The Oologist, 1894."
+
+
+There are hundreds and perhaps thousands of the younger readers of
+_The Oologist_ who have never seen a Passenger Pigeon alive. In fact,
+there are many who have never seen a skin or stuffed specimen, for the
+species is so rare now that very few of the younger collectors have had
+an opportunity of shooting a bird. And of the present generation of
+oologists, the ones who have secured a set (one egg) are indeed very
+few.
+
+Many of the older ornithologists can remember when the birds
+appeared among us in myriads each season, and were mercilessly and
+inconsiderately trapped and shot whenever and wherever they appeared.
+I could fill a book with the accounts of their butcheries, and could
+easily cause astonishment in my readers by telling of the immense
+flocks which were seen a quarter of a century ago. But wonderful as
+these tales would appear, they would be as nothing compared to the
+stories of the earlier writers on birds in America.
+
+... Of course we know that the net and gun have been the principal
+means of destruction, but it is almost fair to assert that even with
+the net and gun under proper restrictions, the pigeon would still be
+with us in hordes, both spring and autumn. For many years hunters
+(butchers) used to shoot the birds regularly at their nesting places,
+while the netters were also found near at hand.
+
+I have seen many birds taken, by unsportsmanlike netters, for the
+market during spring migrations, and the published accounts of the
+destruction by netters is almost beyond belief. Doctor Kirtland states
+that near Circleville, Ohio, in 1850, there were taken in a single net
+in one day 1,285 live pigeons.
+
+The Passenger Pigeon was in the habit of crossing the Ohio River by
+March 1 in the spring migrations, and I have noted the birds several
+times in Michigan in February. But this was not usually the case, for
+the birds were not abundant generally before April 1, although no set
+rule could be laid down regarding their appearance or departure either
+in spring or fall. They usually came with a mighty rush. Sometimes they
+did not appear, or, at least, only very sparingly. Their nesting sites
+would remain the same for years if the birds were unmolested, but they
+generally had to change every year or two, or as soon as the roost was
+discovered by the despicable market netter.
+
+Where the mighty numbers went to when they left for the south is not
+accurately stated, and, of course, this will now never be known, but
+they were found to continue in flocks in Virginia, Kentucky and even
+Tennessee.
+
+... In the latter part of April or early May the birds began nesting.
+The nest building beginning as soon as the birds had selected a woods
+for a rookery, the scene was one of great activity. Birds were flying
+in every direction in search of twigs for their platform nests, and it
+did seem that each pair was intent on securing materials at a distance
+from the structure. Many twigs were dropped in flying, or at the nest,
+and these were never reclaimed by their bearers, but were often picked
+up by other birds from another part of the rookery. This peculiarity in
+so many species of birds in nest building I could never understand.
+
+It takes a pair of pigeons from four to six days to complete a nest,
+and any basketmaker could do a hundred per cent. better job with the
+same materials in a couple of hours. In the nest of the pigeon, man
+could certainly give the birds points for their benefit, for it is one
+of the most shiftless structures placed in trees that I have met with.
+
+The nest is always composed of slender dead twigs, so far as I have
+observed, or ever learned from others, and in comparison, though
+smaller, much resembles some of the heron's structures. In some nests
+I have observed the materials are so loosely put together that the egg
+or young bird can be seen through the latticed bottom. In fact, it has
+been my custom to always thus examine the nests before climbing the
+tree.
+
+The platform structures vary in diameter from six to twelve inches or
+more, differing in size according to the length of the sticks, but
+generally are about nine or ten inches across. An acquaintance of mine
+had tamed some wild birds, which at last bred regularly in captivity.
+These birds were well supplied with an abundance of material for their
+nests and always selected in confinement such as described above, and
+making a nest about nine inches in diameter.
+
+The breeding places are generally found in oak woods, but the great
+nesting sites in Michigan were often in timbered lands, I am informed.
+
+The height of the nest varies. It may be as low as six feet or all of
+sixty-five feet from the ground.
+
+Passenger Pigeons are always gregarious when unmolested, and hundreds
+of thousands sometimes breed in a neighborhood at one time. It is
+impossible to say how many nests were the most found in one tree, but
+there are authenticated instances of a hundred. One man, on whose
+veracity I rely, informs me that he counted 110 nests in one tree in
+Emmett County, the lower peninsula. Still this may not be correct, for
+we all know how easy it is to be deceived in correctly counting and
+keeping record of even the branches of a tree, and when these limbs are
+occupied by nests it is certainly doubly difficult, and the tendency
+to count the same nests twice is increased.
+
+The first nests that I found were in large white oak trees at the edge
+of a pond. The date was May 17, 1873. The nests were few in number and
+only one nest in a tree. There was but a single egg in a nest; in fact
+this is all I have found at any time. The last nest that I have met
+with south of the forty-third parallel was forty feet up in a tamarack
+tree in a swamp near the river, June 1, 1884. This nest was alone and
+would not have been discovered had not the birds flown to it. I have
+found several instances of pairs of pigeons building isolated nests,
+and cannot help but think that if all birds had followed this custom
+that the pigeons would still be with us in vast numbers.
+
+As late as May 9, 1880, my lamented friend, the late C. W. Gunn, found
+a rookery in a cedar woods in Cheboygan County. These nests contained
+a single egg each, and he secured about fifty fresh eggs. He did not
+think their number excessive, as the netters were killing the birds
+in every direction. But now we can look upon such a trip almost as
+devastation because the birds are so scarce.
+
+In 1885 I met with the pigeon on Mackinac Island, and have found a few
+isolated flocks in the Lower Peninsula since then, generally in the
+fall, but it is safe to say that the birds will never again appear in
+one-thousandth part of the number of former years.
+
+The places where the birds are nesting are interesting spots to visit.
+Both parents incubate and the scene is animated as the birds fly about
+in all directions. However, as the bulk of the birds must fly to quite
+a distance from an immense rookery to find food, it necessarily follows
+that the main flocks arrive and depart evening and morning. Then the
+crush is often terrific and the air is fairly alive with birds. The
+rush of their thousands of wings makes a mighty noise like the sound of
+a stiff breeze through the trees.
+
+Often when the large flocks settle at the roost the birds crowd so
+closely on the slender limbs that they bend down and sometimes crack,
+and the sound of the dead branches falling from their weight adds an
+additional likeness to a storm. Sometimes the returning birds will
+settle on a limb which holds nests and then many eggs are dashed to the
+ground, and beneath the trees of a rookery one may always find a lot of
+smashed eggs.
+
+Later in the season young birds may be seen perched all over the trees
+or on the ground, while big squabs with pin-feathers on are seen in,
+or rather on, the frail nests, or lying dead or injured on the ground.
+The frightful destruction that is sure to accompany the nesting of a
+rookery of Passenger Pigeons is bound to attract the observer's eye.
+And we cannot but understand how it is that these unprolific birds with
+many natural enemies, in addition to that unnatural enemy, man, fail
+to increase. If the pigeon deposited ten to twenty eggs like the quail
+the unequal battle of equal survival might be kept up. But even this is
+to be doubted if the bird continues to nest in colonies.
+
+Many ornithological writers have written that the wild pigeon lays two
+eggs as a rule, but these men were evidently not accurate observers,
+and probably took their records at second-hand. There is no doubt that
+two eggs are quite often found in a nest, and sometimes these eggs
+are both fresh, or else equally advanced in incubation. But these
+instances, I think, are evidences alone that two females have deposited
+in the same nest, a supposition which is not improbable with the
+gregarious species.
+
+That the wild pigeon may rear two or three young in a season, I do
+not doubt, and an old trapper and observer has offered this theory to
+explain the condition where there are found both egg and young in the
+same nest, or squabs of widely varied ages. He asserts that when an egg
+is about ready to hatch, a second egg was deposited in the nest, and
+that the squab assisted in incubating the egg when the old birds were
+both away for food, and that in time a third and last egg was laid, so
+that three young were hatched each season, if the birds are unmolested.
+
+This peculiarity may exist with the pigeon, but I can add nothing to
+further it from my own observations, except to record the finding
+of an egg in the nest with a half-grown bird--the only instance in
+my experience. From watching the ways of some captive birds kept as
+stool-pigeons, I am well satisfied that two young are not rarely
+hatched at some weeks apart, and they do fairly well in confinement.
+
+The young are fed by a process known as regurgitation, the partially
+digested contents of the birds' crops being ejected into the mouths of
+the squabs.
+
+The position of the nest varies greatly. Often the nests are well
+out on slender branches and in dangerous positions, considering the
+shiftlessness of the structure. When a rookery is visited, nests may be
+found in all manner of situation. I have found single nests built on
+small twigs next the body of an oak tree, and at a height of only ten
+feet, and again have seen nests forty feet up in thick tamaracks.
+
+The eggs do not vary much in size or color. They are white, but without
+the polish seen on the egg of the domestic pigeon. About one and
+one-half by one inch is the regulation size.
+
+By reference to old price lists of nearly a quarter of a century ago
+I find that the eggs were then listed at twenty-five cents, while it
+would be difficult to secure good specimens at present at six times the
+figure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+Miscellaneous Notes
+
+
+The earliest mention of the wild pigeon I have been able to find is the
+following, taken from _Forest and Stream_, to which it was contributed
+by F. C. Browne, Framingham, Mass. It is from an old print entitled,
+"Two Voyages to New England, Made During the Years 1638-63," by John
+Josselyn, Gent. Published in 1674. I am not so fortunate as to possess
+an original copy. This extract is from the Boston reprint of 1865, and
+is from the "Second Voyage" (1663), which has a full account of the
+wild beasts, birds and fishes of the new settlement:
+
+"The Pidgeons, of which there are millions of millions. I have seen a
+flight of Pidgeons in the Spring, and at Michaelmas when they return
+back to the South-ward, for four or five miles, that to my thinking had
+neither beginning nor ending, length nor breadth, and so thick that
+I could see no Sun. They join Nest to Nest and Tree to Tree by their
+Nests many miles together in Pine-Trees. I have bought at Boston a
+dozen Pidgeons ready pulled and garbidged for three pence. But of late
+they are much diminished, the English taking them with Nets."
+
+It will be noted that the wild pigeons began to be "much diminished"
+even at that early date.
+
+The following extract is from the journal of the voyage of Father
+Gravier in the year 1700:
+
+"Through the Country of the Illinois to the Mouth of the Mississippi."
+
+Under date of October 7th he says:
+
+"Below the mouth of the Ouabache (meaning the Wabash River), we saw
+such a great quantity of wild pigeons that the air was darkened and
+quite covered by them."
+
+The journal of Alexander Henry, the younger, written in August, 1800,
+states that large numbers of wild pigeons were seen and used for food
+by his party. This was at a point on the Red River not far north of
+what is now Grand Forks, N. D.
+
+The Passenger Pigeon found a place in a book called "Quebec and Its
+Environments; Being a Picturesque Guide to the Stranger." Printed
+by Thomas Cary & Co., Freemasons' Hall, Buade Street, 1831. A rare
+copy was found in the library of the late Charles Dean, having
+been purchased by him while visiting Quebec in 1841. It is now in
+the possession of Ruthven Deane of Chicago. I quote from this old
+guide-book as follows:
+
+[Illustration: PIGEON NET
+
+Taken from an old etching]
+
+"At one period of the year numerous and immense flights of pigeons
+visit Canada, when the population make a furious war against them both
+by guns and nets; they supply the inhabitants with a material part of
+their subsistence, and are sold in the market at Quebec remarkably
+cheap, often as low as a shilling per dozen, and sometimes even at a
+less rate. It appears that the pigeon prefers the loftiest and most
+leafless tree to settle on. In addition to the natural beauty of St.
+Ann and its environs, the process by which the inhabitants take the
+pigeons is worth remarking. Upon the loftiest tree, long bare poles are
+slantingly fixed; small pieces of wood are placed transversely across
+this pole, upon which the birds crowd; below, in ambush, the sportsman
+with a long gun enfilades the whole length of the pole, and, when he
+fires, few if any escape. Innumerable poles are prepared at St. Ann for
+this purpose. The other method they have of taking them is by nets,
+by which means they are enabled to preserve them alive, and kill them
+occasionally for their own use or for the market, when it has ceased
+to be glutted with them. Behind Madam Fontane's this sport may be seen
+in perfection. The nets, which are very large, are placed at the end
+of an avenue of trees (for it appears the pigeons choose an avenue
+to fly down); opposite a large tree, upon erect poles two nets are
+suspended, one facing the avenue, the other the tree; another is placed
+over them, which is fixed at one end, and supported by pulleys and two
+perpendicular poles at the opposite; a man is hid in a small covered
+house under the tree, with a rope leading from the pulleys in his hand.
+Directly the pigeons fly against the perpendicular nets, he pulls the
+rope, when the top net immediately falls and incloses the whole flock;
+by this process vast numbers are taken."
+
+"Tanner's Narrative," a story (authentic) of thirty years among the
+Indians, published in 1830, refers frequently to great numbers of
+pigeons, and gives their range from the Kentucky, Big Miami and Ohio
+Rivers to Lake Winnipeg, or "The Lake of Dirty Waters."
+
+Mr. Osborn further adds: "Tanner was a United States Indian interpreter
+at the Soo."
+
+William Glazier made a trip to the headwaters of the Mississippi River
+in 1881 and wrote a book entitled "Down the Mississippi River." In
+three different places in this book he mentions seeing wild pigeons.
+In one place he says that a small flock of pigeons dropped down in the
+tops of some tall pines near him.
+
+In Hayden's Survey Report, Interior Department, as given in Coues'
+"Birds of the Northwest," 1874, it is mentioned that wild pigeons
+were found on the Pacific coast, and Cooper reports them in the
+Rocky Mountains. [High authority, but it must have referred to the
+band-tailed pigeon.--W. B. M.]
+
+From the foregoing chapters I have summarized the latest reports of the
+presence of the wild pigeon in its former haunts. These instances have
+been reported as follows:
+
+N. W. Judy & Co., St. Louis, Mo., the largest dealers in poultry and
+game in that section, said, in 1895, they had had no wild pigeons for
+two years; the last they received were from Siloam Springs, Ark. This
+would mean that they were on the market during the season of 1893.
+Until 1890 frequent reports were recorded of pigeons seen singly, in
+pairs and in small flocks.
+
+In 1891 Mr. F. M. Woodruff, Assistant Curator of the Chicago Academy of
+Sciences, secured a pair at Lake Forest, Ill.
+
+A nest with two eggs and two birds were collected by C. B. Brown of
+Chicago in the spring of 1893 at English Lake, Ind.
+
+In September, 1893, three were reported in Lake County, Ill.
+
+In April of the same year, a male pigeon was reported as having been
+seen in Lincoln Park, Ill.
+
+Mr. R. W. Stafford of Chicago, Ill., reported seeing a flock in the
+latter part of September, 1894, at Marengo, Ill.
+
+Mr. John L. Stockton, Highland Park, Ill., reported that while trout
+fishing on the Little Oconto River, Wis., early in June, 1895, he saw a
+flock of ten pigeons for several consecutive days near his camp.
+
+A young female was killed at Lake Forest, Ill., in August, 1895.
+
+In October, 1895, Dr. Ernest Copeland of Milwaukee killed one in Delta,
+Northern Peninsula, Mich.
+
+On December 17, 1896, C. N. Holden, Jr., while hunting quail in Oregon
+County, Mo., observed a flock of about fifty birds.
+
+Chief Pokagon reports there was a small nesting of pigeons near the
+head waters of the Au Sable River in Michigan, during the spring of
+1896.
+
+A. Fugleburg of Oshkosh, Wis., reports that on the morning of August
+14, 1897, he saw a flock of pigeons flying over Lake Winnebago from
+Fisherman's Island to Stony Brook. This flock was followed by six more
+flocks containing from thirty-five to eighty pigeons each. The same
+observer reports that on September 2, 1897, a friend of his reported
+having seen a flock of about twenty-five near Lake Butte des Mortes,
+Wis.
+
+W. F. Rightmire reports that while driving along the highway north
+of Cook, Johnson County, Neb., August 18, 1897, he saw a flock of
+seventy-five to one hundred birds; some feeding on the ground, others
+perched in the trees.
+
+A. B. Covert of Ann Arbor, President at one time of the Michigan
+Ornithological Club, reports seeing stray birds during 1892 and 1894,
+and states also that on October 1, 1898, he saw a flock of 200 and
+watched them nearly all day.
+
+T. E. Douglas of Grayling reports seeing a flock of ten near West
+Branch, Mich., in 1895, and in 1900 he saw three on one of the branches
+of the Au Sable River in Michigan.
+
+In 1897 C. S. Osborn of Sault Ste Marie reported having seen a single
+wild bird flying with the tame pigeons around the town.
+
+In 1897 or 1898 C. E. Jennison of Bay City saw six or seven at Thunder
+Bay Island near Alpena, Mich.
+
+In 1900 Neal Brown of Wausau, Wis., killed one near Babcock, Wis., in
+September.
+
+George King of Otsego County, Mich., in 1900 saw a flock of one dozen
+or more birds on the Black River, and he says he heard two "holler" in
+1902, but was unable to find them. In May, 1905, he is certain he saw
+six near Vanderbilt, Mich.
+
+John Burroughs reports that a friend of his, Charles W. Benton, saw a
+large flock of wild pigeons near Prattsville, Greene County, N. Y., in
+April, 1906.
+
+
+EARLY LEGISLATION TO SAVE THE PIGEON
+
+Wild pigeons were used largely by trap-shooters for tournaments.
+In 1881, 20,000 of them were killed in one of these trap-shooting
+butcheries on Coney Island, N. Y. The following editorial protest
+against this outrage appeared in _Forest and Stream_, July 14, 1881:
+
+_Mr. Bergh's Anti-Pigeon Bill._--Just as we go to press we learn that
+the Senate has passed the bill prepared by Mr. Henry Bergh prohibiting
+the trap-shooting of pigeons. The bill awaits Governor Cornell's
+signature before becoming a law. Its provisions are:
+
+Section 1. Any person who shall keep or use any live pigeon, fowl,
+or other bird or animal for the purpose of a target or to be shot at
+either for amusement or as a test of skill in marksmanship, and any
+person who shall shoot at any pigeon, fowl, or other bird or animal,
+as aforesaid, or be a party to any such shooting of any pigeon, fowl
+or other bird or animal; and any person who shall rent any building,
+shed, room, yard, field, or other premises, or shall suffer or permit
+the use of any building, shed, room, yard, field, or other premises for
+the purpose of shooting any pigeon, fowl, or other bird or animal, as
+aforesaid, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
+
+Section 2. Nothing herein contained shall apply to the shooting of any
+wild game in its wild state.
+
+The bill is a direct and not wholly unexpected result of the Coney
+Island pigeon-killing tournament of the New York State Association for
+the Protection of Fish and Game. Had the sport of pigeon shooting been
+confined to individual clubs of gentlemen testing their skill at the
+traps, it is doubtful if the matter ever would have received, as it
+would not have merited, public attention. But when a society, which
+organized ostensibly for the protection of game, treats the public
+to such a spectacle as that at Coney Island, neglects the matter with
+which it should be concerned and devotes 20,000 pigeons brought from
+their nesting ground to its wholesale slaughter, its members can hardly
+look for any other public sentiment than exactly that feeling which has
+been aroused. An afternoon's shoot at a few pigeons, and a ten days'
+shoot at unlimited numbers of helpless birds--many of them squabs,
+unable to fly, and others too exhausted to do so--are regarded by the
+public as two very different things.
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Obvious punctuation and spelling errors were corrected.
+
+One 'signature' of Ruthven Deane was modified from the printed version
+to match the others.
+
+Where quotations began and were not closed, a closing quotation mark
+was placed at the end of that paragraph:
+
+  p. 155 "There are no wild pigeons in Iosco County...
+  p. 171 "In three years' time...
+
+
+
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