454 GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



says that it was two hundred and fifty dozen, or three thou- 

 sand birds. It was made by fastening three large nets 

 together, and springing all of them at once; sometimes one 

 hundred dozen were taken in a single net. Mr. Osborn states 

 that his firm alone shipped in 1861, from a roost in the 

 Hocking Hills, Ohio, two hundred and twenty-five barrels of 

 birds. Sullivan Cook asserts, in Forest and Stream (March 14, 

 1903), that in 1869 for about forty days there were shipped 

 from Hartford, Mich., and vicinity, three carloads a day, each 

 car containing one hundred and fifty barrels, with thirty-five 

 dozen in a barrel, making the daily shipment twenty-four 

 thousand, seven hundred and fifty dozen. Evidently there is 

 a typographical error here, as it would require fifty-five dozen 

 in a barrel to make the daily shipment twenty-four thousand, 

 seven hundred and fifty dozen, or eleven million, eight hundred 

 and eighty thousand birds for the season. Thirty-five dozen 

 domestic Pigeons would fill an ordinary sugar barrel; and 

 possibly it required fifty-five dozen Passenger Pigeons to fill a 

 sugar barrel, as they were not as large as the domestic 

 Pigeons. Mr. Cook's figures seem to be based on fifty-five 

 dozen to a barrel. In three years' time, he says (which may 

 mean three years later), there were shipped nine hundred and 

 ninety thousand dozen. In the two succeeding years it is 

 estimated that one-third more than this number, or fifteen 

 million, eight hundred and forty thousand birds, were shipped 

 from Shelby, Mich. These estimates were made by men who 

 killed and marketed the Pigeons. The figures may be exces- 

 sive, but, if reduced one-half, they still would be enormous. 



It is claimed by Mr. C. H. Engle, a resident of Petoskey, 

 Mich., that "two years later" there were shipped from that 

 point five carloads a day for thirty days, with an average of 

 eight thousand, two hundred and fifty dozen to the carload, or 

 fourteen million, eight hundred and fifty thousand birds. Mr. 

 S. S. Stevens told Mr. William Brewster that at least five hun- 

 dred men were netting Pigeons at Petoskey in 1881, and 

 thought they might have taken twenty thousand birds each, or 

 ten million Pigeons. Still, people read of the " mysterious " 

 disappearance of the Passenger Pigeon, wonder what caused 



