LAND BIRDS. 245 



■pigeons" (that is, captive wild pigeons, blinded or hooded, and made to 

 flutter or spread their wings by manipulation with a string attached to a 

 movable perch) were used, and during the great migratory flights in spring 

 and fall these stool pigeons and "flyers" were indispensable to the capture 

 of any considerable number. They w^ere used for decoying the birds to 

 the netting grounds just described, as well as to a dead tree, or a frame- 

 work of poles arranged within easy gun shot of a bhnd, from which the 

 gunner could rake the pigeons after they had ahghted. 



The literature of pigeon netting is so extensive that it is impossible to 

 go into the matter here. Those who are interested in this subject, as well 

 as in the methods which contributed largely to the extermination of the 

 Pigeon, are referred to the excellent book by W. B. Mershon, of Saginaw, 

 Mich., entitled "The Passenger Pigeon." (Outing PubHshing Co., New 

 York, 1907.) 



Estimates of the number of pigeons nesting in any one place are ex- 

 tremely variable. Not a few writers claim that from a billion to a billion 

 and a half assembled at one place to nest. Other writers believe that 

 not more than five to ten millions were found together, while still others 

 are doubtful if more than one or two millions have ever nested at one time 

 in the same region. Apparently the largest nesting of which we have 

 definite knowledge was that which w^as located near Petoskey, Emmet 

 county, in 1878, which has been frequently described as from twenty-eight 

 to forty miles in length by three to ten miles in 'width. Within this 

 region one writer states that at least 150,000 acres were included and that 

 the nesting actually covered at least 100,000 acres. Since almost every tree 

 had some nests, and as many as 110 nests have been counted in a single 

 tree, it is possible to form some conception of the number of pigeons 

 which reared their young at this place. 



It is stated that from this nesting the first shipment of birds was made 

 on March 22, 1878, and the last upon August 12, during which time the war 

 against the hapless birds was waged with varying intensity. "For many 

 weeks the railroad shipments averaged fifty barrels of dead birds per day, 

 thirty to forty dozen old birds and about fifty squabs being packed in a 

 barrel. Allowing 500 birds to a barrel, and averaging the entire shipments 

 for the season at 25 barrels per day we find the railroad shipments to have 

 been 12,500 dead birds daily, or 1,500,000 for the summer. Of live birds 

 there w^ere shipped 1,116 crates, six dozen per crate, or 80,352 birds. These 

 were railroad shipments only and not including the cargoes by steamer 

 from Petoskey, Cheboygan, Cross Village, and other lake ports, which were 

 as many more" (H. B. Roney, American Field, Jan. 11, 1879). 



Squabs were considered special delicacies and were collected in immense 

 numbers by jarring the smaller trees, felling the larger ones, or even by 

 setting fire to the loose bark of the birches, which were favorite nesting 

 trees. In addition to the thousands destroyed in this way, and the hundreds 

 of thousands shij)ped yearly for food and for trap shooting, the Indians of 

 Northern Michigan, as well as many of the white residents in the neighbor- 

 hood of the roosts, collected immense numbers of adults and squabs and 

 preserved them for winter use by salting or smoking and drying. 



Dr. Isaac Voorheis of Frankfort, Mich., told the writer personally that in 

 1880 or 1881, when there was a large nesting in Benzie county, he took, 

 at one throw of the net, 109 dozen and 8 pigeons (1,816 birds), and that 

 six catches of the net brought him $650. These birds were kept alive 

 until a schooner load was obtained, when they were sent directly to Chicago 



