54 The Passenger Pigeon 



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 rev- 

 enue 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 pro- 

 fessional pigeoners, from the fact that they banded 

 themselves together, so as to keep in telegraphic com- 

 munication 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 



