62 The Passenger Pigeon 



"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 pen- 

 insula, 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 diflSculty in ascer- 

 taining 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 observa- 

 tion, partly by talking with the netters, farmers, sports- 



