The Pigeon in Confinement 205 



LETTERS OF COMMENT FROM CHIEF POKAGON. 



Hartford, Mich., Dec. 17, 1896. 

 RuTHVEN Deane, Chicago, 111. 



Dear Sir: — Your article on wild pigeons (O-me- 

 me-00) 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 Mil- 

 waukee 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 



