14 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



The winter of 1876-7 was an open one. The 

 farmers of our northern tier counties did their plowing 

 in December and January, and the later half of Feb- 

 ruary was similar to Indian Summer; so oats were 

 sown in the first days of March and many migratory 

 birds remained, all winter, at the north. Heavy snow, 

 falling in March, caused the death of many by starva- 

 tion and exposure. Concerning pigeons in the south- 

 ern counties of Pennsylvania Mr. Hench, of Altoona, 

 told the story, in a letter to the Altoona Tribune, last 

 w^inter, as follows : 



A. L. Hench) of Broad Avenue, Altoona Writes of 



Great Flocks and Hunting Them at Their 



Feeding Grounds 



Atcheson L. Hench, of 2527 Broad avenue, is num- 

 bered among the residents of this city, that hunted wild 

 or passenger pigeons in this vicinity when they were 

 numberous at masts in Cambria county back some 

 forty-two years ago. In the following letter he relates 

 some of his experiences in hunting the pigeons and 

 throws some light on the habits of the birds : 



When a boy in Perry county, Pennsylvania, I saw 

 many flocks of pigeons in wheat planting season, and 

 I saw their depredations on the wheat fields. In 

 December of the year 1872, I removed to Alum Bank, 

 Bedford county, Pennsylvania, and during the winter 

 of 1875 or 1876, about the first of January, that por- 

 tion of the Allegheny mountains, where the line divid- 



