THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 19 



forests, in America, shrank to very unimportant and 

 meagre forests. 



The best beech forests of our times were on inter- 

 vale lands of the Ohio river ; its tributaries ; and upon 

 the slopes of the Appalachian mountains. These gave 

 most of the mast for squab-feeding, and we may as- 

 sume that many hundred millions of the old birds — 

 adults — existed at the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury — 1801 — in the United States, vanishing to naught 

 since then. 



The first authorities, writing in 1810, ,were un- 

 aware of other nesting cities, even in Kentucky, at the 

 same time. Wilson saw one city and Audubon saw 

 another city at the same time, and they told so vivdly 

 of each one that no further effort was ever considered 

 desirable, until it was too late to make new observa- 

 tions — the pigeons had become extinct, or nearly so, 

 at the beginning of the twentieth century. Only one 

 pair of birds was reported in 1901, in Pennsylvania, 

 and five birds were all that anyone saw in 1906. 



Since then none have been seen in this country. 

 There are pigeons in South America that resemble the 

 passenger pigeon and have been reported as practically 

 identical; but this has not been verified. They are, 

 ver\^ likely, a smaller variety, living upon local food 

 that is in such ample supply they have no need to mi- 

 grate, every month or two, to find a store suitable to 

 sustain the young of a large cit}'. Such inaction would 

 demand less swiftness, strength and wariness to avoid 

 their numerous enemies — animals, birds of prey, and 



