60 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



Pennsylvania, never to return. Thirty or forty men 



and boys went into the roosting with guns At 9 



p. m. they began shooting into the treetops as 



long as they could hear a bird fly among the branches. 

 I'hen, gathering into small groups, they made camp- 

 fires and waited for daylight, so they could find the 

 dead and crippled birds under the trees. 



"That was the death-blow to pigeons in Pennsylva- 

 nia.' They left in the night, which was clear, with a 



full moon; so the birds could see wdiere to go in 



a northerly direction across the state of New York and 

 reach the big forests of Canada, the course they always 

 took, when leaving Pennsylvania, in spring or early 

 summer. Being driven out, on the eve of starting 

 nest-building, suggests that before they reached their 

 destination, the hens dropped their eggs on the way, 

 or before nests could be prepared for them. There- 

 fore there were no young birds to eat the curds which 

 had started to form, and would keep on forming until 

 Nature's law had completed her work. 



"There being no young birds to eat the curds, the 

 craws of the old birds would fill up with them and they 

 would starve to death ; or something like milk-fever 

 would ensue, wdiich would be fatal to the old birds that 

 had been about to nest. There were always many 

 stray birds with a nesting city, either too young to nest, 

 or lost birds that had happened to meet and join the 

 main body ; and these would have no curds in their 



