THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 87 



but many are not observed in time to help reform the 

 conditions, in order to preserve a useful species. My 

 father often preached protection for grouse, pigeons 

 and many other birds. He taught his sons the virtue 

 of leaving them undisturbed at the nesting season, 

 arguing, as the red-men did, that they wqyq entitled to 

 peace, quiet and protection from their enemies, at that 

 time. From the great changes we have witnessed and 

 the history of ages gone, so briefly referred to above, 

 may we not conjecture that the creative force still 

 dominates the earth? 



During my youthful years I was famiHar with the 

 passenger pigeons and their nesting cities in McKean 

 and Potter counties, in Pennsylvania. When they 

 returned, in the spring of 1886, I saw many scouting 

 flocks and, upon hearing that they were gathering along 

 Pine Creek and the Kettle Creek tributaries, I went to 

 observe them and make a careful investigation. From 

 Coudersport I drove over the hills, before dawn of 

 day, and reached the forest they had selected, about 8 

 o'clock on the morning of their disappearance. There 

 was not a live bird to be seen, along my route of thirty 

 miles ; but young men were coming from the woods 

 with bags full of dead birds. Many of them were 

 lumberjacks, with high, spiked shoes on their feet; 

 gray trousers, with legs chopped off at the knees, 

 tucked into high-topped socks ; mackinaw coats of 

 bright red and brown, and gray, in large checks ; silken 

 scarfs around their necks; and high hats, of the vint- 

 age of 1851, in the Knox pattern that was known as 

 the Jenny Lind. 



