CHAPTER XVI 



An Observer's Recollection of The Passenger Pigeon, 

 Once So Numerous, Now ELxtinct 



From Potter County Journal, October 2i, 1903. 

 By EDWIN HASKELL. 



REMARKABLE as was the sudden disappearance 

 and almost total extinction of the buffalo of the 

 plains, not less remarkable was the sudden disappear- 

 ance. and extinction of the passenger pigeon. 



But a few years ago, this pigeon was a frequent 

 migrant from the northern wilds of British America 

 to the Gulf of Mexico. These migrations were made 

 in vast flocks. These flocks, it has been estimated, 

 would sometimes consist of fifty or sixty millions of 

 birds, so densely massed as to darken the sky, and tak- 

 ing two or three hours to pass a given point. Stops 

 would be made in favorable localities for the purpose 

 of nesting and rearing their young. These stopping 

 places were chosen with the view of obtaining a suffi- 

 cient amount of mast to last until the young birds 

 could leave their nests and take care of themselves, 

 and follow the parent birds to some new feeding and 

 nesting ground. 



Until within ten or fifteen years past, nearly every 

 spring, after a plentiful cfop of beechnuts the previous 

 fall, there was quite likely to be a nesting of pigeons 



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