THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 91 



in one or another of the northern or northwestern 

 counties of Pennsylvania. 



Potter county, because of the great quantity of 

 beech timber in its forests, seems to have been a fav- 

 orite locahty for the nesting of pigeons. 



Because, probably, no one will again see a flock 

 of passenger pigeons, is the excuse the writer has for 

 telling what he knows from personal observation, and 

 from what he has been able to learn about this beau- 

 tiful bird, once so numerous, now extinct. 



Aly recollection goes back to sixty-seven or sixty- 

 eight years ago, when I was a boy 5 or 6 years old. 

 At which time pigeons in great numbers nesting near 

 my father's home, a small log house nearly in the 

 centre of a small clearing in the forest. It was so 

 near that I was taken into the woods to see the nests 

 and the birds flitting about in the tree tops. 



I recollect with what delight I watched, with an 

 elder sister, the almost endless flock streaming out of 

 and into the woods. I also have ^ distinct recollection 

 of many people coming to our house to stay a day or 

 so for the purpose of obtaining a supply of squabs. 

 They brought their supply of provisions to eat, and 

 blankets upon w^hich to sleep. Their cooking was 

 done outdoor, in a kettle swung over a fire, from a 

 chain fastened to a pole, the ends of which rested in 

 crotches driven into the ground, or in frying-pans 

 placed upon a bed of live coals. 



These campers-out often consisted of whole fam- 

 ilies, men, women and children. The men would 2:0 



