98 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



search of food the female birds tlew much higher than 

 the males. They were going in open order. Up and 

 down the valley, as far as the eye could reach, the sky 

 was flecked with the birds- moving in one direction. 

 Later in the day they were coming back in flocks, and 

 the males were leaving, skimming quite near the 

 ground, over the tops of the hills and around the pro- 

 jecting points. Toward evening they returned to a 

 roosting place, not far from the nesting. Sometimes 

 the birds would light in these places in such numbers 

 as to break the Hmbs of the trees, or turn them up by 

 the roots. 



I did not go to the nesting again for sometime. It 

 was not necessary to go there for birds to eat. They 

 could be bought nearly every day for 25 cents a dozen 

 — about what the powder and shot cost with which to 

 kill them. In those days people did not think of send- 

 ing pigeons to the city market. 



I had waited until the squabs were nearly large 

 enough to leave their nests, having been informed that 

 was the time to get them, as then they were the best. 



There was a large number of people from different 

 sections of the country, chopping down trees to get 

 the young birds. So rapidly they come to maturity, 

 there would be but one or two days in which this could 

 be done. 



In choosing trees to cut down, the choppers would 

 look for those in which there was the greatest number 

 of nests. When the trees came to the ground, the 

 squabs that were not killed would flutter off, giving 



