108 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



Two small flocks nested, it is true, near Cherry 

 Springs, in 1882 or 1883, I think it was. That was the 

 last of the passenger pigeon in Potter county. (It was 

 in 1886). 



There was said to have been a large nesting of the 

 pigeons in North Dakota, in 1889. The pot hunters 

 and netters slaughtered millions of the birds, sending 

 them to market by the car-loads. About that time I 

 recollect reading an account of pigeons nesting in the 

 Indian Territory, 250 miles from any railroad. Pre; 

 vious to that time there had been tw^o great flocks in the 

 United States. Then there was only one. One of the 

 flocks had been exterminated. Probably the flock that 

 nested in Dakota was the same that nested in the In- 

 dian Territory. Whether that was the case, I have 

 never been able to learn. It was reported that a large 

 flock of pigeons had been seen nesting in Mexico. It 

 has since been ascertained that they were not passen- 

 ger pigeons, but another species. The opinion that the 

 persistent following and killing of pigeons, in their 

 nesting places, in the United States and British Amer- 

 ica, had caused the birds to seek refuge in Mexico or 

 Central America, had to be abandoned. 



That ithe passenger pigeon could have stayed con- 

 tinuously, for the past ten or fifteen years, in the fast- 

 ness of the unexplored wilds of British America, is 

 to suppose an impossibility. The rigor of the climate 

 precluded any such protracted stay. It might be more 

 reasonable to suggest, that after the pigeons nested in 

 the Indian Territory and North Dakota, they migrated 



