178 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



in the east he followed them to Oklahoma. He car- 

 ried on the business on a large scale, with a number 

 of assistants, supplying the markets of many large 

 cities. He invented a machine to crush the skulls, 

 which did away with much of the cruelty of the 

 earlier and cruder methods. All the old time trappers 

 kept several stool pigeons and "'flyers" from fall until 

 spring, and sometimes these birds laid eggs or even 

 bred in captivity. Mr. Chatham goes into details 

 describing the stool pigeons owned by Philip Smith, 

 a noted trapper who resided on the site of the present 

 writer's home in Clinton County, Pennsylvania. The 

 old man provided a roomy pen for the birds, under a 

 big oak tree in his yard, and on several occasions 

 young birds were hatched, but did not grow to 

 maturity. Smith was anxious to tame and train a 

 pair of young pigeons so that they would lure, with- 

 out cords, stool or eyes sewn shut, the wild birds to 

 the feed or salt beds. Mr. Chatham, then a lad, told 

 him of a nest which, of course, contained two eggs, on 

 a hickory tree in McElhattan Gap, near the present 

 "intake dam". Smith and his youthful protege 

 watched the nest until the young birds were hatched. 

 Mr. Chatham saw and stroked the lively squabs. He 

 is positive that there were two of them, but they flew 

 away before the old trapper was able to go out for 

 them. Mir. Chatham further states that the passenger 

 pigeons nested on the north slope of Mt. Logan, still 

 nearer to Smith's home, and many were the days he 

 watched for them, shot gun in hand, behind an old 



