180 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



many standard works on birds, relates that passenger 

 pigeons were sold in the Boston markets during 1888. 

 Some were sold in the market at Erie, Pennsylvania, 

 the same year. During all these years, when the 

 pigeons were becoming scarcer, many stool pigeons 

 were retained by old-time netters. Just as the hide 

 hunters of the west said of the bison after the last 

 herds were destroyed, "They will return", the pigeon 

 trappers of Pennsylvania firmly believed in their 

 renaissance. The passenger pigeon being a long-lived 

 bird, it was a comparatively easy thing to keep them 

 for an indefinite period. Martha, the last of the wild 

 pigeons at the Cincinnati Zoo, was 29 years old when 

 she died in September, 1914. Several of her comrades 

 were as old, or older, when they died. A resident of 

 Williamsport is authority for the following: A man 

 named Jake Kreamer had ten stool pigeons which he 

 kept in a coop back of his cabin on Loyalsock Creek 

 near Montoursville. The birds had survived the 

 years. The youngest was close to thirty years of age 

 when, on New Year's Eve, 1908, a cat got into the pen 

 and killed all but two. The old man, despairing of 

 the return of the "vanished millions", hastily killed 

 the two survivors and had them mounted. A few 

 months later he learned that if he had kept them alive 

 he could have sold them, at his own price, to the Cin- 

 cinnati Zoo or to any number of private enthusiasts. 

 There have been rumors, hard to down, that in 

 remote spots in the Pennsylvania wilds, at the present 

 time, or until recently, other stool pigeons have been 



