200 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



twenty to thirty minutes. Tlien it would be more 

 broken so at any time from 5 to 8 p. m. you could see 

 from ten to forty flocks at a time. 



People who never saw a flight of birds from a 

 nesting, can't believe there were ever so many birds 

 in one locality. The writer's home was near the 

 locality where these birds nested. From one-half mile 

 to four miles we would hit eight or ten different nest- 

 ings, also have been in six or. eight that were farther 

 away. We have tried not to enlarge this in any man- 

 ner for no one knows what a pigeon nesting is until 

 they have actually been in one. The birds build their 

 nests in every tree that is standing on the territory 

 the nesting covers. The larger the top of the tree, 

 the more nests there will be in that tree. We once 

 counted flfty-seven nests in the top of a large birch 

 tree. Undoubtedly there are three times as many 

 nests in a hemlock tree as there are in a hardwood 

 tree. In the hemlock there are so many more chances 

 for the birds to build nests, while the hemlock boughs 

 are so thick it would be impossible to count the nests. 



You will ask whatever became of these birds if 

 they were so plentiful. There were millions of them 

 caught with nets and sent to the large cities. • Still 

 there were millions of them here on their old nesting 

 ground in Pennsylvania, in 1886, which was the last 

 large body of birds that ever visited this state. A 

 few small flocks have passed through this locality 

 since that date. The writer saw a small flock of 

 about 100 birds in September, 1905, and saw a lone 



