THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 201 



pigeon in August, 190G. The large body of birds that 

 came here in April, 1886, came here for the express 

 purpose of nesting. The crop of beechnuts the fall 

 before was very large. That was what brought them 

 here. When food was real plenty the birds have been 

 known to nest three times in a single season. The 

 first ones would begin their nesting in the latter part 

 of March. They would nest again in the first part of 

 May, and No. 3 nesting would start about Tune 10th. 



When the pigeons came here to nest, they would 

 be scattered over three or four Counties and roost any- 

 where night overtook them. But for a night or two 

 before they began building their nests nearly all of 

 them would roost in one large body. From this place 

 their nesting would start, but what direction it would 

 go, no one knew, until they commenced building. An- 

 other sure sign of its being about time for the birds 

 to begin nesting is the fine little white strings that 

 come from the forward end of the breast and con- 

 nects with the craw. It certainly looks as if these 

 small threads were the natural feeders that form the 

 curd in the craw for the young to feed on. 



In 1886 these two sure signs were in evidence. 

 The fine white little strings had been visible for three 

 days. And it was the second night of the big roost- 

 ing on the west branch of Pine Creek in Potter County, 

 that these birds were driven out of this state, never 

 more to return. On the second night of the roosting, 

 thirty or forty men and boys from the settlements 

 along Pine Creek, went into this roosting with guns 



