THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 207 



garded the coming of the wild pigeons as a God-send, 

 for then they would have a supply of fresh meat. 



In the early part of June, 1889, I was hunting for 

 migrating birds at the base of the mountain along the 

 bank of the river, about three miles west of this city, 

 and to my surprise I heard the familiar swish of the 

 passenger pigeon wings. I involuntarily jumped 

 around and yelled ''Wild pigeons !" Then I saw thir- 

 teen pigeons rapidly flying along the edge of the timber, 

 going westward. This was the last flight of pigeons 

 that I saw. 



I cannot help but feel, from information that I have 

 gathered at sundry times, that the sudden disappear- 

 ance of the wild pigeon was not caused by men, guns 

 and nets. When Mr. James A^ Bennett, pigeoneer, 

 quit netting pigeons in the Indian Territory, they were 

 still abundant. Two years later they were practically 

 all gone. The hand of man could not have destroved 

 them so completely in so short a space of time. 



Mr. Isaac Henninger, of this city, was also a pig- 

 eoneer, and remembers very distinctlv when the birds 

 disappeared, of reading at the time of their disappear- 

 ance, accounts in the Philadelphia or New York papers 

 of vessels that were crossing the ocean and plowing 

 through millions of dead pigeons. 



Mr. Daniel Harrer, Sr., of Roaring Branch, told 

 me that when the pigeons disappeared an old friend of 

 his was on a slow-sailing vessel coming to America, 

 and that for days he saw dead pigeons floating on the 

 water. The birds possibly were migrating in search 



