THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 233 



upon the south readies to the water's edge forming 

 the sloping beaeh. Years ago, this pond was in a large 

 forest. Now this was always, as long as there were 

 any pigeons, a favorite place for them to come and 

 drink. Six years ago ( 11)01) ) T think, I took my gun 

 and w^ent to this pond in hopes I might get a Blue 

 Heron, which I very much wanted. 'J'here were 

 tracks of herons, plover and other birds in the mud 

 around the shores, so 1 sat down in some bushes and 

 pulled them up around me, so as to partly conceal my- 

 self, facing the east, where I could see a long distance. 

 Presently I saw% far to the east, a bird coming directly 

 tow^ards me. I took it to be a Pigeon Hawk. It flew 

 off to my right and turned in behind me, and the next 

 instant I heard its wings beating for a short span, and 

 then I heard, to my right and very near, the loud and 

 distant crow of a wild pigeon. Well, that was a sur- 

 prise. I had not seen a pigeon in fifteen years or more 

 and now I sat within a few feet of one and he kept on 

 crowing. Well, I went to work at those bushes, pull- 

 ing them apart w^hen suddenly I saw- him standint^ 

 upon the top of a fence post and still crowing. 



I picked up the gun and placed it to the shoulder 

 and, old hunter and old trapshooter as I was, I could 

 not hold the gun still, I trembled so. But I took a 

 trap-shooter's chance and got the bird." — S. C. Bishop 

 and A. H. Wright, Cornell University, Ithaca. X. V. 

 in "Auk," April, lOlT. 



