242 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



laying, and many that did lay their two eggs in the 

 nest, were knocked out by the intrusion of other birds 

 weighing down the limbs on which the nests were 

 built. Wind storms did a considerable part. The nests 

 were generally about twelve feet above the ground, 

 and from that up to about twenty-five feet. They 

 never went up into the high tree tops to nest, probably 

 on account of wind. During the nesting period they 

 never fed nearer than about ten miles from the nesting 

 — this feed was kept in reserve for the squabs. 



■ "When the period of incubation began, the great- 

 est flight from the nesting was about 6 o'clock or just 

 when light enough for them to see, then the mother 

 hen pigeons that had been on the eggs all night, wanted 

 out for their breakfast. This was the greatest flight 

 of the whole day, as they returned in scattered flocks ; 

 other scattered flocks went out that had been on duty. 



Now, for my experience on the single nest : ''A 

 playmate of mine, W. W. Smith, said to me one day. 'I 

 know a pigeon's nest.' I asked him to take me to it, 

 and he agreed. We started out the 'Gap,' and about 

 on the line between your domain and the City Water 

 Work. We came to it on a little oak sapling about eight 

 feet from the ground, there were two young pigeons 

 in it, which later on, his older brother took from the 

 nest and took them home to raise and train for stool 

 pigeons. I saw them in his father's home, afterwards, 

 and they were taken every day, when fed, placed on 

 the trapper's hand with his thumb over the toes and 

 balanced upward and downward, to make them flutter, 



