184 BIRDS OF ONTAKIO. 



informant was Mr. Stevens, of Cardillac, a veteran pigeon-netter of 

 large experience, and, as we were assured by everyone we asked 

 concerning him, a man of high reputation for veracity and careful- 

 ness of statement." 



"'Small colonies,' said Mr. Stevens, 'still breed throughout Michi- 

 gan, but the largest roost of late years was near Grand Traverse in 

 1881.' It was about eight miles long. The largest nesting place he 

 ever visited was in 1876 or 1877. It was near Petosky and extended 

 north-east past Crooked Lake for twenty-eight miles, averaging three 

 or four miles wide. For the entire distance every tree of any size 

 had one or more nests in it, and some were full of them, placed 

 generally not less than fifteen feet from the ground. The usual 

 number of eggs is two, but many nests have only one. Both birds 

 incubate and change regularly. The old birds never feed near the 

 ' nesting,' leaving all the beech mast, etc., there for their young, 

 many of them going a hundred miles daily for food." 



Pigeon-netting, as a business, assumed large proportions at Petosky 

 at the time referred to. At least five hundred men were engaged in 

 netting pigeons and sending them to market. 



Mr. Stevens thought that each man captured 20,000 birds during 

 the season, for at one time as many as two car loads were shipped 

 south on the railroad each day, yet he believed that not one bird out 

 of a thousand of those present was taken. 



The first birds sent to the market yield the netter about a dollar 

 per dozen, but at the height of the season the price sometimes falls 

 as low as twelve cents per dozen. 



" All the netters with whom we talked believe firmly that there 

 are just as many pigeons in the west as there ever were. They say 

 the birds have been driven from Michigan and the adjoining States 

 partly by persecution and partly by the destruction of the forests, 

 and have retreated to uninhabited regions, perhaps north of the 

 Great Lakes in British North America." 



In the Auk, Yol. VIII., page 310, appear some extracts from a 

 letter written by Mr. Caleb S. Cope, of West Chester, Pa., who is 

 well acquainted with the habits and appearance of the birds, having 

 trapped them many years ago. During the spring of 1887, Mr. Cope, 

 in company with his son, travelled extensively through the west, 

 straggling beyond the plains into California, Oregon, western Wash- 

 ington and Vancouver Island. Of the last-named place he says : " I 

 saw and heard more Wild Pigeons {Ectopistes) than I remember to 

 have ever met with in any other place. The locality where most 



