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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



DeVries found them very ntimerous at Fort Orange, Albany, in 1639 [New 

 York Hist. Sue. Col, Ser. 2,3, 90]. Father Reffeix speaks of them as nesting- 

 abundantly near Cayuga, in 1670 and 1671, where as many as seven or eight 

 hundred were taken in one haul of the net at the "salt-licks" where they 

 came to drink [Jesuit Relation, 1671-72, 1675]. Near the head waters of 

 the Susquehanna in 1753, Rev. G. Hawley found them breeding in "numbers 

 almost infinite, in an extensive valley 6 or 8 miles in length, every tree 

 having a number of nests and some not less than 15 or 20. As soon as the 

 yovmg are able to fly they are seen no more" [Documentary History of New 

 York, 4: 632]. Near Albany, on March 25, 1830, thousands of pigeons 

 which had begun their spring migration were overwhelmed by a severe 

 snowstorm [Munsell, Annals of Alban\-, 9: 206]. In 1835, there was a great 

 roost near Norwich, Chenango county, [Whitfield, Auk, 7: 224] and in 1863, 

 near Fort Edward, Washington count}-. In 1867 there was a large 

 nesting in Clinton county between Altona and Chateaugay [Rintoul, 

 Canadian Sportsman and Naturalist. 1883. 3:242]. About 1852, occurred 

 the last nesting at Ashford, Cattaraugus county and practicalh' all the 

 squabs raised, together with the greater portion of the old birds, were cap- 

 tured. Between April i and June 15, 1854, millions flew regularly across 

 Wayne county, N. Y., to feed at the Salt springs near Montezuma [Mcr- 

 shon. Passenger Pigeon. 1907. p. 122]. 



The last great pigeon nesting on New York soil evidently occvuTcd 

 in 1868, when millions of birds occupied the timber along Bell's run, near 

 Ceres, Alleganv county, on the Pennsylvania line. This nesting-tract was 

 about 14 miles in length. Mr Fred R. Eaton of Olean, who visited the site 

 during its occupation, has furnished the following particulars: The birds 

 began laying in April and the higlit of the nesting season was reached about 

 the loth of Mav, when hundreds of thousands of nests occupied the hemlock, 

 pine and hardwood trees extending several miles into Pennsylvania. A 

 large hemlock would frequently contain 30 or 40 nests with eggs or young. 

 Both male and female birds took part in incubation and in feeding the 

 squabs, one or the other continually covering the nest. The cock birds 

 left the woods in a great flight earh' in the morning, scattering northward 

 for nianv miles to feed on beech nuts, all kinds of grain, seeds and tender 



