J 55 SUMMER BIRDS. 



Accipiter fuscus (Gmel.) Bp. Sharp-shinned Hawk. 

 One observed by Mr. Pearsall. 



Buteo borealis (Gm.) Yieill. Red-tailed Hawk. 



From the summit of Slide Mountain two handsome adults of this 

 hawk were seen wheeling in the air below. 



Haliaetus leucoceplialus (L.) Sav. White-headed Eagle. 



From the summit of Slide Mountain an adult bird was seen pass- 

 ing high over the valleys. 



FAMILY COLUMBID^: PIGEONS AND DOVES. 



The Mournhig Dove {Zeiiaidura Carolincnsis Bp.) being a bird of the 

 outskirts of the region, may occasionally stray along the valleys into the 

 mountains. 



Ectopistes migratorius (L.) Sw. Passenger Pigeon. 



Information was received that Wild Pigeons formerly bred abund- 

 antly in this region, and Mr. Burroughs has written to the same ef- 

 fect, but also, that owing to the slaughter of both old and young the 

 species has become rare. In "Wake Robin" (p. 174) we read: 

 •'Wild Pigeons, in immense numbers, used to breed regularly in 

 the Valley of the Big Ingin and about the head of the Neversink. 

 The tree-tops for miles were full of their nests, while the going and 

 comino- of the old birds kept up a constant din. But the gunners 

 soon o-ot wind of it, and from far and near were wont to pour in 

 during the spring, and to slaughter both old and young. This prac- 

 tice soon had the effect of driving the Pigeons all away, and now 

 only a few pairs breed in these woods." 



From a reliable resident I received the information that it is not 

 many years since vast numbers of Wild Pigeons formed a breeding 

 colony on the mountains beyond the head of the Big Indian Valley. 

 It seems probable that it is to this breeding ground that Mr. Bur- 

 roughs alludes (Locusts and Wild Honey, p. 118) in an account of 

 a trout-fishing excursion along the Navesink in 1869: "Here and 

 there I saw the abandoned nests of the pigeons, sometimes half a 

 dozen on one tree. In a yellow birch which the floods had uprooted 

 a number of nests were still in place, little shelves or platforms of 

 twio-s loosely arranged and affording little or no protection to the 

 eggs or the young birds against inclement weather." 



A single Wild Pigeon seen by Mr. Pearsall was the only evidence 

 furnished by recent exploration in the region of the present occur- 

 rence of this formerly abundant bird. 



