464 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



which he says are overtaken often by tempests in crossing the 

 lake, and " drowned in entire flocks." Vast numbers of Eagles 

 and Buzzards were seen feeding upon them.^ 



Brewster was informed by Mr. S. S. Stevens of Cadillac, 

 Mich., that on one occasion an immense flock of Pigeons 

 became bewildered in a fog while crossing Crooked Lake, and, 

 descending, struck the water and perished by thousands. 

 This might easily happen to young birds. They might 

 become bewildered in a fog on a large body of water, and fly 

 about until, weary and exhausted, they fell into the water; 

 but Mr. Stevens says that the old, experienced birds rose 

 above the fog, and not one was drowned. 



Mr. E. Osborn states that he has seen " big bodies of 

 Pigeons " which were drowned off Sleeping Bear Point while 

 trying to cross Lake Michigan. 



Capt. Alexander McDougall of Duluth writes, February 8, 

 1905, that, while he was captain of the steamer " Japan " on 

 Lake Superior, in 1872, the exhausted Pigeons in foggy weather 

 and at night used to alight on his boat in great numbers. He 

 remembers having caught several by hand. 



Mr. Ben O. Bush states that at the last Petoskey nesting, 

 in 1881, when the nests were built and the eggs were laid, a 

 big wind storm with sleet came up just at dusk; the birds left, 

 and he believes that they were swallowed up by a fog and 

 storm on Lake Michigan. At any rate, they did not return. 

 He says that he has " heard tell of the beach being strewn for 

 miles with dead Pigeons." He supposes that the storm wiped 

 them out, and that the netters afterwards cleaned up what 

 were left. 



Mr. C. H. Ames of Boston advances the theory that the 

 Pigeons went south, and were overwhelmed by a storm on the 

 Gulf of Mexico; and states that years ago he read an account, 

 either in or quoted from a New Orleans newspaper, giving 

 the story of several ship captains and sailors who had sailed 

 over " leagues of water covered with dead Pigeons." 



The following story was very likely derived from the same 

 source. Mr. G. C. Tremaine Ward says (1901) that Mr. S. D. 



I Schoolcraft, Henry R. L.: Narrative Journal of Travels from Detroit Northwest, 1821, p. 381. 



