2bU General Notes. LApril 



I remember once in the fall of the year, perhaps November, it was a 

 very windy day, they began alighting within fifty yards of our house in a 

 grove of sumac bushes which were completely broken to the ground by 

 them. I am sure it is no exaggeration to say that five acres of ground 

 were covered by them. My uncle went out with his old single barrelled 

 shot gun and brought in a sack full. He gave us a common sized water 

 bucket full. 



In the sixties the method of fattening cattle for the market was to cut 

 the corn in the fall and shock it. These shocks were afterward hauled 

 out and scattered on the ground for the beef steers. As a matter of course 

 a great deal of shelled corn was left on the ground. I have seen those lots 

 literally covered with pigeons. My brother, three years older than myself, 

 was allowed to handle a gun but I was n't old enough, so all I might do was 

 watch him and pick up the pigeons. He came in one day and measured 

 what he had gotten at five shots. It was one of those large old time dish 

 pans and it was even full. I thought if I had had the gun I should have 

 killed a barrel of them. As a matter of fact, though, they were shy and a 

 little difficult to shoot, the least noise or movement frightening them to 

 instant flight. 



This was, I am sure, as late as 1862, for my father was in the army and 

 the only way we could keep a gun was to hide it in a hollow tree when not 

 in use, for if the "Federals" did n't get it the "Rebels" would if kept in 

 the house. 



I left Cooper County in the spring of '65. Whether pigeons were seen 

 here after that I do not know. 



We came to this (Cass) County, since then I have seen a few small 

 flocks and killed two or three pigeons. 



The last I ever saw was here on the farm where I now live. There 

 must have been ten or twelve of them sitting on an old dead tree, their 

 favorite resting place, I had my gun and I thought I would surely have 

 pigeon for dinner, but just as I was ready to shoot away they went, and 

 little did I think, as I watched them disappear, they were the last I 

 should ever see of a species of bird that was once numbered by the mil- 

 lions. This I think was in 1882 but it may have been a little earlier. 



They are certainly gone, and who can explain it? Surely the hunters 

 are not responsible for it in this instance and in so short a time. 



With them have gone the Prairie Chicken, the Wild Goose and the 

 Pheasant [Ruffed Grouse]. 



From 1860 to 1870 they were to be found in this State in great numbers. 

 Now a Prairie Chicken is rarely seen, and only once in a very great while 

 one may hear the once familiar "honk! honk!" of the Wild Goose, but he 

 flies so high one scarcely can see him. I have not seen a native pheasant 

 for twenty-five years. 



I have watched, with much interest, the efforts of our legislatures to 

 stock our country with new varieties of game, and have wondered if some- 



