1890.] General Notes. -^5 



lowed the pole to pass through without hitting any 01 the birds. After a 

 time my father suggested that they strike in the direction of the Bight, 

 when, the birds being unable to see the pole, man v of them were destroyed 

 in this manner. I well remember my brother and myself Standing in the 

 garden, watching them as they passed over our heads, and throwing our 

 caps at them, which would pass through the parting ranks without hitting 

 a bird, the gap beir J closed again almost instantly, and not seeming to 

 check their rapid passage in the least. 



Many of the people in the vicinity employed nets to catch them. Going 

 into the woods where they alighted in the quest of food, a spot of ground 

 was prepared, the net set so as to be thrown over the spot by the rebound 

 of a young sapling placed soas to be strongly bent under tension which 

 when relieved would instantly carry the net over the prepared area. A 

 living Pigeon, having been caught and a cord fastened to it, was allowed 

 to fly into the air on the approach of a Hock, when, on being drawn back 

 to the ground, its cry would attract them, and they would follow and settle 

 on the prepared ground where food had been scattered. Then the net was 

 thrown across, and large numbers entrapped. A farmer, Mr. Oxford, 

 whose farm was within their feeding ground and whose newly sown 

 fields they were injuring, obtained my father's net in the morning, and 

 by night, with the aid of his two sons, had a pile of dead pigeons which 

 would have made more than one wagon load. The Indians from a dis- 

 tance came and camped in the vicinity, procured vast numbers of them, 

 salted and packed them in barrels, and carried them away in quantities. 



At a still later period, in the early sixties, on the mornings of two or 

 three consecutive days, large numbers of Wild Pigeons passed up the Hud- 

 son Valley crossing over the City of Albany. One of these mornings the 

 flocks were uncommonly large. Three in particular which passed north- 

 ward in quick succession, so that all were in sight at the same time, were 

 so large and dense that the shadow cast on the ground as they passed 

 was like the shadow of a passing cloud, being easily perceptible. The 

 Hudson Valley at this point from the level of the plateau on the west to 

 Cantonment Hill on the east, must be two and a half miles or more in 

 width. Standing on the crest of the hill to the south of the city, the 

 east and west extremities of each of these three Hocks were invisible, al- 

 though they were at a great height; the ends dwindled away in the dis- 

 tance, appearing only as a faint shadow. I noticed a few days after in the 

 newspapers a statement that there was an unusually large 'pigeon roost' 

 near Fort Edward, N. Y. — P. P. Whitfield, Nezv York City. 



Harlan's Hawk. — I am pleased to notice that Mr. Ridgway has con- 

 cluded (Auk. Vol. VII, p. 205) that Buteo harlani is only a variety of />'. 

 boreiilis. Thus far so good, but I think that in the near future the spe- 

 cies /utrlauf will be entirely disposed of and no attention whatever be 

 paid to the singular coloration spoken of, which, at least in the speci- 

 mens I have secured here, particularly in the fall, have shown its strong 

 melanistic character. I have not the opportunity now to refer to speci- 

 mens or notes but write from memory only.— D. H. Talbot, Sioux City, 

 /ozva. 



