3QO A FOREST ALIVE WITH BIRDS. 



which we desire to place before our readers as a record 

 of the mighty swarms of these pigeons, is that supplied 

 by Professor Roney respecting what is said to be one 

 of the largest pigeon-roosts ever recorded in the United 

 States, which occurred at Petoskey in the State of 

 Michigan in 1878. The Professor went to the place 

 with a view of protecting the birds, so far as that 

 was possible, and his report states: 



" It (the roosting- place) was estimated by those best quali- 

 fied to judge, to be 40 miles in length by 3 to 10 miles in 

 width, probably the largest nesting that ever existed in the 

 United States, including not less than 150,000 acres within 

 its limits (that would represent an area of just 250 square 

 miles, as 150,000 : 640 = 250). Every bough was bending 

 under their weight, and they were so tame one could almost 

 touch them. Scarcely a tree could be seen but contained 

 from 5 to 50 nests. There are in the United States about 

 5000 men who pursue pigeons year after year, as a business. 

 The first shipment of birds from Petoskey was upon March 

 22 (1878), and the last on August 12, making over twenty 

 weeks that the bird killing was carried on. We find the 

 shipments to have been 12,500 dead birds daily or 1,750,000 

 for the season. Of live birds there were shipped 1 1 16 crates 

 six dozen per crate, or 80,352 birds. These were the rail 

 shipments only, and were not including cargoes by steamers 

 which were as many more: added to this were (many pri- 

 vate lots, quantities unknown) and the thousands of dead 

 and wounded, not secured, and the myriads of squabs dead 

 in the nests by trapping the parent birds. We have at the 

 lowest possible estimate 100 millions of pigeons sacrificed 

 during the nesting of 1878." * 



Wilson the American ornithologist gives another 

 very similar description of a great "Roost," as the 



* Shooting' on Upland, Marsh, and Stream (in the U.S.), by 

 W. B. Leffingwell, 1890, pp. 220 to 235. 



