112 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



H D. Moore, Somerset county : Small flocks and scattered birds are now 

 seen M. M. Larrabee, Cameron county : In former years Wild Pigeons 

 in large flocks were found roosting- and breeding in the beech woods 

 along Bowman's creek, in Wyoming county, and in Lake and Boss town- 

 ships of this county, but in the last six years have seen only small flocks, 

 and of tener only single pairs in Wyoming county. Last year (summer, 

 1889,) I saw a number of single pairs and their nests in Lake, Boss and 

 Fairmount townships in this county David J. Linskill, Luzerne county : 

 No Wild Pigeons through this section since 1875, at which time they 

 were very plenty, feeding principally in the mountains. A few stray 

 birds have been shot this fall (1889) along the South mountain, which 

 causes me to think that they may occasionally breed in this locality, but 

 not in such numbers as to attract attention T. L. Neff, Cumberland 

 county : In the year 1856 this neighborhood was visited by Wild Pigeons 

 in vast numbers. In the early morning they would fly eastward from 

 the Laurel Hill mountains, nine miles east of Masontown, alighting in 

 cornfields to feed ; and about the middle of the afternoon they would 

 commence their return flight to their roosting place in the mountains. 

 They would come sometimes in such immense flocks as to almost shut 

 out the sky, like a cloud, and two or three hours would pass during each 

 morning and evening migration. This occurred in the early part of 

 April. Since then there has been two similar visits, but not in such im- 

 mense numbers, and I cannot now name the years. It has been perhaps 

 twenty years since they were seen here in this manner. Formerly, in 

 the fall, they would be found feeding upon acorns, but they have become 

 very rare of late years G. W. Linton (letter July, 1889}, Fayette county. 

 Mr. J. G. Bohn, of Lebanon, says (letter August, 1889) : " In regard to 

 Wild Pigeons, they are birds of the past in our regions. Years ago our 

 woods were full of them ; in the fall you could count them by the thou- 

 sands, and here and there you could find them raising young. Our sec- 

 tion of country is stripped of its massive forests and these birds are 

 gone. I have not seen one in my hunts in fifteen years. I even can- 

 not as much as get a specimen to mount. Mr. Otto Behr, of Lopez, 

 Sullivan county, in a letter dated February 28, 1889, says : " The last 

 ' pigeon roost ' here was in 1869. * * * They say the nesting ground 

 which was along the Mehoopany creek, Wyoming county, four miles 

 from here, was seven miles long by two or three miles wide. In 1876 they 

 started to build up here again when a snow storm that covered the ground 

 for several inches drove them off. Since then they have had no regular 

 nesting place here." Mr. Chandlee Eves, Millville, Columbia county, 

 in a letter of September 24, 1889, gives the following interesting infor- 

 mation of the method employed to capture pigeons : " About thirty -five 

 years ago I used to see a great many Wild Pigeons in the spring, many 

 were caught with spring-nets. The party catching them would have a 

 'bow-house,' or bough-house, to secrete themselves in ; they would have 



