382 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



DeVries foxind them very ntimerous at Fort Orange, Albany, in 1639 [New 

 York Hist. Soc. Col, Ser. 2, 3, 90]. Father ReflEeix speaks of them as nesting 

 abundantly near Cayuga, in 1670 and 167 1, where as many as seven or eight 

 hundred were taken in one haul of the net at the "salt-licks" where they 

 came to drink [Jesuit Relation, 1671-72, 1675]. Near the head waters of 

 the Susquehanna in 1753, Rev. G. Hawley found them breeding in "numbers 

 almost infinite, in an extensive valley 6 or 8 miles in length, every tree 

 having a number of nests and some not less than 15 or 20. As soon as the 

 young are able to fly they are seen no more" [Documentary History of New 

 York, 4: 632]. Near Albany, on March 25, 1830, thousands of pigeons 

 which had begun their spring migration were overwhelmed by a severe 

 snowstorm [Munsell, Annals of Albany, 9: 206]. In 1835, there was a great 

 roost near Norwich, Chenango county, [Whitfield, Auk, 7: 224] and in 1863, 

 near Fort Edward, Washington county. In 1867 there was a large 

 nesting in Clinton county between Altona and Chateaugay [Rintoul, 

 Canadian Sportsman and Naturalist. 1883. 3:242]. About 1852, occurred 

 the last nesting at Ashford, Cattaraugus county and practically all the 

 squabs raised, together with the greater portion of the old birds, were cap- 

 tured. Between April i and June 15, 1854, millions flew regularly across 

 Wayne county, N. Y., to feed at the Salt springs near Montezuma [Mer- 

 shon, Passenger Pigeon. 1907. p. 122]. 



The last great pigeon nesting on New York soil evidently occurred 

 in 1868, when millions of birds occupied the timber along Bell's run, near 

 Ceres, Allegany county, on the Pennsylvania line. This nesting-tract was 

 about 14 miles in length. Mr Fred R. Eaton of Olean, who visited the site 

 during its occupation, has furnished the following particulars: The birds 

 began laying in April and the hight of the nesting season was reached about 

 the loth of May, when hundreds of thousands of nests occupied the hemlock, 

 pine and hardwood trees extending several miles into Pennsylvania. A 

 large hemlock would frequently contain 30 or 40 nests with eggs or young. 

 Both male and female birds took part in incubation and in feeding the 

 squabs, one or the other continually covering the nest. The cock birds 

 left the woods in a great flight early in the morning, scattering northward 

 for many miles to feed on beech nuts, all kinds of grain, seeds and tender 



