Recollection of Wild Pigeons in Southeastern 

 Pennsylvania, 1864-1881 



BY JOHN G. DILLIN 



My earliest recollection of the Wild Pigeon dates back to an 

 evening when I could not have been more than four or five years 

 of age. A neighbor stopped with the news that Pigeons were 

 roosting in Gibson's Pines about half a mile from our home. 

 I well remember how my father led me by one hand through 

 the dusk, while with the other he grasped the old family shot 

 gun. I recall how cautiously we entered the woods and the 

 great whir of wings that followed. There was a flash of fire and 

 it was all over: a splendid opportunity for a pot-pie had been 

 lost, and, all because a very small boy had blundered into a pile 

 of dry brush, the snap shot at the disappearing flock had natur- 

 ally been a failure as proven by a careful search the follow- 

 ing morning. This incident occurred about the year 1864, in 

 Tredyffrin township, Chester Co. , Pennsylvania upon the very 

 spot where now stands the village of Weadlytown. The sur- 

 rounding country at that time was a series of chestnut ridges 

 with an occasional bunch of oaks and the pines already alluded 

 to — about four acres in extent and of the ' Jack ' variety (Pinus 

 rigida). There were three or four other small tracts of these 

 pines in the same neighborhood and in each of these Pigeons 

 would occasionally stop to roost. They seemed to have a 

 preference for pines and in hunting Pigeons I recollect we 

 always searched the pine woods carefully. In fact the last 

 Pigeon I ever shot was perched upon a dead pine limb — this 

 was in October about the year 1881. 



In southeastern Pennsylvania the pigeons seldom made their 

 appearance until September, but on two occasions I remember 

 seeing them in August. Once a small flock late in the month 

 from which my brother shot a fine female and another occasion 



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