442 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



mately the time that the bird disappeared from the Connecti- 

 cut valley. 



Brewster records a flock of about fifty Pigeons on Septem- 

 ber 2, 1868, in Cambridge; and he states that a heavy flight 

 passed through eastern Massachusetts between September 2 

 and September 10, 1871, and that he was assured that thou- 

 sands were killed, and that the netters in Concord and Read- 

 ing used their nets as of old.^ 



My first experience with the Pigeons was in 1872. Many 

 flocks went through Worcester County during the fall of that 

 year, and I saw small flocks passing rapidly over the northern 

 end of Lake Quinsigamond. Friends saw them in Spencer, 

 Mass., and in other towns near Worcester. At that time the 

 Pigeons were still breeding in Pembroke, N. H., about five 

 miles south of Concord, where I passed the summer. 



In 1872 a flock came into a cherry tree at Lanesville, Mass., 

 under the shade of which Gen. Benjamin F. Butler stood 

 delivering an address to a gathering of some two thousand 

 people. Birds alighted "on every part of the tree."^ 



I have found no records of any considerable flights of Pas- 

 senger Pigeons in Massachusetts since 1876. Hundreds of 

 thousands of Pigeons then appeared in the Connecticut 

 valley.' 



Maynard (1870) considered the Pigeon as a common bird 

 in localities, but growing less so every year.^ 



In 1870 Samuels stated that the Passenger Pigeon had 

 become " of late years rather scarce in New England." ^ 



In 1876 Minot wrote that in many places the Pigeons were 

 then comparatively rare. He stated also that in a low pine 

 wood within the present limits of Boston, flocks of several 

 hundred have roosted every year.^ 



During the decade from 1880 to 1890 the Pigeon seems to 

 have disappeared from Massachusetts. A good many birds 



» Brewster, William: Birda of the Cambridge Region, 1906, p. 177. 

 ' Leonard, H. C: Pigeon Cove, Mass., 1873, p. 165. 

 3 Morris, Robert C: Birds of Springfield and Vicinity, 1901, p. 17. 



* Maynard, C. J.: List of the Birds of Massachusetts, Naturalist's Guide, 1870, Part 2, p. 137. 

 ' Samuels, Edward A.: Birda of New England, 1870, p. 374. 



8 Minot, Henry D.: The Land Birds and Game Birds of New England, 2d ed., ed. by William 

 Brewster, 1895, p. 396. 



