452 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



Pigeons which had been slaughtered during the night. He 

 states that in March, 1830, the Pigeons were so abundant in 

 New York City that piles of them could be seen on every 

 hand. 



Great nesting places of Pigeons occasionally were estab- 

 lished in the eastern States after the middle of the nineteenth 

 century, when vast numbers were killed for market. In 1848 

 eighty tons of these birds were shipped from Cattaraugus 

 County, New York. 



Mr. E. H. Eaton, in his Birds of New York (Vol. I, p. 382), 

 says that the last great nesting in New York was in Allegany 

 County, in 1868, extending about fourteen miles, and crossing 

 the Pennsylvania line. He states also that there was an 

 immense roost in Steuben County in 1875. 



Possibly the last great slaughter of Pigeons in New York, 

 of which we have record, was some time in the 70's. A flock 

 had nested in Missouri in April, where most of the squabs 

 were killed by the pigeoners. This flock then went to Michi- 

 gan, where they were followed by the same pigeoners, who 

 again destroyed the squabs. The Pigeons then flew to New 

 York State, and nested near the upper Beaverkill in the Cats- 

 kills, in the lower part of Ulster County. It is said that tons 

 of the birds were sent to the New York market from this 

 nesting place, and that not less than fifteen tons of ice were 

 used in packing the squabs.^ 



The wholesale slaughter in the west continued to increase 

 until 1878. There were very large nestings in Michigan in 

 1868, 1870, 1872, 1874, 1876 and 1878. In 1876 there were at 

 least three of these great breeding places in the State, one 

 each in Newaygo, Oceana and Grand Traverse counties. ^ The 

 great killing of 1878 in Michigan is said to have yielded no 

 less than three hundred tons of birds to the market. Various 

 figures are given regarding the number of birds killed in a few 

 weeks at this great nesting place near Petoskey, Mich. Pro- 

 fessor Roney estimates that a billion birds were destroyed 

 there. This is evidently a very excessive approximation. 



1 Van Cleef, J. S.: Forest and Stream, 1899, Vol. 52, p. 

 ' Mershon, W. B.: The Passenger Pigeon, 1907, p. 77. 



