46 Oneida Historical Society. 



the next year, 1879, the birds did not return to their usual 

 nesting places. It was supposed that they had gone further 

 west or further north and that the scouts of the hunters and 

 the trappers would soon discover the nesting places again. 

 But though searched for thoroughly by those who, being finan- 

 cially interested, spent time and money liberally, they were 

 never found, and the few birds which occurred throughout the 

 country, though no longer disturbed, continued to diminish in 

 numbers till they have entirely disappeared, and standing 

 rewards, aggregating $1,000, have failed to bring the report of 

 a single nest. A very small number were kept in captivity in 

 Cincinnati till last year, when the last but one died, and it is 

 probable that there is now not a single Wild Pigeon of the 

 billions which once nested through this country. 



Mr. John D. Collins of this city, one of the oldest of our 

 sportsmen, writes me very interestingly as to his personal recol- 

 lections of the days when these birds were plenty. I quote a 

 part of his letter : "About the year 1847 during the month of 

 April there was a nesting ground or breeding place in what 

 was commonly called the 'Fish Creek Wilderness, a large tract 

 of virgin woodland extending from near Annsville, Oneida 

 County, to near Watertown, Jefferson County, a distance of 

 some thirty miles. For a strip of it about three miles wide, 

 along the easterly edge of its entire length, every tree therein 

 was filled with pigeon nests. Every morning at sunrise their 

 flight easterly and southerly would begin and darken the sky, 

 cover the entire country for miles and look as if the ground had 

 been plowed, even as far as Utica, where they could be killed 

 from the house-tops. They have never nested here in such 

 numbers since, although they have nested on portions of this 

 land in much smaller numbers since." His description of the 

 netting, which he witnessed personally, is as follows: "The 

 way the birds are caught is by nets about 18 x 30 feet, so, placed 

 that when sprung the inner edges of the nets meet together 

 and lap slightly. A live pigeon is placed in the space under 

 the nets on an arm (like the pan of a steel trap), to be lifted 

 and dropped to make this stool pigeon flutter as if lighting. 

 Another live one is hitched to a string and thrown up into the 

 air over the nets, to light thereon. Both of these stools are 

 carefully and well trained for the work, so well' that they seem 



