LAND BIRDS. 245 
pigeons” (that is, captive wild pigeons, blinded or hooded, and made to 
flutter or spread their wings by manipulation with a string attached to a 
movable perch) were used, and during the great migratory flights in spring 
and fall these stool pigeons and “flyers” were indispensable to the capture 
of any considerable number. They were used for decoying the birds to 
the netting grounds just described, as well as to a dead tree, or a frame- 
work of poles arranged within easy gun shot of a blind, from which the 
gunner could rake the pigeons after they had alighted. 
The literature of pigeon netting is so extensive that it is impossible to 
go into the matter here. Those who are interested in this subject, as well 
as in the methods which contributed largely to the extermination of the 
Pigeon, are referred to the excellent book by W. B. Mershon, of Saginaw, 
Mich., entitled “The Passenger Pigeon.” (Outing Publishing Co., New 
York, 1907.) 
Estimates of the number of pigeons nesting in any one place are ex- 
tremely variable. Not a few writers claim that from a billion to a billion 
and a half assembled at one place to nest. Other writers believe that 
not more than five to ten millions were found together, while still others 
are doubtful if more than one or two millions have ever nested at one time 
in the same region. Apparently the largest nesting of which we have 
definite knowledge was that which was located near Petoskey, Emmet 
county, in 1878, which has been frequently described as from twenty-eight 
to forty miles in length by three to ten miles in ‘width. Within this 
region one writer states that at least 150,000 acres were included and that 
the nesting actually covered at least 100,000 acres. Since almost every tree 
had some nests, and as many as 110 nests have been counted in a single 
tree, it is possible to form some conception of the number of pigeons 
which reared their young at this place. 
It is stated that from this nesting the first shipment of birds was made 
on March 22, 1878, and the last upon August 12, during which time the war 
against the hapless birds was waged with varying intensity. ‘For many 
weeks the railroad shipments averaged fifty barrels of dead birds per day, 
thirty to forty dozen old birds and about fifty squabs being packed in a 
barrel. Allowing 500 birds to a barrel, and averaging the entire shipments 
for the season at 25 barrels per day we find the railroad shipments to have 
been 12,500 dead birds daily, or 1,500,000 for the summer. Of live birds 
there were shipped 1,116 crates, six dozen per crate, or 80,352 birds. These 
were railroad shipments only and not including the cargoes by steamer 
from Petoskey, Cheboygan, Cross Village, and other lake ports, which were 
as many more” (H. B. Roney, American Field, Jan. 11, 1879). 
Squabs were considered special delicacies and were collected in immense 
numbers by jarring the smaller trees, felling the larger ones, or even by 
setting fire to the loose bark of the birches, which were favorite nesting 
trees. In addition to the thousands destroyed in this way, and the hundreds 
of thousands shipped yearly for food and for trap shooting, the Indians of 
Northern Michigan, as well as many of the white residents in the neighbor- 
hood of the roosts, collected immense numbers of adults and squabs and 
preserved them for winter use by salting or smoking and drying. : 
Dr. Isaac Voorheis of Frankfort, Mich., told the writer personally that in 
1880 or 1881, when there was a large nesting in Benzie county, he took, 
at one throw of the net, 109 dozen and 8 pigeons (1,316 birds), and that 
six catches of the net brought him $650. These birds were kept alive 
until a schooner load was obtained, when they were sent directly to Chicago 
