GamE-BIRDS AND PIGEONS. 195 
will soon be a matter of history. In many locali- 
ties, especially along our Atlantic seaboard tier 
of States, the bird 
is now quite un- 
known where fifty 
years ago it an- 
nually made its 
appearance. In 
enormous num- 
bers these pigeons 
would come, re- 
main a few days, 
and pass on. The 
graphic account given by Audubon, that was ridi- 
culed so by European naturalists, is true to the 
letter. In November, 1865, I saw a flock that must 
have contained three or four thousand birds. This 
was in Monroe County, Pennsylvania. Since then I 
have seldom seen even single birds. Dr. Warren 
reports them as scattered about the State, but no- 
where in great numbers. They will soon disappear 
from this section, and the same will happen in the 
West. They are captured there by “netting,” and 
the opinion has been expressed, and with good reason, 
that “the pigeon will soon join the buffalo on that 
list so disgraceful to humanity, ‘the extinct’ species, 
—a list that will be filled rapidly if a check is not 
put on men’s avarice and the law’s shameful negli- 
gence.” (Chamberlain.) 
The following is from Wheaton’s “ Birds of Ohio:” 
““Mr. Read states that in the spring’ of 1851 they appeared ‘in 
vast numbers in the fields, feeding upon the dead grasshoppers, the 
Wild Pigeon. 
