The Wild Pigeon of North America 55 



Michigan not less than three hundred tons of birds. 

 During the thirty years of their greatest slaughter there 

 must have been shipped to our great cities 5,700 tons 

 of these birds; allowing each pigeon to weigh one- 

 half pound would show twenty-three millions of birds. 

 Think of it! And all these were caught during their 

 brooding season, which must have decreased their num- 

 bers as many more. Nor is this all. During the same 

 time hunters from all parts of the country gathered at 

 these brooding places and slaughtered them without 

 mercy. 



In the above estimate are not reckoned the thousands 

 of dozens that were shipped alive to sporting clubs for 

 trap-shooting, as well as those consumed by the local 

 trade throughout the pigeon districts of the United 

 States. 



These experts finally learned that the birds while 

 nesting were frantic after salty mud and water, so they 

 frequently made, near the nesting places, what were 

 known by the craft as mud beds, which were salted, 

 to which the birds would flock by the million. In 

 April, 1876, I was invited to see a net over one of these 

 death pits. It was near Petoskey, Mich. I think I 

 am correct in saying the birds piled one upon another 

 at least two feet deep when the net was sprung, and 

 it seemed to me that most of them escaped the trap, 

 but on killing and counting, there were found to be 

 over one hundred dozen, all nesting birds. 



