64 The Passenger Pigeon 



singly or in small parties in the woods. Such stragglers 

 attract little attention, and no one attempts to net them, 

 although many are shot. 



"The largest nesting he ever visited was In 1876 or 

 1877. It began near Petoskey, and extended northeast 

 past Crooked Lake for 28 miles, averaging 3 or 4 miles 

 wide. The birds arrived in two separate bodies, one 

 directly from the south by land, the other following 

 the east coast of Wisconsin, and crossing at Manitou 

 Island. He saw the latter body come in from the lake 

 at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It was a compact 

 mass of pigeons, at least 5 miles long by i mile wide. 

 The birds began building when the snow was 12 inches 

 deep in the woods, although the fields were bare at the 

 time. So rapidly did the colony extend its boundaries 

 that it soon passed literally over and around the place 

 where he was netting, although when he began, this 

 point was several miles from the nearest nest. Nestings 

 usually start in deciduous woods, but during their prog- 

 ress the pigeons do not skip any kind of trees they 

 encounter. The Petoskey nesting extended 8 miles 

 through hardwood timber, then crossed a river bottom 

 wooded with arborvitae, and thence stretched through 

 white pine woods about 20 miles. For the entire dis- 

 tance of 28 miles every tree of any size had more or 

 less nests, and many trees were filled with them. None 

 were lower than about 1 5 feet above the ground. 



"Pigeons are very noisy when building. They make 



