io6 The Passenger Pigeon 



from Black Lake in crates holding six dozen each. All 

 of these crates were made by hand by one E. Osborn, 

 who was then one of the traveling pigeon catchers, the 

 firm being Osborn & Thompson, well known by all men 

 who traveled then. From that time I have handled live 

 pigeons in quantities up to 175,000 per year until they 

 left the country. The last nesting in Michigan was up 

 on Crooked Lake near Petoskey in 1878, 1 believe, from 

 which I shipped 150,000. 



In 1866, they nested in the town of Vassar, Tiscola 

 County, Mich., and usually each alternate year, as 

 the mast crop was every second season, beech nuts being 

 their choice food. The other years they nested in Wis- 

 consin on acorns, or in Minnesota, feeding on spring 

 wheat. New York sometimes held them, and Pennsyl- 

 vania often, for a nesting; but being a hard place they 

 never caught many there, Michigan being the favorite 

 trapping ground. 1874 there was a nesting at Shelby, 

 Oceana County, Mich., on which it was estimated they 

 made the heaviest catches I have ever known of: 100 

 barrels daily on an average of thirty days of dead birds, 

 besides the live ones, of which I shipped 175,000. 



There were five nestings that year in the State, three 

 going on at the same time, but all not heavily worked. 

 That year I shipped by the steamer Fountain City, from 

 Frankfort, 478 coops, six dozen each, one shipment 

 going to Oswego, N. Y., for the Leather Stocking Club 

 Tournament. 



