CHAPTER XI 

 Recollections of "Old Timers" 



MR. OSCAR B. WARREN, now of Hough- 

 ton, Mich., has been interested for years in 

 collecting data about the Passenger Pigeon, 

 and kindly turned over to me his entire budget. Among 

 his letters is the following from Mr. H. T. Blodgett, 

 Superintendent of Public Schools, Ludington, Mich., 

 dated November 19, 1904: 



. . . Your pigeon is a stranger to me, or rather 

 has been a stranger for six or more years. I can dis- 

 tinctly remember clouds of them, darkening the sky, 

 almost, in Pennsylvania, thirty years ago. Later, in 

 Michigan, they were abundant, coming to this part of the 

 State as soon as the snow was gone, picking up the 

 beech nuts and "shack" of the woods. After a few 

 weeks' flying about and feeding they would disappear; 

 reappearing again in June, young pigeons, fat, and the 

 choicest eating. They would stay a few weeks, not 

 more than about three weeks, going about July i. 

 During this visit the birds haunted the thick woods, 

 and would call from the shade of the leaves of beech, 

 maple, and hemlock trees through the heat of the day, 



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