132 The Passenger Pigeon 



and hung them up to dry in the same manner as dried 

 beef (I mean the breasts). Of course the remainder 

 of the carcasses we cooked for immediate use, or as much 

 of them as we needed for the family. Let me tell you 

 that those pigeon breasts were a dainty morsel, and 

 would last as long as dried beef and was far its superior 

 in taste. 



While rummaging through the attic a few days since, 

 I came across the old pigeon stool upon which the stool- 

 pigeon was tied, which my father used so many years 

 ago, and it carried me back to my boyhood and con- 

 veyed to my mind vivid memories of the past. 



The pigeons continued to visit us in great abundance 

 for a number of years, although there would be an occa- 

 sional season when there would not be so many. As 

 the years rolled by they became fewer in number until 

 in the fall of 1876, when I saw my last Passenger 

 Pigeons (a small flock of ten or fifteen) , I tried hard to 

 procure some for my cabinet, but failed. 



One peculiar habit of the Passenger Pigeons was 

 that during their migrations, should they alight and 

 their crops were filled with inferior food, they would 

 vomit it up in order to fill themselves with something 

 better should they find it. 



F. N. Lawrence stated in Forest and Stream of Feb- 

 ruary 18, 1899, that when a boy, in the late forties, 

 he spent most of his time on his grandfather's country 

 seat at Manhattanville, on the North River. In those 



