1 82 The Passenger Pigeon 



of John Burroughs. Mr. Burroughs and I went to 

 school together when we were boys, and, as you say, he 

 is a good authority on natural history, and I have had 

 some communication with him on the pigeon question. 

 I live in the heart of the Catskill Mountains, which was 

 once a great resort for wild pigeons, and I have seen a 

 vast number of them, dating back as far as 1848, when 

 this country was literally covered with them, and for 

 some years after. Now in regard to the wild pigeons 

 I saw this spring. I was going to my home in the vil- 

 lage of Prattsville, in company with a man by the name 

 of M. E. Kreiger, one Sunday afternoon, and when 

 near my house we stopped to talk a few minutes, when, 

 on looking up, we saw the flock of pigeons. They were 

 coming from the southeast and went to the northwest. 

 The flock was about one-half mile long and flew in the 

 same manner as pigeons of old. There were thousands 

 of them. Now in regard to ducks, teal and plover, we 

 never see any of them here in the mountains, though 

 once in a while a few ducks, but only in small flocks of 

 seven or eight in a bunch; and there are no birds that 

 gather in flocks here but crows in the fall, but never at 

 any other time. Wild geese fly over here in the fall. 



The Daily Leader, a daily paper published in Kings- 

 ton, Ulster County, N. Y., contained an item a few 

 weeks since stating that a flock of wild pigeons passed 

 over the city a short time ago. The flock was about 

 one mile long and contained many thousands. And in 



