SUMMER BIRDS. 
1 66 
Accipiter fuscus (Gmel.) Bp. Sharp-shinned Hawk. 
One observed by Mr. Pearsall. 
Iiuteo borealis (Gm.) Vieill. Red-tailed Hawk. 
From the summit of Slide Mountain two handsome adults of this 
hawk were seen wheeling- in the air below. 
o 
Haliaetus leucocephalus (L.) Sav. White-headed Eagle. 
From the summit of Slide Mountain an adult bird was seen pass- 
ing high over the valleys. 
FAMILY COLUMBIDYE: P-IGEONS AND DOVES. 
The Mourning Dove (, Zenaidura Carolinensis Bp.) being a bird of the 
outskirts of the region, may occasionally stray along the valleys into the 
mountains. 
Ectopistes migratorius (L.) Sw. Passenger Pigeon. 
Information was received that Wild Pigeons formerly bred abund- 
antly in this region, and Mr. Burroughs has written to the same ef- 
fect, but also, that owing to the slaughter of both old and young the 
species has become rare. In “Wake Robin " (p. 174) we read: 
“Wild Pigeons, in immense numbers, used to breed regularly in 
the Valley of the Big Ingin and about the head of the Neversink. 
The tree-tops for miles were full ol their nests, while the going and 
coming of the old birds kept up a constant din. But the gunners 
soon got wind of it, and from far and near were wont to pour in 
during the spring, and to slaughter both old and young. This prac- 
tice soon had the effect of driving the Pigeons all away, and now 
only a few pairs breed in these woods.” 
From a reliable resident I received the information that it is not 
many years since vast numbers of Wild Pigeons formed a breeding 
colony on the mountains beyond the head ot the Big Indian Valley. 
It seems probable that it is to this breeding ground that Mr. Bur- 
roughs alludes (Locusts and Wild Honey, p. 118) in an account of 
a trout-fishing excursion along the Navesink in 1869: “Here and 
there I saw the abandoned nests of the pigeons, sometimes half a 
dozen on one tree. In a yellow birch which the floods had uprooted 
a number of nests were still in place, little shelves or platforms of 
twigs loosely arranged and affording little or no protection to the 
eggs or the young birds against inclement weather.” 
A single Wild Pigeon seen by Mr. Pearsall was the only evidence 
furnished by recent exploration in the region of the present occur- 
rence of this formerly abundant bird. 
