our old host, Mr'. Friend, insisting upon our staying, we took 
up our quarters for another night with him, and the next 
morning being Sunday, we started for home. The moral 
sense of the community was shocked, and nothing that we 
could do or say seemed to have any effect upon the highly 
religious people of Cumberland. No express wagon could 
be found to transport our game to our respective homes, 
and necessity compelled us to brave the world’s censure and 
carry our own game, whieh we did, regardless of those 
envious ones who blamed us for what they were sorry they 
had not done. Yours, Observer. 
FROM 
ci'hd i l J ]/aL, A/ L4 
TRAPPING WILD PIGEONS. 
Corry, Pa., May 16 Wt. 
O N the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, ninety-five 
miles from Erie, in the midst of a vast forest, re- 
poses the little village of Kane. Without architectural 
beauty, and lacking in many of the comforts which are 
to be found in most modern town*, Kane nevertheless 
presents to certain classes of people attractions rare and 
valuable. The village is situated upon the highest point 
of land on the Philadelphia and Brie Railroad, and the 
clear, pure air thus insured at all seasons is productive 
of robust appetites and correspondingly perfect health. 
This advantage alone is sufficient to draw a large number 
of Philadelphians to Kane every summer, and with it 
must be considered the fact before mentioned, that upon 
every side for miles extends an unbroken forest, with its 
innumerable charms for the lover of nature. There is 
yet one inducement to pleasure seekers unmentioned, 
one which comes with regular irregularity and one whose 
various phenomena are interesting and wonderful alike 
to the scientist and to the unpretending student of na- 
ture — the immense flock of wild pigeons which nests 
about once every five years in the vicinity of Kane. 
There are three such flocks in the United States— one in 
Michigan, another in Missouri and the third and largest, 
that with which we have to deal, in Pennsylvania. 
These flocks drift about from season to season following 
the crop of nuts and rarely going beyond the boundaries 
of their own States. The woods in the vicinity of Kane 
are largely bdech, except in the valleys or marshes where 
hemlock prevails and the immediate cause of the birds’ 
nesting where they have this year was an immense crop 
of beech nuts last fall. 
I could not learn how, but certain it is that in some 
way the birds learn the location of the richest harvest 
and are always on hand at the right time to enjoy it. 
Last fall a few pigeons were observed in the woods near 
Kane, and the “ old settlers,” with an air of confident 
knowledge peculiar to old settlers and editors, said that 
with the spring would come the flock. The few stray 
birds remained in the neighborhood all winter, and dur- 
ing March the prophecy was verified by the appearance 
of countless millions of pigeons. 
The birds built their nests over a territory of about 
twenty square miles, and began hatching April 1st. Their 
presence in such vast numbers soon drew together a 
crowd.qf gunners and others bent on destruction as a 
means of enjoyment or of gaining a livelihood, and from 
that day to this a ceaseless slaughter has continued. 
We reached Kane at 3:30 p.m. and sought accomoda- 
tions at the Thompson House, which, however, had not 
yet opened its doors to summer travel. An inquiry at 
the Kane House resulted differently, and we registered 
thefe. We were up early the next morning, and at 6 
e’clock were oh our way to the “ roost,” in an easy rid- 
ing carriage drawn by a team of spanking grays. Our 
road lay through dense woods, and was not more than 
fifteen feet wide. On each side the trees rose a solid wall 
nearly a hundred feet into the air. The grandeur of 
that still morning scene, the invigorating air the pros- 
pect of a long and pleasant ride, all the surrounding cir- 
cumstances tending to exhilaration in the highest degeee. 
However, “it is a long lane that has no turning,” and 
after traversing twenty-one miles, the driver delivered 
himself of the information that the nesting ground had 
been attained. 
Onlv a few pigeons were in sight, flying from tree to 
