A Pioneer History oe Pecker County. 
187 
tree blew down about five years ago and tbe eagles have found a 
new nesting place more remote from civilization. 
In 1897 a whooping crane was found dead in Town Lake, 
south of Frazee. The bird had been shot and had probably flown 
some distance before his wounds proved fatal. Albert Higbee, in 
tbe history of Walworth, also mentions the killing of one in that 
township in the early eighties. 
Cormorants and pelicans formerly nested in Becker County 
and the fact that two lakes were named after these birds is due 
to this fact. The cormorants formerly nested on the islands in 
the lake of that name, in the southwestern part of the county, 
but were forced to vacate by the settlers. 
There were several colonies of blue heron in the county, but 
now the nests are widely scattered. During the summers of 1886 
to 1889 the Indians cut down about thirty pine trees each year 
on the shores of Rice Lake, north of Height of Land Lake, in 
order to get the young birds for food. 
The wild pigeon, which at one time was found everywhere in 
North America, from Mexico to Hudson’s Bay and from the Atlan¬ 
tic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains, has entirely disappeared. These 
birds nested in Becker County and as far north as Hudson’s Bay. 
Until the seventies the wild pigeon was very plentiful and count¬ 
less thousands of them were killed in this locality. The last one 
seen in Becker County, of which there is a record, was observed 
by Mr. Wilcox in 1888. This bird was crippled and remained 
through the summer of that year in a little grove of pine trees 
on the banks of the Otter Tail River about eight miles north of 
Frazee. 
Woodcock never were plentiful in Becker County and for many 
years have been very rare. This is one of the game birds that 
is rapidly disappearing and will soon be referred to only in tbe 
past tense. 
The finest of all our ducks, the graceful, beautifully plumaged 
wood duck is another favorite that is becoming rarer each year. 
This bird formerly nested in holes in trees near the lakes and 
streams of Becker Comity and some of them still breed in remote 
sections of the county. Old settlers recall seeing the mother bird 
carrying her young, one by one, in her bill to the water from the 
nest in the tree. 
Other birds that are practically extinct in this locality, are the 
avocets, curlews and godwits. 
