Identifier: passengerpigeoni00fren (find matches)
Title: The passenger pigeon in Pennsylvania, its remarkable history, habits and extinction, with interesting side lights on the folk and forest lore of the Alleghenian region of the old Keystone state
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: French, John C., 1858-
Subjects: Pigeons
Publisher: Altoona, Pa., Altoona tribune company
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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at and eatscurds from the parents craw. This curd does not mix with the old birds food,being in a container by itself, which gives way aftertwelve or thirteen days from the day of hatching theyoung. After that the squabs get beechnuts and otherseeds mixed with the curd. Pigeons nested in Penn-sylvania, only in the spring, after a good crop of beech-nuts the preceding autumn. The writers home was near these nestings. Fromone-half mile to four miles we would find eight orten colonies of nesting birds, and we have been in sixor eight that were farther away. We have tried nottc enlarge this account in any manner for no one knowswhat a pigeon nesting is like, until he has visited one.The birds build nests in every tree that stands on fheterritory the nesting covers. Undoubtedly there werethree times as many nests in a hemlock tree as therewere in a hardwood tree. We counted fifty-sevennests in a large birch tree. In a hemlock there are somany more places for nests; while the boughs were so
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C. W. DICKINSON THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 59 thick, it was not possible to count them correctly.To answer the question of what became of them:There were millions of them caught in nets and ship-ped to the large cities. Still there were millions of thebirds here again in 1886, which was the last body ofthem that visited this state. A few small flocks passedthrough this locality since then. We saw a flock ofabout 100 birds in September, 1905, and a lone pigeonin 1906. In April of 1886, they returned for the expresspurpose of nesting. The beechnut crop of 1885 wasvery large. That was what brought them here. Whenfood was real plentiful they have been known to nestthree times in a single season: First, in the latter partof March; second, in the early part of May; and third,about June 10. When they came here to nest theywere scattered over three or four counties, roostingwherever night overtook them; but for a night or twobefore they began building nests, they roosted in onelarge

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