Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-06-26
MILLIONS OLE PIGEONS.
The Great Nesting Grounds in Forest ant
Warren Counties, Pennsylvania.

The Great Nesting Grounds in Forest and
Warren Counties, Pennsylvania.
A Bradford (Pa.) correspondent OF the
New York Times says; Millions of wild
pigeons are nesting in the VIC DDS on the
borders of Forest and Warren counties, in
what is known as the Spring creek region,
The country thereabout is almost an uil-
broken wilderness, few bark peelers, log
cutters and oil-well wild-catters forming
the entire popslation. The vast beech
woods that cover much of the area aaord
the food that attracts the pigeons 10 the
locality, every fruitful beechnut year being
sure to be followed by the appearance OF
the birds in greater or less numbers. 1t Is
claimed by professional pigeon meters,
~ho make it business to keep posted On
the movements of Wild pigeons and to fol-
! low them wherever they NAV fix tkeir
roosting and nesting places, that all
of the common wild pigeons in this
country form one great coloay, and that
the conditions of the feeding grounds in
one locality are sometimes found to be SO
| favorable that the entire body of .rigeons'
nest in that one locality, in which case
they cover an area of weeds not less than
ten miles square. 1t is generally arranged
Nv the birds, however, to nest in two or
ithree colonies in different raFss of the
=
! beech woods were populated by the main
I body of visiting birds was in 1880, when
| they filed five miles square of the woods
| in Forest county. The roo st this spring in
those woods is muchsmallsr il dimensions.
| In 1880 birds began to arrive in the woods
as early as February, and for two weeks
| there was a ceasd,ess iIIfiyX. The snow
was still deep in tie woodsand the pigeons
swept down upon it b. ihe million, and by
using their wings, uncovered the buried
beechnuts. UTtold thousands persisted
from starvation and cold during the first
two weeks of the roost.
Another large division of the main
colony soCght feeding grounds that year
in Indian Territory, and another in the
Michigan weeds, but tie roost in Pennsfl-
vania was SO much larger than the Others,
and SO easy of access and convenient to
market, that the professional meters came
from aid parts of the country to Forest
county. The roost broke up in the latter
part of April, and in that time more than
100000 was received by meters and hunt
ers for pigeons and squads killed and
netted in the woods. The main body of
the wild pigeon7colony of North America
nested in Foresteeunty in 1867, 1868, 1871,
1878 and 1880. 1t is this year in Missouri.
The appearance OF the pigeons IN the
along Palate creek, has been quickly fol-
lowed by hundreds of hunters and METERS,
both professional and amateur. The farmer,
the bark-peeler, the villager, the oil scout,
and the wiid-cetter, are now out in force,
and, in spite of the strict law forbidding
| the capturing Of wild pigeons during the
nesting season, are making away with the
birds and their young by the thousand
every day. Besides the barrelfuls of pig
cons and squads that are daily shipped
away from every available railway station,
myriads of the birds are killed and left TO
r 1t in the woods.
The hen. lays one egg generally, but
sometimes two. While she is on the nest
| the tom carries her the choicest food he
can find, and takes bis place on the egg
every afternoon for an hour or two while
| the hen takes an airing. There may be
| fifty nestssin one tree. The egg is thirteen
| days in Matching. The young bird is fed
by its parents for thirteen days. Tie food
| is sometimes carried twenty miles ormore
| by the old birds. BY some mysterious
| process it is changed in their crops to sort
of whey This the young bird sucks from
the crop By inserting its beak in the open
| mouth of the old bird. This food is called
pigeon milk" When the SQUAD is ,13 days
old it is as round and fat as q butter
ball. and-is left to itself by its parents. The
woods are constantly full of these eenical
locking birds during nesting time. They
cannot fly for two or three days, and dur
ing that interval they tumble and stagger
about like tipsy men. By and by they find
their wings. These helpless squads are
virtually seooped up" by the thousand
and sent to market. They are worth s. a
dozen. a pair of pigeons hatck three
brsods before the roost breaks up. Then
the mass of birds separate and go to all
parts of the country in isolated tlocks that
are-seen from late in the spring until fall.
In November they gather together again
anS seek Q common home for the winter