A little after the middle of March a body of birds began nesting some
twelve miles north of Petoskey, near Pickerel Lake. About April 8
another and larger body "set in" along Maple and Indian Rivers, and
Burt Lake, and near Cross Village, there being in all some seven or
eight distinct nestings, covering perhaps, of territory actually
occupied by the nesting, a tract some fifteen miles long and three of
average width, or forty-five square miles.
The principal catch was made from the Crooked and Maple rivers
nestings, and when the former "broke," which was about May 25, the
pigeoners pulled up and left, many going home, and others to the Boyne
Falls nesting, some thirty miles south, which "set in" at about the
same time. This gave a duration of two and one-third months to the
Petoskey nesting proper, though it is true that, feed being abundant,
some very few birds remained around, roosting for a little longer.
The Boyne Falls nesting lasted something over a month and broke early
in July; from this the catch was very light. After that, the only catch
was a few young birds taken "on bait."
Besides these nestings, there was one further south on the Manistee
River, some twenty-six miles long by five average width, or 130 square
miles, in which the birds hatched three times, and from which not a
bird was caught, as it was an impenetrable swamp, and the putting of
birds on the market would be attended with such expense as to destroy
the profit. There were also one or two smaller ones, east of this
one. These comprised the Michigan nestings, in addition to which, at
Sheffield, Pa., there was fully as large a body, and fully as large a
catch as at the Crooked and Maple nestings, the birds hatching there,
I think, three times, each hatching taking four weeks, from the
beginning of nest building to the time the old birds leave the young.
It is true, however, that birds were shipped from Petoskey the middle
of August, but they were birds belonging to me that I was holding there
for a market, my Chicago pens being full. Every bird of them had been
in my possession for a month previous, and many for six weeks. So the
actual pigeon business lasted not five months, as Prof. Roney says, but
about three; part of which time the total catch was not fifty dozen per
day.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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