Our records of this species during the past few years have referred
in most instances, to very small flocks and generally to pairs or
individuals. In _The Auk_ for July, 1897, I recorded a flock of some
fifty pigeons from southern Missouri, but such a number has been very
unusual. It is now very gratifying to be able to record still larger
numbers and I am indebted to Mr. A. Fugleberg of Oshkosh, Wis., for
the following letter of information, under date of September 1, 1897:
"I live on the west shore of Lake Winnebago, Wis. About 6 o'clock on
the morning of August 14, 1897, I saw a flock of wild pigeons flying
over the bay from Fisherman's Point to Stony Beach, and I assure you
it reminded me of old times, from 1855 to 1880, when pigeons were
plentiful every day. So I dropped my work and stood watching them.
This flock was followed by six more flocks, each containing about
thirty-five to eighty pigeons, except the last, which only contained
seven. All these flocks passed over within half an hour. One flock
of some fifty birds flew within gunshot of me, the others all the
way from one hundred to three hundred yards from where I stood." Mr.
Fugleberg is an old hunter and has had much experience with the wild
pigeon. In a later letter dated September 4, 1897, he writes: "On Sept.
2, 1897, I was hunting prairie chickens near Lake Butte des Morts,
Wis., where I met a friend who told me that a few days previous he had
seen a flock of some twenty-five wild pigeons and that they were the
first he had seen for years." This would appear as though these birds
were instinctively working back to their old haunts, as the Winnebago
region was once a favorite locality. We hope that Wisconsin will follow
Michigan in making a close season on wild pigeons for ten years,
and thus give them a chance to multiply, and, perhaps, regain, in a
measure, their former abundance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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