Note 105 — Front matter (continued 6)

(page page 330).—Such huge flights of wild doves were still occasionally to be seen in Wisconsin until about 1878. The present writer has seen them, especially about 1868, in flocks of such size as to darken the sun, as at a total eclipse; large fields in which they would settle would seem to be solid masses of birds; and at night they would roost upon trees in such numbers as to break the branches. Farmers and pot-hunters easily killed great numbers with long sticks, either as they rested upon the trees, or rose from the ground in clouds, when disturbed.