498 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



numbers than he had .ever known before. He attempted to count 

 the different flocks as they successively passed, but after counting 

 one hundred and sixty-three in twenty-one minutes, he gave it up 

 as impracticable. As he journeyed on, their numbers seemed to 

 increase. The air seemed filled with Pigeons, and the light of noon- 

 day to be obscured as by an eclipse. Not a single bird alighted, as 

 the woods were destitute of mast, and all flew so high that he 

 failed to reach any with a rifle. He speaks of their aerial evolu- 

 tions as beautiful in the extreme, especially when a Hawk pressed 

 upon the rear of a flock. All at once, like a torrent, and with a 

 noise like that of thunder, they rushed together in a compact mass, 

 and darted forward in undulating lines, descending and sweeping 

 near the earth with marvellous velocity, then mounting almost per- 

 pendicularly in a vast column, wheeling and twisting so that their 

 continued lines seemed to resemble the coils of a gigantic serpent. 

 During the whole of his journey from Hardensburg to Louisville, 

 fifty-five miles, they continued to pass in undiminished numbers, 

 and also did so during the three following days. At times they 

 flew so low that multitudes were destroyed, and for many clays the 

 entire population seemed to eat nothing else but Pigeons." 



GENUS ZENAIDURA BONAPARTE. 



Zenaidura BONAP. Consp. Avium, ii. 1854, 84. Type, Columba carolinensis LINN. 



"GEN. CHAR. Bill weak, black; culmenfrom frontal feathers about one third the head 

 above. Tarsus not as long as middle toe and claw, but considerably longer than the 

 lateral ones; covered anteriorly by a single series of scutellre. Inner lateral claw con- 

 siderably longer than outer, and reaching to the base of middle. Wings pointed; second 

 quill longest; first and third nearly equal. Tail very long, equal to the wings; exces- 

 sively graduated and cuneate, of fourteen feathers." (Hist. N. Am. B.) 



The fourteen tail-feathers render this genus very conspicuous 

 among the North American doves. It was formerly placed with the 

 Passenger Pigeon in Ectopistes, but has nothing in common with it 

 but the lengthened tail, as it belongs to a different subfamily. At 

 present three species are known, one (Z. graysoni LAWR.) being 

 pecul.ar to Socorro Island, well off the coast of western Mexico, the 

 other (Z. yucatanensis LAWR.) from the vicinity of Merida, in northern 

 Yucatan. The latter is possibly a hybrid between Z. carolinensis 

 and Zenaida amabilis, being exactly intermediate in form and color- 

 ation, whde the type specimen still remains unique. (Cf. Hist. N. 

 Am. B. Yol. III., p. 382, and "The Auk," Vol. I., Jan. 1884, p. 96.) 



