42 The Ottawa Naturalist. [May 



however was not detected by the boys) and all at once the pig^eons 

 rose to some little height and went over the woods. The tail 

 feathers of these birds, have a large handsome brick-red spot on 

 inner web, and the children were in the habit of picking up these 

 pretty feathers shed by the birds as they flew over. Although 

 these tremendous flights going north, were an annual occurrence 

 for days at a time, I cannot remember that 1 ever saw a single 

 large flock going south. The reason for this has always been a 

 problem when one considers the enormous numbers which come 

 from the south each year. 



The motion of these flocks was far more swift than that of 

 any other bird I had ever seen, so swift in fact that one could 

 detect that a flock was moving as soon as ever it came in sight 

 as a cloud in the distance ; and as they passed by, one flock fol- 

 lowing another, it gave one the impression of battalions of soldiers 

 following each other on the double. 



Dr. Bethune then read some extracts from the Canadian 

 Naturalist^ Volume I, for 1857, prefacing them by a few remarks 

 about the appearance of that magazine. Mr. Elkanah Billings, the 

 editor, it seems had permission from the son of Audubon, and 

 from some other naturalists, to use their writings in his magazine. 

 Many verv interesting details were brought out from these articles, 

 one of which was rather startling when carefully considered ; this 

 was a calculation by Wilson of the number of birds which he saw 

 pass a certain point in a given time one day in Kentucky, in which 

 his final estimate was that the birds he had seen would consume 

 seventeen million bushels of grain in a day. Wilson's writing 

 referred to the nest of the pigeon as containing but one o.^^ as a 

 rule, but Mr. Billings, in a note, stated that the nests usually con- 

 tained two eggs. Some of the members present had read definite 

 reports each way, and Mr. Keays has a single t^^ which consti- 

 tuted the whole set, and was taken by his brother in Minnesota 

 years ago. Dr. Bethune had never heard of breeding grounds 

 being near the localities where he had lived, although stragglers 

 were to be seen ail summer. 



Mr, J. J. Baker said that it is not over thirty years ago since 

 roosting places existed about thirty miles northeast of Toronto. 



