Mr Audubon on the Habits of the Wild Pigeon. 257 



At Bayta, between the terrestrial and the magnetic equator, 

 in March 1823, in lat. 5*5' 50". 6 S. and long. 80° 58' 5" W. the 

 variation was 8° 55' 37" N.E. and the dip. + 4* 6'.8. 

 (To be concluded in next Number.) 



Art. XVIII. — Notes on the Habits of the Wild Pigeon of 

 America, Columba migratoria. * By John James Audu- 

 bon, Esq. F. R. S. Edin. M. W. S., &c. &c. and Member of 

 the Lyceum of New York. Communicated by the Author. 



The most important facts connected with the habits of these 

 birds relate to their extraordinary associations and migrations. 

 No other species known to naturalists is more calculated to 

 attract the attention of either the citizen or the stranger, as 

 he has opportunities of viewing both of these characteristic 

 habits while they are passing from north to south, east and 

 west, and vice versa over and across the whole extent of the 

 United States of America. 



These remarkable migrations are owing entirely to the dire 

 necessity of providing food, and not merely to escape the se- 

 verity of a northern latitude, or seek a southern one for the 

 purpose of breeding. They consequently do not take place 

 at any fixed 'period or season of the year. Indeed, it happens 

 sometimes that a continuance of a sufficient supply of food in 

 one district will keep those birds absent from another for years. 



I know at least to a certainty, that in Kentucky they re- 

 mained for several years constantly, and were nowhere else 

 to be found. They all disappeared one season suddenly when 

 the mast was exhausted, and thus did not return for a long 

 period. The same facts have been observed in other states. 



Their great power of flight enables them when in need to 

 survey and pass over an astonishing extent of country in a 



* Read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Feb. 19, 1827. 

 VOL. VI. NO. II. APRIL 1827. R 



