PASSENGER PIGEON. 633 



ders of Lake Champlain in New York, and that the for- 

 est to a great extent presented a scene of total ruin. 



The breeding-places, as might naturally be expected, 

 differ from the roosts in their greater extent. In 1807, 

 according to Wilson, one of these immense nurseries, 

 near Shelbyville in Kentucky, was several miles in 

 breadth, and extended through the woods for upwards of 

 40 miles ! After occupying this situation for a succession 

 of seasons, they at length abandoned it, and removed 60 

 or SO miles off to the banks of Green river in the same 

 state, where they congregated in equal numbers.* These 

 situations seem regulated by the prospect of a supply of 

 food, such as beech and oak mast. They also feed on 

 most kinds of pulse and grain, as well as whortle-berries, 

 with those of the holly and nettle-tree. Wilson often count- 

 ed upwards of 90 nests in a single tree, and the whole for- 

 est was filled with them. These frail cradles for the young 

 are merely formed of a few slender dead twigs, negli- 

 gently put together; and with so little art, that the con-' 

 cavity appears scarcely sufficient for the transient recep- 

 tion of the young, who are readily seen through this thin 

 flooring from below. The eggs are white, as usual, and 

 only two in number, one of them abortive, according to 

 Wilson, and producing usually but a single bird. Audu- 

 bon, however, asserts, that there are two, as in the tame 

 Pigeons, where the number of the sexes in this faithful 

 tribe are almost uniformly equal. Their cooing call, 

 billing, and general demeanor are apparently quite simi- 

 lar to the behaviour of the domestic species in the breed- 

 ing-season. Birds of prey, and rapacious animals gener- 

 ally, are pretty regular attendants upon these assailable 



* By some remarkable inadvertence, this place, with all the circumstances, is de- 

 scribed by Audubon as a roost of 40 miles by 3 in breadth, about the dimensions of 

 Wilson's breeding-place. 



