o 



)88 ECTOPISTES MIGRATORIA, WILD PIGEON. 



allude to its continual wandering over the greater part of North America. 

 But in the West its food supply is limited, and its presence correspond- 

 ingly restricted. Excepting along the Missouri and the principal tribu- 

 taries of that great river, the Wild Pigeon does not ordinarily exceed 

 the general line oi ivooded country to pass out upon the bare plains be- 

 yond. But just as the Missouri forms for us a highway of communica- 

 tion with the vast districts which would be otherwise almost inaccessible, 

 so it seems to lead the Pigeons northwesterly, in great numbers, to 

 meridians of longitude they do not gain in the southwest. I never 

 saw or heard of one in New Mexico or Arizona, and have found no 

 quotations from Colorado, Utah, or California. But the birds reach 

 across Nebraska, probably following the Platte into Wj^oming, and 

 through Dakota and Montana, being even conducted to Pacific slopes 

 along the northern border of the United States. 



Many years ago Townsend mentioned the Passenger Pigeon as an in- 

 habitant of " Oregon," but that was then so comprehensive a term that the 

 conhrmation of the occurrence, recently made by Drs. Cooper and Suck- 

 ley, was the more acceptable. In the work above quoted these authors 

 give the only unquestionable Pacific advices I have found. Still later 

 Dr. Cooper contributed some interesting items to the American Natu- 

 ralist on the occurrence of the species in Montana : " The Passenger 

 Pigeon, like the Cat-bird, astonished me by its frequency in the Eocky 

 Mountains, as, although I saw no very large flocks, I saw some almost 

 every day until I passed the Spokane Falls, just north of the Columbia 

 Plains. It thus seems to pass round to the north of that plain, and 

 occasionally to cross the Cascade Eange, as noticed by Dr. Suckley in 

 1853. Along the Missouri I often saw small flocks, and noticed quite a 

 number of their nests in small trees between Forts Pierre and Berthold. 

 I found one setting, June 7, and heard that many build farther south, 

 near Sioux City. In the mountains they fed, in August, chiefly on the 

 service berry {Amelancliier alnifoUa), which, along the Hell Gate, attains 

 a size and flavor unequaled by any I have seen elsewhere." Dr. Hayden 

 remarks upon its abundance on the Lower Missouri, but considered it 

 as rarer than it really is higher up the river. Still he says he has seen 

 a hundred individuals in a season, high up on the Yellowstone, when 

 the berries were ripe. According to Sir John Richardson, it reaches the 

 fur countries in May and leaves in October, attaining latitudes from 58° 

 to 02°, according to climatic conditions. 



The westernmost point where I have as yet myself observed the Pas- 

 senger Pigeon is Turtle Mountain, on the northern boundary of Dakota. 

 It w^as, however, a rare bird in that locality. But a little further east, 

 along the Eed Eiver, I observed vast flocks during the latter part of 

 May, iu all the timber of the river, for many miles from Pembina south- 

 wardj and they doubtless extended as much further north of that point. 

 As w^e steamed along the river, for several days the flocks were almost 

 continually iu view. They generally flew high, beyond gunshot range, 

 in immense straggling flocks, or rather in successive groups, sometimes 

 stretching as far as the eye could reach ; but early in the morning and 

 toward evening, in passing to and from their roosting places, they gen- 

 erally flew lower, and numbers were readily procured. The woods along 

 the river were filled with stragglers, singly or in small troops. Many 

 nested in tbis region ; I found females ready to lay, and nests, during 

 the greater part of June. The nests were usually in the horizontal forks 

 of the branches of small trees and saplings, generally tenor twelve feet 

 from the ground. During the i)assage, in May of 1873, the birds were 

 very numerous about Saint Paul, Minnesota, where hundreds w^ere 

 netted, to be be used instead of tame Pigeons in shooting-matches. 



