PASSENGER PIGEON 389 



bushels of mast a day, supposing that each bird consumed a pint. 

 His calculations of the number of birds — 2,230,272,000 — an incredible 

 number, seems, as will be recorded later, to be a fair one. 



Ruthven Deane (1896), speaking of observations on captive birds, 

 says: 



As soon as the young are hatched the parents are fed on earthworms, beetles, 

 grubs, etc., which are placed in a box of earth, from which they greedily feed, 

 afterwards nourishing the young in the usual way, by disgorging the contents 

 from the crop. At times the earth in the enclosure is moistened with water 

 and a handful of worms thrown in. which soon find their way under the 

 surface. The pigeons are so fond of these tidbits, they will often pick and 

 scratch holes in their search, largo enough to almost hide themselves. 



Behavior. — The passenger pigeon was such a spectacular species in 

 its migratory flights, its roostings, and its nestings, in which such 

 enormous numbers took part, that there are many references to it 

 from the times of the earliest pioneers. From this mass of literature 

 it will be well to enter here some of the important reports, omitting 

 till later those that deal largely with the slaughter of the bird. 



Higginson (1630) writing of the region about Salem, Mass., says : 



Upon the eighth of March from after it was faire Daylight until about eight 

 of the clock in the forenoon, there flew over all the towns in our Plantacions soe 

 many flockes of Doves, each flock containing many thousands, and soe many 

 that they obscured the light, that passeth credit, if but the Truth should be 

 written. 



Wood (1635) in the same region says: 



These Birds come into the Country to goe to the North parts in the begin- 

 ning of our Spring, at which time (if I may be counted worthy, to be beleeved 

 in a thing that is not so strange as true) I have seen them fly as if the 

 Ayerie regiment had been Pigeons, seeing neyther beginning nor ending, length, 

 oi breadth of these Millions of Millions. The shouting of people, the ratling 

 of Gunnes, and pelting of small shotte could not drive them out of their 

 course, but so they continued for foure or five houres together ; yet it must 

 not be concluded, that it is thus often ; for it is but at the beginning of the 

 Spring, and at Michaelmas [September 29], when they returne back to the 

 Southward; yet are there some all the yeare long, which are easily attayned 

 by such as looke after them. 



Pehr Kalm (1911) writing of a migration in March, 1740, in Penn- 

 sylvania says: 



Their number, while in flight, extended 3 or 4 English miles in length and 

 more than one such mile in breadth, and they flew so closely together that 

 the sky and the sun were obscured by them, the daylight becoming sensibly 

 diminished by their shadow. 



The big as well as the little trees in the woods, sometimes covering a dis- 

 tance of 7 English miles, became so filled with them that hardly a twig or 

 branch could be seen which they did not cover; on the thicker branches they 

 had piled themselves up one above another's backs, quite about a yard high. 



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