PASSENGER PIGEON 393 



Audubon (1840) thus describes the activities of a larger flock: 

 When alighted, they are seen industriously throwing up the withered leaves 

 in quest of the fallen mast. The rear ranks are continually rising, passing 

 over the main body, and alighting in front, in such rapid succession, that the 

 whole flock seems still on wing. 



Herman Behr (1911) speaks of the birds frequenting alder marshes 

 for food : 



Here they pried under the old leaves, searching for worms or insects, scratch- 

 ing and digging with great energy. Throughout these operations I do not 

 recall them using their feet once, but always they pried and scratched and 

 dug with their bills. 



Wallace Craig (1911a) made valuable and interesting studies of 

 the expressions of emotion of captive passenger pigeons from which 

 I have transcribed the following : 



It was eminently a bird of flight ; on the ground it was rather awkward for 

 a pigeon, its legs seeming too short and its massive shoulders too heavy. The 

 nod of the passenger pigeon was utterly different from that of the mourning 

 dove. The specific manner of nodding seemed an integral part of the bird's 

 general bearing. The nod consisted of a movement of the head in a circle, back, 

 up, forward, and down, as if the bird were trying to hook its bill over some- 

 thing. Often two or three such nods were given with no pauses between, fol- 

 lowing each other much more rapidly than in the mourning dove, because body 

 and tail remained all the while stationary * * *. Ordinary walking pace 

 of the male, 12-13 steps in 5 seconds. In eating, female pecks at rate of 

 12 pecks in 5 seconds on an average, and as head moves through a considerable 

 arc, its motion is very quick. 



They expressed fear and alarm by beating the wings together in 

 quick succession, making a sound like the rolling beat of a snare 

 drum. 



Their flight was direct and made with great velocity. Maynard 

 (1896) says that in twisting and turning they surpassed the Wilson's 

 snipe. At times the flocks swept along close to the ground, at other 

 times they flew at a great height. Sutton (1928), quoting W. G. 

 Hayes, says : " Usually they flew 10 or 12 feet from the ground. They 

 rose in waves to pass over fences and trees, but sometimes they flew 

 from 30 to 50 feet in the air without the undulating motion." James 

 G. Suthard communicates the following from the notes of Prof. J. J. 

 Glen : " Standing in the open, I watched their flight above in every 

 direction. They were so close the one to the other that it seemed 

 as if their wings would touch. They were so high above the earth 

 that nothing short of a modern rifle could reach them." 



Maynard (1896), quoting Edward A. Bowers, describes an im- 

 mense congregation of pigeons at a spring of brackish water in 

 Michigan. "In an incredibly short time the birds begin to come; 

 first in small numbers, then increasing rapidly until, in a few mo- 

 ments, they come in a living avalanche, covering the trees." After 



