TMf'.EONS AND DOVES 



45 



most of the larger roosts, the trees, undergrowth, 

 and all vegetation on the ground were soon killed 

 by a heavy dci)osit of guano. About sunset the 

 F^igeons in all the country for many miles around 

 began to move toward the roost, and soon after 

 sundown they commenced to arrive in inmiensc 

 numbers, some from a distance of loo miles or 

 more. Birds ])ourc(l in from all directions until 

 after midnight, and left the roost again at 

 sunrise. 



Audubon says that a messenger whom he sent 

 out from a Pigeon roost reported to him that the 

 uproar of the birds arriving could be heard three 

 miles away. A most remarkable attribute of the 

 Pigeon was its disregard of the presence of 

 human beings in its roosting and nesting places. 

 Any one who entered quietly one of these spots 

 when the birds were there would be surrounded 

 by the unsuspicious creatures in a few minutes. 

 The nests formerly were placed in trees of great 

 height, in some locality near water, where food 

 was plentiful; but after the primeval forests 

 were cut off, the Pigeons nested sometimes in 

 low trees. This contributed to their doom. The 

 best description of the nesting of these birds 

 that I have seen is given by Chief Pokagon, in 

 the Cliautauqitan. He was a full-blooded Indian, 

 and the last Pottawottomi chief of the Pokagon 

 band. He says : 



"About the middle of May, 1850, while in the 

 fur trade, I was camping on the head waters of 

 the Manistee River in Michigan. One morning 

 on leaving my wigwam I was startled by hearing 

 a gurgling, rumbling sound, as though an army 

 of horses laden with sleigh bells was advancing 

 through the deep forests toward me. As I 

 listened more intently, I concluded that instead 

 of the tramping of horses it was distant thunder ; 

 and yet the morning was clear, calm and beauti- 

 ful. Nearer and nearer came the strange com- 

 mingling sounds of sleigh bells, mixed with the 

 rumbling of an approaching storm. While I 

 gazed in wonder and astonishment, I beheld 

 moving toward me in an unbroken front millions 

 of pigeons, the first I had seen that season. They 

 passed like a cloud through the branches of the 

 high trees, through the underbrush and over the 

 ground, apparently overturning every leaf. 

 Statue-like I stood, half -concealed by cedar 

 boughs. They fluttered all about me, lighting 

 on my head and shoulders ; gently I caught two 

 in my hands and carefully concealed them under 

 my blanket. 



" I now began to realize they were mating, 

 preparatory to nesting. It was an event which 



I had long hoped to witness ; so I sat down and 

 carefully watched their movements, amid the 

 greatest tumuli. I tried to understand their 

 strange language, and why they all chatted in 

 concert. In the course of the day the great on- 

 moving mass passed by me, but the trees were 

 still filled with them sitting in i)airs in convenient 

 crotches of the limbs, now and then gently flut- 

 tering their half-spread wings and uttering to 

 their mates those strange, bell-like wooing notes 

 which I had mistaken for the ringing of bells in 

 the distance. 



" On the third day after, this chattering ceased 

 and all were busy carrying sticks with which they 

 v.-ere building nests in the same crotches of the 

 limbs they had occupied in pairs the day before. 

 On the morning of the fourth day their nests 

 were finished and eggs laid. The hen birds oc- 

 cupied the nests in the morning, while the male 

 birds went out into the surrounding country to 

 feed, returning about 10 o'clock, taking the nests, 

 while the hens went out to feed, returning about 

 3 o'clock. Again changing nests, the male birds 

 went out the second time to feed, returning at 

 sundown. The same routine was pursued each 

 day until the young ones were hatched and 

 nearly half-grown, at which time all the parent 

 birds left the brooding grounds about daylight. 

 On the morning of the eleventh day after the 

 eggs were laid, I found the nesting grounds 

 strewn with egg shells, convincing me that the 

 young were hatched. In thirteen days more the 

 parent birds left their young to shift for them- 

 selves, flying to the east about sixty miles, when 

 they again nested. The female lays but one egg 

 during the same nesting. 



" Both sexes secrete in their crops milk or 

 curd with which they feed their young until they 

 are ready to fly, when they stuff them with mast 

 and such other raw material as they themselves 

 eat until their crops exceed their bodies in size, 

 giving to them an appearance of two birds with 

 one head. Within two days after the stuffing 

 they become a mass of fat — "a squab." At 

 this period the parent bird drives them from the 

 nests to take care of themselves, while they fly 

 off within a day or two, sometimes hundreds of 

 miles, and again nest. 



" It has been well established that these birds 

 look after and take care of all orphan squabs 

 whose parents have been killed or are missing. 

 These birds are long-lived, having been known to 

 live twenty-five years caged. When food is 

 abundant they nest each month in the year." 



It seems improbable, however, that they bred 



