52 The Passenger Pigeon 



hen birds occupied the nests in the morning, while the 

 male birds went out into the surrounding country to 

 feed, returning about ten o'clock, taking the nests, while 

 the hens went out to feed, returning about three 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, con- 

 vincing me that the young were hatched. In thirteen 

 days more the parent birds left their young to shift for 

 themselves, 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 nearly 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 



