212 The Passenger Pigeon 



latticed bottom. In fact, it has been my custom to 

 always thus examine the nests before climbing the 

 tree. 



The platform structures vary in diameter from six 

 to twelve inches or more, differing in size according to 

 the length of the sticks, but generally are about nine or 

 ten inches across. An acquaintance of mine had tamed 

 some wild birds, which at last bred regularly in cap- 

 tivity. These birds were well supplied with an abun- 

 dance of material for their nests and always selected in 

 confinement such as described above, and making a nest 

 about nine inches in diameter. 



The breeding places are generally found in oak 

 woods, but the great nesting sites in Michigan were 

 often in timbered lands, I am informed. 



The height of the nest varies. It may be as low as 

 six feet or all of sixty-five feet from the ground. 



Passenger Pigeons are always gregarious when un- 

 molested, and hundreds of thousands sometimes breed 

 in a neighborhood at one time. It is impossible to say 

 how many nests were the most found in one tree, but 

 there are authenticated instances of a hundred. One 

 man, on whose veracity I rely, informs me that he 

 counted no nests in one tree in Emmett County, the 

 lower peninsula. Still this may not be correct, for we 

 all know how easy it is to be deceived in correctly count- 

 ing and keeping record of even the branches of a tree, 

 and when these limbs are occupied by nests it is cer- 



