92 



Bird -Lore 



way. On Lake Michigan, they often gathered the dead Pigeons which floated 

 on shore, usually smoking what were not needed for immediate use. In the 

 South, Lawson (17 14) found "several Indian towns of not above seventeen 

 houses, that had more than one hundred gallons of pigeon's oil or fat; they 

 using it with pulse or bread as we do butter, . . ." Not infrequently in the 

 Indian and Revolutionary wars, Pigeons helped the commissary when sup- 

 plies were low. For the hardy pioneers, their feathers made better beds than 

 did corn husks, and one writer suggested a use for their dung. He held that, 

 with little expense, great quantities of the best saltpetre could be extracted 

 from their ordure. It is difficult to estimate the very important role of the 

 Pigeon in the economy of the early pioneers, yet it is striking enough to arrest 

 the attention of all. 



Their Food. — Doubtless much of their excellent flavor and delicacy was 

 due to the nature of their food. In the North and South aUke they showed 

 a marked preference for beechnuts and acorns of all kinds. They furnished 

 an animated sight, indeed, when digging in the snow for the latter. In the 

 earliest days, the colonists complained because they beat down and ate up 

 great quantities of all sorts of English grain. They could subsist on wheat, 

 rye, oats, corn, peas, and other farm produce. Neither were they averse 

 to garden fruits. In the summer, when the strawberries, raspberries, mul- 

 berries, and currants were ripe, they showed a particular fondness for them. 

 They were quite partial to the seeds of red maple and American elm, wild 

 grapes, wild peas, and pokeberry {Phytolacca), which was known in many 

 parts as Pigeon-berry. Another vegetable form bore the same name. Pursh 

 said they found the Pigeon-berries or Pigeon peas attached to roots, and they 

 were "nothing else, than the tuberculis of a species of Glycine, resembling 

 marrowfat peas very much: the Pigeons scrach them up at certain times of 

 the year and feed upon them very greedyly." 



Two quotations will give interesting sidelights on their methods of feed- 

 ing. A Mr. Bradbury, in 18 10, "had an opportunity of observing the manner 

 in which they feed; it affords a most singular spectacle, and is also an example 

 of the rigid disciphne maintained by gregarious animals. This species of 

 pigeon associates in prodigious flocks: one of these flocks, when on the ground, 

 will cover an area of several acres in extent, and so close to each other that 

 the ground can scarcely be seen. This phalanx moves through the woods 

 with considerable celerity, picking, as it passes along, everything that will 

 serve for food. It is evident that the foremost ranks must be most success- 

 ful, and nothing will remain for the hindermost. That all may have an equal 

 chance, the instant that any rank becomes last, they arise, and flying over the 

 whole flock, alight exactly ahead of the foremost. They succeed each other 

 with so much rapidity that there is a continued stream of them in the air; 

 and a side view of them exhibits the appearance of the segment of a large 

 circle, moving through the woods. I observed that they cease to look for food 



