THE OOLOGIST 



73 



Notes on the Passenger Pigeon in Michigan* 



By Chas. W. Glnn. 



Mauy persons uot intimately ac- 

 quainted with the habits of Ectopistes 

 migratoriiis are often astonished at the 

 regularity of their habits, especially so, 

 about the nesting season. The main 

 colony visits Michigan every two years. 

 This I know to be the case from person- 

 al observations during the past ten 

 years. This is due mainly to the 

 abundance of shack one year, and the 

 scarcity the next. During the month 

 of April I visited the nesting place sit- 

 uated near Crooked Lake, Emmet Co., 

 Northern Michigan. There are three 

 separate colonies nesting near this lake, 

 two on the north bank, respectively 

 three and twelve miles in length by 

 three in width, the third on the south 

 bank eight miles in length by two in 

 width. Three Hights are made by the 

 birds during the nestmg season every 

 day; at the break of day the males Hy 

 out to feed, returning about eleven 

 o'clock: at two the females feed and the 

 cock birds sit on the nest. One visiting 

 the nests during this flight would 

 scarcely see a single female bird, at 

 three they return, their mates feeding 

 in advance of this. The nesting is con- 

 ducted on the "free love system," it is 

 confirmed by old pigeon hunters, who 

 have studied their habits for years, that 

 the female may sit on one nest in the 

 forenoon and another in the afternoon, 

 the birds never knowing their own 

 young. 



• The notes on the habits of ths Wild Pigeon, 

 here (jlven. were wrltt,t;u by C'haa. W. Gunn, of 

 Grand I{aplda. Mlclilgan. in 1S7H or 18?'.). Mr. 

 Ounn has been dead a number of yeans. He was 

 a very careful observer, a hard worker and a very 

 enthuslaHtlc ornithologist, if he could have lived 

 he would doubtless have been a naturalist of lilgh 

 standing. Mrs. (junn Oils mother.) recently pre- 

 sented his books and maiiusrrlpts (which were of 

 great value) txi the lately orpa nlzed Kent < »rnlthol- 

 ologlcal (;lub. These notes were read at the 

 meeting of that < lub on Wednesday, Jan. 2nd, 

 1895. I am not jiosltlve. but 1 think they have 

 never been published before. 1 thought they 

 were or enough value and interest to now he 

 brought to light. -K. G. FITCH. 



The woods selected by this colony is 

 mostly pine, intermingled with a few 

 beech and maple. Nearly every tree 

 contains one or more nests. At the 

 nesting two years ago near Shelby I 

 counted as high as 36 nests in a single 

 tree. The upsts are composed of small 

 sticks, half the size of one's little finger, 

 being very loo.sely constructed as a gen- 

 eral thing, but I have seen several nest- 

 ings where nearly all the nests were 

 (juite closely compacted and lined with 

 smaller twigs. The number of eggs laid 

 vary from one to two, the usual number 

 being one. You may visit a nesting 

 and examine thousands of nests, and 

 not ten in every thousand will contain 

 two eggs, at least I have found it so. 



I have been informed by old pigeon 

 hunters that a few days before the 

 young are ready to leave the nest, the 

 main colony leave the yotmg and com- 

 mence a new nesting. These hunters 

 can always tell when the pigeons are a- 

 bout to leave as the birds mount to an 

 immense height in the air, so that the 

 notion of their wings is .just perceptible; 

 in their regular flights to and from the 

 nesting, they fly through the woods, or 

 .just above the tree tops. A few male 

 birds remain with the .young, and on 

 the second day it is a grand sight to 

 visit the nesting and see the old birds 

 pushing the young from the nest. Fall- 

 ing to the ground they assemble in flocks 

 of many hundreds, and led by a few old 

 birds, soon learn to secure their own 

 food. About three days after leaving 

 the nest the young have worn off all 

 their fat and are able to fly. 



The Yellow Rail in Orleans County, NY. 



(Ju the 21st of April, 181(4, my friend 

 Macomber and myself started for a 

 snipe hunt. Just north of the famous 

 Ridge Road at Si'.iuly Creek we found 

 the Snipe <|uite plentiful and as we 

 were crossing an ()i)en meadow that had 



