132 LIFE HISTORIES OF NOKTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



is incessantly waged against them, their flesh being very juicy and finely 

 flavored. This shyness is only partially abated, even during the breeding sea- 

 son, as they Avill silently slide from their nest when sitting, if it is approached, 

 and retreat to the dark shade of the mangroves, and do not return for an inter- 

 val to their charge. They were more abundant in the more southern keys, 

 except the sterile Tortugas. 



Audubon found the nests placed high or low, according to circinn- 

 stances, but never saw two on the same tree. He has met with them on the 

 top of a cactus only a few feet from the ground, or on a low In-anch of a man- 

 grove almost touching the water. They are said to resemble those of the 

 common Passenger Pigeon, but are more compact and better lined, the outer 

 part being composed of small dry twigs, the inner of fibrous roots and grasses. 

 The eggs are two, of an opaque white, roundish, and as large as those of the 

 common Pigeon. Audubon thinks that these biixls may have several broods 

 in a season.^ 



I am unable to add anything new to these accounts. The eggs of this 

 species in the U. S. National Museum collection, obtained mostly from Cuba 

 and the Bahamas, are more glossy, and the shells are much smoother, than in 

 the eggs of other species of this family. They are pure white in color and 

 elliptical oval in shape; some are nearly oval. 



The average measurement of eleven specimens in the U. S. National 

 Museum collection is 37 by 2GI^ millimetres. The largest egg measures 39.5 

 by 26, the smallest 34.5 by 26 millimetres. 



The type specimen (No. 556, PI. 4, Fig. 4), from a set of two, was collected 

 on Indian Key, Florida, in the spring of 1859, by Mr. G. Wiirdemann. 



46. Ectopistes migratorius (Linn^us). 



PASSENGER PIGEON. 



Columha migratoria Linn^us, Sy.stema Natiu-pe, ed. 12, i, 1766, 385 (S). 

 Ectopistes migratoria Swainson, Zoological Journal, iii, 1827, .362. 



(B 448, C 370, R 459, C 543, U 315.) 



Geographical range : Deciduous forest regions of eastern North America ; west, 

 casually, to Washington and Nevada; Cuba. 



The breeding range of the Passenger Pigeon to-day is to be looked for 

 principally in the thinly settled and wooded region along our northern border, 

 from northern Maine westward to northern Mirmesota; in the Dakotas, as well 

 as iif similar localities in the eastern and middle portions of the Dominion of 

 Canada, and north at least to Hudson Bay. Isolated and scattering pairs prob- 

 ably still breed in the New England States, northern New York, Pennsylvania, 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and a few other localities further south, but 

 the enormous breeding colonies, or pigeon roosts, as they were formerly called, 

 frequently covering the forest for miles, and so often mentioned by naturalists 



'Birds of North America, 1874, Vol. m, pp. 364, 365. 



