8 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



ing grounds where food for the young could be ob- 

 tained, from the forests around a nesting city, within 

 a radius of about fifty miles. 



The Passenger Pigeon was a voracious feeder. His 

 favorite food was beech-mast, picked up in the early 

 spring seasons, when beginning to germinate and ab- 

 sorb nitrogen and carbon from the air. But the bird 

 fed upon numeroiis grains, nuts and fruits, such as 

 buckwheat, hempseed, maize, acorns, chestnuts, holly 

 berries, cherries, blackberries and huckleberries. While 

 in the south, much rice made the birds fat and less 

 active, but their extraordinary power of flight re- 

 mained, for they have been killed in Pennsylvania, 

 with crops full of rice that must have been gathered 

 by them hundreds of miles away in the Carolinas, or 

 in the Mississippi valley, beyond Memphis, Tenn. 

 They could have crossed the Atlantic ocean in about 

 three days, flying from island to island. 



In color the Passenger Pigeon was attractive and) 

 distinguished, especially in the male birds. The 

 head, part of the neck and the chin a slate-blue; the 

 lower part and sides of the neck deep slate, "shot" 

 with gold, green and purplish-crimson, changing with 

 every movement of the bird,> or in the rays of sunlight 

 as they intensify or become obscured by passing clouds. 

 The throat, breast and sides are reddish-hazel, the back 

 and upper tail coverts dark slaty-blue, slightly powder- 

 ed with black on the shoulders. The primary and 

 secondary quill-feathers are black, the primary being 

 tipped with dirty-white. The lower part of breast a 



