198 THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 



divided, the males by themselves, and the females go 

 by themselves, when going out in search of food. 



Four-fifths of the birds will fly out in a certain 

 direction from the nesting to feed, some of them 

 jgoing as far as sixty or seventy miles. The toms 

 establish the line of flight from the nesting. They will 

 begin to fly out very early in the morning. - As soon 

 as there is any signs of gray in the east, they fly out 

 in immense flocks. Sometimes it could be called a con- 

 tinuous flock, as far as the human eye could see there 

 was a bird in all directions, all going in the same direc- 

 tion for twenty or thirty minutes. After the main body 

 had passed, then would come flocks of from eight or 

 ten dozen up to one hundred dozen. This will con- 

 tinue until about a. m., when the toms will begin to 

 return to the nesting to take the place of the hens on 

 the nests, while the hens go in search of food. They 

 fo'iow the same line of flight and return to the nest- 

 ing about 1 p. m., take their place on the nest again 

 v/hile the toms will make a shorter fly out in the after- 

 noon, returning about half past four and, if the 

 weather is not too rough, the hens will make a short 

 flv out, returning in time to take their place on the 

 nests over night. It takes about fourteen days for 

 the eggs to hatch and in about flfteen days from hatch- 

 ing the young birds are left to their own f ite. A": 

 this time the young birds are fed all their craw can 

 hold and they are so fat they can't fly very much for 

 tliree or four days. As soon as they get the use of 

 their wins^s. they know v/here to s^o, for thev will 



