38 



THE MUSEUM. 



ands of acres were covered by the 

 roosts, trees would be broken down 

 and killed with the weight of the birds, 

 and the marks of desolation remained 

 for many years, scarcely any growth 

 of vegetation being seen on the spot. 

 In Kentucky one roost not far from 

 Shelbyville stretched through the 

 woods for upwards of forty miles in 

 hard wood and pin bush in a Norther- 

 ly and Southerly direction, and was 

 several miles in breadth. That was 

 the loth of April and the old and 

 young birds left prior to the 25th of 

 May. Some large trees had as many 

 as one hundred nests therein. Beech- 

 nut, acorn, grain and berries formed 

 their principal food and their nests 

 consisted of a few dry twigs carelessly 

 put together and so open that the 

 young birds could be seen at all times 

 from the ground. He (Wilson) made a 

 calculation of the number of birds in 

 one flight of about four hours, between 

 Frankfort and Indiana Territory — the 

 column was said to be one mile wide 

 and he believed it to be much wider. 

 This would give at a moderate calcu- 

 lation 2,230,272,000 pigeons as he re- 

 marks an almost incalculable incon- 

 crjv able multitude, and yet probably 

 f li below the actual amount. Each 

 biid consuming half a pint daily would 

 equal 17,424,000 bushels per day. In 

 1876 and 1877 one roost or nesting 

 place extended for over twenty-five 

 miles in length and every tree in that 

 distance had nests in it. It was com- 

 puted that a compact mass of birds 

 covered 5 by i mile in extent on their 

 arrival. In the year 1876 a roost was 

 begun near Goderich, Ontario, but 

 numbers of sportsmen and farmers 

 commenced firing guns at the birds 

 before the nests were completed, so 

 that the birds crossed the lake into 

 Michigan and nested there. The last 

 nesting or roost of any importance was 

 in the State of Michigan in 1881, a few 

 miles from Grand Traverse — it was 

 about 8 miles long. In 1886 about 

 600 pair nested in a swamp at Lake 

 City. 



I lately heard of a few birds having 

 been captured by some party living in 

 the States and that he is now endeav- 

 oring to breed them with the object of 

 re-stocking the country — a small be- 

 gining for such' an object when we 

 take into consideration the vast array 

 that formerly existed. You will notice 

 a great similarity in the appearance of 

 the Mourning Dove, a specimen of 

 which is before you, but the size of 

 the latter is very much smaller than 

 the Pigeon. 



John Maughan, 

 Toronto, Canada 

 December 19, 1898. 



Paper read at a meeting of the Bio- 

 logical Section of the "Canadian In- 

 stitute," Toronto. 



Facts About Sponges. 



Although, in one form or another, 

 the common sea sponge of commerce 

 is a most familiar article, there are 

 many people who do not know that it 

 is the outer covering of an animal, 

 albeit of a very low order in the scale 

 of existence. The distinction between 

 aquatic animals and plants is some- 

 times so fine that it is a matter of 

 wonder that mistakes are not more 

 often made by the naturalist, and in 

 matter of the sponge it was only by 

 applying the differential tests that the 

 truth was ascertained. 



The most conclusive proof that ani- 

 mal life exists in the sponge is that 

 when burnt it gives o(i a smell as of 

 burning hair or horn, and exact analy- 

 sis shows it to be allied to these sub- 

 stances. Again, though a living 

 sponge is fixed and apparently immov- 

 able, the holes in its surface are capa- 

 ble of opening and shutting, and from 

 the largest of them a stream of water 

 is expelled, by innumerable cavities, 

 generally invisible except under the 

 microscope. The sponge belonge to 

 the order of Polypes, called the Aster- 

 oida, from the star-like appearance of 

 the tentacles. Young sponges varying 

 from microscopic size to that of a pin's 

 head, swim freely about by means of 



