AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 123 



The change is made with great regularity as to time, all the males being on 

 the nests by 10 o'clock a. m. 



"During the morning and evening no females are ever caught by the net- 

 ters ; during the forenoon no males. The sitting bird does not leave the nest 

 until the bill of its incoming mate nearly touches its tail, the former slipping 

 off as the latter takes its place. 



"Thus, the eggs are constantly covered, and but few are ever thrown out 

 despite the fragile character of the nests and the swaying of the trees in 

 high winds. The old birds never feed in the vicinity of the nests, leaving all 

 the beechmast, etc., there for their young. Many of them go 100 miles each 

 day for food. Mr. Stevens is satisfied the pigeons continue laying and 

 hatching duringthe entire summer. They do not, however, use the same nest- 

 ing place twice in one season, the entire colony always moving from 20 to 

 100 miles after the aj:>pearance of each brood of young. 



"Five weeks are consumed by a single nesting. Then the young are forced 

 out of their nests by the old birds. One of the pigeons, usually the male, 

 pushes the young off the nest by force. The latter struggles and squeals 

 precisely like a tame squab, but is finally crowded out along the branch, and 

 after further feebly resistance, flutters down to the ground. Three or four 

 days elapse before it is able to fly well. 



"At least five hundred men were engaged in netting pigeons during the 

 great Petosky netting of 1881. Mr. Stevens thought they may have cap- 

 tured on an average, 20,000 birds apiece during the season. Sometimes two 

 carloads were shipped south on the railroad each day. Nevertheless, he be- 

 lieved that not one bird in a thousand was taken." 



And so, through the gluttony of mankind, these noble birds, like the Great 

 Auk, have literally been swept from the face of the earth, it only being a 

 question of a few years when the remaining few will have disappeared. 

 Thousands of them were shot, but this was too expensive a method for their 

 capture and it was found that by setting large nets worked with powerful 

 springs, baiting them, and using live captive pigeons as an additional lure, 

 hundreds of pigeons could readily be caught at a swoop. Others invaded 

 their roosting places at night, and torch in hand, struck them down in their 

 sleep, or while dazed by the light, with clubs. It is a shameful record but 

 not less so than the warfare that is constantly waged on the Bob-white and 

 the Prairie Hen for market purposes, and upon numerous song birds, herons, 

 terns and grebes for the milliners. 



As shown, the adult male Passenger Pigeon has a blue-gray head (includ- 

 ing the chin) and upperparts, while the underparts are of a peculiar brown- 

 ish hue, something like the color of a Robin's breast but with a bluish cast. 

 The female is browner and duller above and paler colored below; young 



