COLUMBID^ — THE PiaEONS. 373 



June, although the whole neighborhood was warring uj)on them for many 

 miles around, and the markets of Boston and other places were largely 

 supplied with them. 



In the extensive forests of Kentucky, Mr. Audubon found them usually 

 collecting and breeding in trees of great height, and always at a convenient 

 distance from water, resorting thither in countless myriads. Their note, dur- 

 ing breeding, is described as a short coo-coo, much briefer than in the domes- 

 tic Pigeon, while their usual call-note is a repetition of the monosyllables 

 kee-kee-kee, the first note being louder and the last fainter than the rest. In 

 the love-season the male puts on the pompous manners peculiar to all Pigeons, 

 and follows the female with drooping wings and expanded tail, the body be- 

 ing held in an elevated attitude and the throat swollen. Occasionally they 

 caress one another in the same manner in which they feed their young, by 

 introducing the bill of one into that of the other and disgorging the contents 

 of their cro})S. 



Their nests are composed of a few dry twigs laid crosswise, and built 

 upon the branches of trees. From fifty to a hundred were seen by Audubon 

 in the same tree, and were said to be frequently at a considerable heiglit. 

 The few I have seen were in low trees, and not more than ten feet from the 

 ground. The eggs are never more than two in number, pure white, and of a 

 broadly elliptical form. During incubation the male bird feeds the mate and 

 afterwards assists in supplying the young birds, and both birds are conspicu- 

 ous in their demonstrations of affection, both to each other and to their off- 

 spring. The young brood, usually both sexes in one nest, leave their parents 

 as soon as tliey are able to shift for themselves. 



In the New England States and in the more cultivated part of the country 

 these birds no longer breed in large communities. The instance near Mont- 

 pelier, in 1849, is the only marked exception that has come within my 

 knowledge. They now breed in isolated pairs, their nests being scattered 

 through the woods and seldom near one another. 



The Wild Pigeon has been successfully kept in aviaries, and has occasion- 

 ally bred in confinement. 



Wilson's account of the habits of these Pigeons is substantially corrobora- 

 tive of that of Audubon. He witnessed their migrations in vast numbers, 

 in various parts of the country, — in Western New York, in Pennsylvania, 

 in various parts of Virginia, where he beheld their immense flocks with 

 amazement, but where they were mere straggling parties compared with the 

 congregated millions he saw in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. He also 

 noted their habit of frequenting the same roosting-place night after night, 

 even when they were compelled to fly sixty or eighty miles each day to their 

 feeding-places. His account of their roosting-places is similar to that of 

 Audubon, corroborating the accumulation of the dung covering the surface 

 of the ground and destroying all the grass and underbrush, the breaking 

 down of large limbs, and even of small trees, by the weight of the birds 



