PASSENGER PIGEON. 29 



rapidity which Audubon estimated as at least a mile a 

 minute. Passenger Pigeons are frequently captured in the 

 State of New York with their crops still filled with the 

 undigested grains of rice that must have been taken in the 

 distant fields of Georgia and South Carolina, apparently 

 proving that they had passed over the intervening space 

 within a few hours. After weighing these facts, it has been 

 deemed advisable on the whole to retain this species in the 

 present Edition. 



This beautiful Pigeon is found throughout North America 

 from the Atlantic to the great Central Plains, to the west of 

 which its food supply is limited, and its presence correspond- 

 ingly restricted : it has, however, been recently obtained on 

 the Pacific slopes, and in Nevada. Northwards it was 

 observed on the Mackenzie River as high as 65°, whilst on 

 the coast of Hudson's Bay it only reached 58°, even in warm 

 summers : as a straggler, however, a young male bird is 

 recorded by Sir James Ross as having flown on board 

 the Victory during a storm, whilst crossing Baffin's Bay in 

 latitude l^ N., on the 31st July, 1829. In the Southern 

 States it is of comparatively rare occurrence, but it has been 

 found breeding down to 32° N. in Mississippi ; as a straggler 

 it has visited Cuba, and, perhaps, the Bermudas. Considera- 

 tions of food, and not of temperature, mainly influence its 

 migrations, for large columns frequently move northwards 

 early in March with 20° of frost. Graphic accounts of its 

 migrations, and its immense breeding communities, will be 

 found in the ornithological works of Audubon, Wilson, and, 

 for more recent information, the ' History of North American 

 Birds,' by Messrs. Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, may be con- 

 sulted. Its food consists largely of the service-berry {Ame- 

 lanchier alnifolia), acorns and beech-mast, and as soon as 

 the supply becomes exhausted, the immense flocks suddenly 

 disappear, and do not return for a long period. 



The nest is composed of a few dried twigs laid crosswise, 

 and eggs may be found by the middle of March. It has 

 been stated that only one egg is laid, but subsequent expe- 

 rience has shown that, as with other Pigeons, two is the 



