NESTS AND EGGS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. Ill 



456. Band tailed Pigeon — columba fasciata. Glistening white; two, 

 equal-ended, size about 1.50 by 1.20. The Banded-tailed Pigeon is found 

 from the Rocky Mountains westward to the Pacific. It is common but 

 irregular in distribution. These birds sometimes congregate together in 

 flocks even while breeding, and nest in trees and bushes along the banks of 

 streams, or in the thick forests near water. The nest is a mere platform 

 of sticks, and the eggs are also placed on the ground without any nest, 

 which is sometimes the case with the Mourning Dove, Z. carolincnsis. 

 White-collared Pigeon is its other name. 



457. Red billed Pigeon — columba erythrina. Pearly-white, one, and 

 average in size about 1.50 by 1.08. This large and handsome Pigeon is 

 common in the valley of the Rio Grande and southward. In some locali- 

 ties on the Rio Grande in Texas it is found in abundance during the summer 

 months. It loves the deep, dense woods, where it can dwell in quiet and 

 retirement. The nests are frail platforms of twigs and grasses, such as are 

 usually built by other Pigeons, placed in trees and bushes. The eggs are 

 laid in April and May. 



458. White-crowned Pigeon — columba leucocephala. Opaque-white; 

 two in number, oval in form, and the surface very smooth; size about 1.40 

 by 1.05. The White-crowned Pigeon occurs in summer on the Florida 

 Keys, and it breeds abundantly on some of the smaller islands; it is resi- 

 dent in the Bahamas and West Indies. The nest is built in low trees and 

 bushes, composed of twigs carefully arranged, with little or no lining of 

 grasses. It is, on the whole, a bulky structure for a pigeon. 



459. Passenger Pigeon — ectopistes migratoria. White ; one or two, 

 equal-ended; size about 1.45 by 1.05. The Wild Pigeon wanders in search 

 of food throughout all parts of North America, but chiefly temperate 

 North America east of the Rocky Mountains. At times it is abundant in 

 particular districts. The greatest roosts and flights are now said to be seen 

 in the Upper Mississippi Valley. Of late years it has become rather 

 scarce in localities where it was once formerly abundant; and, in fact, in 

 many places it is now seen only occasionally in small flocks of a dozen or 

 fifteen. Wilson's and Audubon's graphic accounts of the "congregated 

 millions " which they saw in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky seem hardly 

 credible to those who have not seem them. The extensive forests which 

 once served as breeding and feeding grounds have been partially or 

 wholly destroyed, and we are no longer favored with the sublime sight of 

 immense, unbroken, and apparently limitless flocks. Until about 1855, these 

 Pigeons were extremely abundant in Central Ohio, having at that time a 



