412 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 
also be found, whereof more is mentioned in the third volume of my 
American Journey. The additional observations which I had ocea- 
sion to make as to their economy and manner of life during my stay 
in North America, both in Canada, the wilderness of the English colo- 
nies, and in the land of the savages, are as follows: 
The birds spend the entire summer in Canada, and particularly do 
they nest in the vast wild forests and wastes which abound there, 
where no men are to be found and where seldom any human being 
ventures. When in summer a person travels through these forests 
he might easily become terrified by the enormous number of these 
birds, which in some places almost entirely cover the branches of the 
trees, and when taking wing obscure the sky. These pigeons have, 
however, their distinct boundaries, outside of which they do not often 
venture; as, for example, somewhat south of Bay St. Paul, which is 
20 French miles north of Quebec, not very many of them nest in the 
woods; and the cause of this is said to be that the oak and the beech 
tree, which supply them with their principal food, are here arrested 
in their growth, and grow no farther north. 
In forests where there are human settlements, or where the country 
is inhabited, only a few are to be seen; and as the land is being gradu- 
ally cultivated by man the pigeons move farther away into the wilder- 
ness. It is maintained that the cause of this is partly that their 
nests and young are disturbed by boys, partly their own sense of a 
lack of safety, and finally that durmg a great part of the year their 
food is shared by the swine. 
They build their nests in high trees, pine trees as well as deciduous 
ones; often as many as 40 or 50 nests are to be found in the same 
tree. 
Some maintain that they raise two broods of young every summer. 
In places where they nest in abundance the ground is often covered 
with their droppings to a thickness of 1 to 2 feet. 
While these birds are hatching their young, or while the latter 
are not yet able to fly, the savages or Indians in North America 
are in the habit of never shooting or killing them, nor of allowing 
others to do so, pretending that it would be a great pity on their 
young, which would in that case have to starve to death. Some 
of the Frenchmen told me that they had set out with the intention 
of shooting some of them at that season of the year, but that the 
savages had at first with kindness endeavored to dissuade them 
from such a purpose, and later added threats to their entreaties 
when the latter were of no avail. 
In Canada it is almost everywhere the custom for young farm 
hands and boys to investigate where the pigeons have their nests, 
and as soon as the young are able to fly they are taken from the 
nest and brought to the farm, where they are afterwards kept in 
