54 Birds of Pennsylvania. 



time, the picking up of the dead IfPl wounded being left for the 

 next raoniing's employment. The pigeons were constantly com- 

 ing, and it w^as past midnight before I perceived a decrease in 

 the number of those that arrived. The uproar continued the whole 

 night, and as I was anxious to know to what distance the sound 

 reached, I sent off a man, accustomed to perambulate the forest, who, 

 returning two hours afterward, informed me he had heard it distinctly 

 when three miles distant from the spot. Tow^ards the approach of 

 day, the noise in some measure subsided; long l)efore ol)jects were 

 distinguishable, the Pigeons' began to move off in a direction quite 

 different from that in which they had arrived the evening before, and 

 at sunrise all that were able to fly had disappeared. The bowlings of 

 the wolves now reached our ears, and the foxes, lynxes, cougars, bears, 

 raccoons, opossums and polecats were seen sneaking off, whilst eagles 

 and hawks of different species, accompanied by a crowd of vultures, 

 came to supplant them, and enjoy their share of the spoil. It w^as 

 then that the authors of all this devastation began their entry amongst 

 the dead, the dying and the mangled. The Pigeons were picked up 

 and piled in heaps, until each had as many as he could possibly dis- 

 pose of, when the hogs were let loose to feed on the remainder." 



Genus ZENAIDURA. Bonaparte. 

 316. Zenaidura macroura (Linn.). 



Mourninfi I>ove; Turtle Dove. 



Description. 



Tail leatliers, 14. Above bluish, although this is overlaid witli light brownish 

 olive, leaving the l)lue pure only on the top of the head, the exterior of the wings, 

 and upper surface of the tail, which isevenslightly tinged with this color; the entire 

 head, except the vertex, the sides of the neck, and the under parts generally, light 

 brownish-red, strongly tinged with purple on the breast, becoming lighter behind, 

 and passing into brownish-yellow on the anal region, tibia and under tail coverts; 

 sides of the neck with a patch of metallic purplish-red ; sides of body and inside of 

 wings clear light-blue; Aving coverts and scapulars spotted with lilack, mostly con- 

 cealed, and an oblong patch of the same below the ear; tail feathers seen from lie- 

 low blackish, the outer wel) of outermost white, the others tipped with tlio same, 

 the color l)ecoming more and more bluish to the innermost, Avhich is brown ; seen 

 from at)Ove, there is the same graduation from wiiite to light-blue in the tips; tiic 

 rest of the feather, however, is blvie, with a bar of black anterior to the light tij), 

 which runs a little forward along the margin and shaft of the feather; in the sixth 

 feather the color is uniform bluish, with this bar ; the seventh is without liar ; h\\\, 

 black ; feet, inirplish-red. Female somewhat smaller, with less red beneath ; mc- 

 tallic purplish-red of neck less distinct; black spot below the ear smaller, and of a 

 brownish hiu;. Young very similar to female, but duller in color and lack the me- 

 tallic markings on sides of neck. 



Length of male, 12.85 inches; extent, about 18; wing, 5.75; tail, 0.70 inches. 



TIaf). — North America, from southern Maine, southern Canada anri Oregon south 

 to Pfuuuna ;uid the West Indies. 



