CHAPTEK XVII. 



PIGEONS, DOVES, BITTERNS, CRANES, AND HERONS. 

 Terms used by sportsmen for describing companies of birds. 



The wild pigeon {Edopistes migratorius) is more 

 abundant than any other bird on the Continent, for its 

 numbers are so incalculable that the word "myriads" 

 is the only one which will give a person an idea of 

 the vast throngs that swarm over the country during 

 the breeding season. These pass certain regions in 

 such dense masses that they actually shut out the sun, 

 while the movements of their wings produce a roar like 

 that of a hurricane. When they alight in a forest, the 

 trees seem to be one mass of feathers, for scarcely a leaf 

 can be seen, and every branchlet capable of holding a bird 

 contains one. Some of the pigeonries cover an area of one 

 hundred and eighty square miles, and as each tree bears 

 from one to fifty nests, a person can imagine what a stir- 

 ring scene the forest presents. The birds begin building 

 their nests about the first of April, and before that time 

 if the season is favorable. These nests consist of a few 

 bunches of dry sticks and twigs, yet they are so ingen- 

 iously interlaced with the branches that heavy winds can- 

 not dislodge them. The female lays only one or two 

 eggs, and these are generally fertile. When the young 

 are hatched the branches are sometimes so Jieavily 

 weighted that they snap and fall to the ground, or re- 

 main hanging hke broken limbs. The forest presents a 

 very ragged appearance on such occasions, and looks as 

 if it had been swept by a tornado. If the first laid egga 

 are destroyed, the pigeons are supposed to lay another 

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