PASSENGER PIGEON. 275 



to the European Fauna, which has lately occurred on our 

 coast : it is the Hirundo purpurea, the Purple Martin of 

 American Ornithologists. The specimen was a female, cor- 

 responding accurately with the description of Wilson. It 

 was shot near Kingston, county of Dublin, and sent for dis- 

 section to my friend Dr. Scauler, a few hours afterwards. 

 As it agrees perfectly with the descriptions of authors, it will 

 be unnecessary to describe this specimen, which is now pre- 

 served in the Museum of the Royal Dublin Society.''' 



For long and particular accounts of the vast numbers and 

 extraordinary habits of this migratory or Passenger Pigeon in 

 America, I must refer to the ornithological histories of Wil- 

 son and Audubon. Like other Pigeons, it makes a slender 

 platform nest ; but, unlike other Pigeons, it lays but one egg. 

 The following is an extract from the published Proceedings of 

 the Zoological Society for the year 1833, page 10. A note 

 by James Hunt, one of the Society's keepers was read. It 

 related to the breeding of the Passenger Pigeon, Ectopistes 

 migratorius (SAvains), in the Society's menagerie, A pair of 

 these birds began to build their nest on the 25th of April, 

 1832, having been three or four days in selecting a proper 

 place in a fir-tree in the inclosure appropriated at the Gardens 

 to the Pigeons. The female was the nest-builder. The 

 male bird performed the most laborious part of the work : he 

 collected and conveyed to the spot all the materials, princi- 

 pally sticks and straw, of which the nest was composed. He 

 alighted on the back of the female with each fresh supply, so 

 as not to disarrange any part of the nest which she had 

 formed. They began their task in the morning, and com- 

 pleted it the same evening. One egg was laid on the morn- 

 ing of the 26th, and the female commenced sitting immedi- 

 ately. A young bird was hatched in sixteen days. The 

 male relieved the female during the period of incubation. 



Another instance of the breeding in this country of the 



