414 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 



Wheat is one of their most coveted foods, which may be seen 

 from what has already been stated, as well as from many another 

 experience. As soon as the wheat fields become ripe they swoop 

 down on them in enormous numbers and take considerable toll 

 of them. When the wheat is stacked up in the field they also visit 

 it and devour all too much of it, if they should happen to be in the 

 least hungry. In the fall, when the wheat is recently sown, they 

 alight in full force in the fields and not only pick up the grains which 

 are more or less in broad daylight but also poke up those which the 

 plow has not sunk sufficiently deep. In order to prevent such a 

 damage boys as well as others are seen at this season of the year 

 running around armed with guns and other "contraptions" to kill or 

 scare them away. On such occasions, however, they are not in 

 general particularly timid, especially the young ones, so that when 

 a few of them have been shot at a stack the others oftentimes fly 

 away only a short distance to another stack, and hence the gunner, 

 albeit he has made some lucky shots, generally becomes exhausted 

 before the birds become scared. In Pennsylvania th : s species of 

 grain, as well as the rye, commonly ripens about midsummer (old style) 

 and sometimes earlier, but farther north it ripens later. 



Buckwheat they are also very fond of, and levy considerable 

 tribute on it. The buckwheat matures in Pennsylvania in the 

 middle of September (old style). 



The berries of the tupelo or sour-gum tree (Nyssa) they also 

 consume with great avidity. In Pennsylvania these ripen in Sep- 

 tember. This tree does not grow in Canada. 



Most forests in North America consist of oak, of which arboreal 

 genus there are several species; of these the greater part have nearly 

 every year a great number of acorns which in the autumn fall off in 

 such quantities that quite often the ground below the oaks is covered 

 by them one hand high and sometimes more. These serve as food 

 for several kinds of animals and birds, as, for instance, squirrels of 

 several species, forest mice, wild pigeons, etc., in addition to which, 

 in places inhabited by Europeans, they serve as the staple food of 

 hogs during the greater part of the year. During certain years the 

 numberless swarms of wild pigeons already described come to Penn- 

 sylvania and the other English provinces in search of these acorns. 

 In Pennsylvania and other localities in North America the acorns 

 mature in September and the following months. 



They are also very fond of beeclmuts. There is a great abundance 

 of beech trees in Canada, but farther south they grow somewhat more 

 sparsely. In Canada the nuts become ripe in the middle of Sep- 

 tember. These, together with acorns, constitute the principal food 

 of the pigeons during the entire latter part of the fall and throughout 

 the winter. 



