° 1911 J Kalm, Wild Pigeons in North America. 65 



as if one did not see them : then they are not so timid, nor do they 

 take wing so soon. 



In the vast forests of Canada they remain to the end of August 

 or beginning of September (new style); i. c, until the grain has 

 been stored for the winter. A great number, however, remain 

 until late in the autumn, when the first snow begins to fall, which 

 finally drives them all away. As their food mostly consists of 

 acorns, beech nuts and the seeds and fruits of other trees which 

 become hidden under the snow, they are obliged to leave these 

 places and betake themselves further South, where the ground is 

 bare all winter. Not one of them remains in Canada throughout 

 the winter: but they generally spend this season in the vast forests 

 of the Illinois, who live at about the same latitude as Pennsylvania 

 and Virginia. They do not willingly migrate toward the Sea- 

 board, where the country has been extensively cultivated by the 

 English, and the forests are much cut down; partly because they 

 cannot there secure a sufficient food supply, and partly to avoid 

 running the risk of getting killed by the number of people and 

 gunners in that section. They prefer the vast and dense forests 

 in the interior of the country where there are no human habita- 

 tions for many miles around. But, should it happen during a 

 certain year that there is a failure of the crop of acorns or other 

 food suitable for them, or an unusually severe winter with great 

 snow fall sets in, which to some extent covers the ground, then 

 they are forced to leave their usual winter quarters and seek their 

 way to the English settlements down the sea-board. It is on 

 these occasions that they swarm into Pennsylvania in such enor- 

 mous numbers; but as soon as the weather changes a little and 

 becomes milder, they again retire further inland. Here they 

 remain until the last snow disappears in the spring. 



As the snow gradually melts away in the spring the Pigeons 

 migrate further and further North, and when northern Canada 

 is free from snow, which generally occurs toward the end of April 

 or the beginning of May, the Pigeons arrive in their old haunts 

 and commence their mating, nesting, hatching of eggs and the 

 rearing of their young, etc. 



The French in Canada, who annually catch a number of young 

 Pigeons alive which they thereafter rear at their homes, have 



