1911 J Craig, Emotion in the Passenger Pigeon. 411 



only reason this flapping does not lift the bird is that it is not rapid enough, 

 also the bird seems to hold tightly to perch with its feet. As it is, the 

 whole bod} r , head and tail rise and fall with each stroke. He generally 

 stands obliquely along the perch, so that one wing comes down on each 

 side of perch, but even then it often happens that one wing hits the perch 

 with very audible sound at every stroke." 



This wing flapping seems to have been not merely an exercise 

 but also a display, more or less connected with mating, for it was 

 seen chiefly in the breeding season. 



The nod of the Passenger Pigeon was utterly different from that 

 of the Mourning Dove. The specific manner of nodding seemed 

 an integral part of the bird's general bearing. The nod consisted 

 of a movement of the head in a circle, back, up, forward, and down, 

 as if the bird were trying to hook its bill over something. Often 

 two or three such nods were given with no pauses between, fol- 

 lowing one another much more rapidly than in the Mourning 

 Dove, because body and tail remained all the while stationary. 

 Thus the nod, being performed by the head alone, fell in with the 

 general mannerism of the species — the body generally executing 

 strong and ample movements, the short and quick glances and nods 

 being executed by the head alone. 



To this general account of the bird's bearing, I may append the 

 following scraps of notes, which, in case the species is really extinct, 

 may prove of interest when our bird biographies become more 

 complete than they are now. 



"Ordinary walking pace of male, 12-13 steps in 5 seconds." 

 "In eating, female pecks at rate of about 12 pecks in 5 seconds on an 

 average, and as head moves through considerable arc, its motion is very 

 quick. The mumbling of each seed, also, is very quick." 

 "Especially active and noisy in early morning." 



The general bearing of this species ought to be shown in the 

 extant drawings of it, but this has been done with varying success. 

 I have seen only five published plates representing the live Pas- 

 senger Pigeon. Of these, the best to show the form and carriage 

 of the species is the photograph of a young bird, by Professor 

 Whitman (Mershon, facing p. 198). Fuertes's figure of the male 

 (Mershon, frontispiece) is a life-like portrait of this bird in an atti- 

 tude of alarm or anxious attention; the figure of the female in 



