422 Craig, Emotion in the Passenger Pigeon. [bet. 



Choosing a nesting-site, carrying twigs and straws to it, and 

 building the nest, are done, as in other pigeons, by male and 

 female in cooperation, with a good deal of ceremony — caressing, 

 cooing, etc. The following contains the gist of my notes on the 

 subject. 



"Female sits in nest and builds it, while male fetches straws to her. 

 He leaves nest and hunts for straws silently, but having found the straw 

 he gives a few kecks on starting, and a few whenever he perches on the 

 way, or when he arrives at nest." Another note reads: "When flying 

 up with a straw he gives a series of notes rising to high pitch and intensity. 

 No. 18 [p. 417] is typical." But in this case he may have been unusually 

 excited, for the pair were in a state of indecision as to which of two nests 

 to use.) On giving straw to female, or putting it in nest when she is not 

 there, he makes a guttural clucking (No. 17, p. 417). 



" July 18. Female, in nest with male, gives sound like kil-ss, kii-ss, 

 kii-ss, ku-ss, in which the first note of each pair is a low cluck, and the 

 second a high squeak." 



Ruthven Deane (1896, p. 235), quoting the owner of some cap- 

 tive birds, says: "The females remained on the shelf, and at a 

 given signal which they only uttered for this purpose, the males 

 would select a twig or straw . . . .and fly up to the nest." No doubt 

 the birds do stimulate one another to work, but there is no such 

 definite "signal." 



The Passenger Pigeon, like other species, shows intense jealousy 

 throughout the period of wooing and nest-building, quarrelling 

 with any outsider who comes near mate or nest. After the egg 

 is laid, jealousy in regard to the mate ceases, but the jealousy 

 which guards the nest of course continues. Hence, in the old 

 densely populated breeding grounds the noise of quarelling must 

 have been frightful. Brewster, in speaking of the old colonies, says 

 (quoted by Bendire, p. 134): "Pigeons are very noisy when build- 

 ing .... Their combined clamor can be heard four or five miles 

 away when the atmospheric conditions are favorable." This con- 

 dition would seem sufficient to explain the peculiar voice of the 

 species — the emphasizing of loud, piercing tones, and the com- 

 parative disuse of the soft notes. 



The number of eggs laid by Ectopistes has been the subject of 

 much controversy. Professor Whitman assured me that the female 

 of this species lays only one egg. Morris Gibbs is undoubtedly 



