J 



Vol.XXVIIII 



1911 



Craig, Emotion in the Passenger Pigeon. 42o 



correct when he says that each female lays but one egg, and that 

 when two eggs or two young are found in the same nest, the two 

 came from different females. In any species of pigeon it might 

 happen that two females should lay in the same nest, but in the 

 Passenger Pigeon this occurrence seems to have been unusually 

 frequent, which is one of several facts going to show an unusual 

 degree of neighborliness in this species. 



Another line of evidence going to show an unusual degree of 

 neighborliness in the breeding of this species, is that of the feeding 

 of orphans. Chief Pokagon says (Mershon, pp. 52, 53): "It has 

 been well established that these birds look after and take care of 

 all orphan squabs whose parents have been killed or are missing." 

 E. T. Martin says (Mershon, pp. 102): "In proof of the pigeons 

 feeding squab indiscriminately [this word is surely an exaggera- 

 tion], I may mention the fact that one of the men in my employ 

 this year ... .in one afternoon shot and killed six hen pigeons that 

 came to feed the one squab in the same nest." And Chief Pokagon 

 again (Mershon, p. 206) : " I have seen as many as a dozen young 

 ones assemble about a male, and, with drooping wings, utter the 

 plaintive begging notes to be fed, and never saw them misused 

 at such times by either gender." It is true of the domestic pigeon, 

 for example, that a parent may occasionally, if importuned, feed a 

 young one not his own, but it is also true that a young one may be 

 pecked and driven off if it begs from strangers. Hence, if the 

 above-quoted observations on the Passenger Pigeon are correct, 

 they indicate a solicitude for orphans which is probably unique 

 among pigeons. 



At the end of the breeding season, the Passenger Pigeon, like 

 other pigeons, becomes a comparatively quiet bird. Beginning 

 early in August, one notices that the birds are not only less amorous 

 but also less quarrelsome: the kecking and scolding and the grand 

 wing exercise become less frequent, less prolonged, and less intense; 

 the keeho seems to disappear altogether for a time. But early 

 in the following year, possibly even in January, the flock re-attains 

 its maximum vociferation. 



As was said before (p. 409), I purpose now to criticise Audubon's 

 account of the expressions of this bird. Audubon did a great 

 work, a work of foremost value in the history of American orni- 



