Clearing . 223 



at the first hint of spring. Toward the end 

 of March they flew away to their breeding- 

 place, among some river hills lying thirty miles 

 to north. 



That put them in Kentucky White Oaks 

 lies in a border county. The nesting-place 

 was, in soil and timber, a counterpart of the 

 roost. But though the pigeons began leaving 

 the roost, which was less than an hour's flight 

 away, in late March, they got to the breeding- 

 place around the tenth of April. Where they 

 had dawdled nobody ever found out. Once 

 settled, nesting went on apace. The nests were 

 mere huddles of sticks, like those of the wood 

 dove, with no architecture, lining, nor much 

 of anything else. Each nest had two eggs in 

 it. Sometimes there were as many as a thou- 

 sand in one tree. Males and females took 

 turns in brooding, also in feeding the young. 

 The feeding was with " pigeon's milk " as in 

 the case of tame pigeons. Pigeon's milk, be 

 it understood, is a whitish creamy stuff secreted 

 in the crops of the parent birds from partly 

 digested food, and forced into the open mouths 

 of their young. The young thrive magically 

 upon it. The wild pigeon squabs were so fat, 

 people knocked them down in loads, and ren- 

 dered the fat to use for butter or, in conjunc- 

 tion with wax and tallow, for candle-making. 



The pigeons reared two broods, or even three 



