PIGEONS, QUAILS, GROUSE. Pigeon 



ORDER COLUMB^E: PIGEONS. 



FAMILY COLUMBIDJE: DOVES AND PIGEONS. 

 Passenger Pigeon : Ectopistes migratorius. 



Wild Pigeon. 

 PLATE 61. 



Length : Dependent upon the development of tail, 12-16 inches. 

 Male : Upper parts bluish gray, reddish brown below, fading to whitish 



toward vent. Wings dark, with a few spots, tail quills dark 



blue at the base and white at tips. Bill black ; feet lake-red. 

 Female : Dull gray above, breast ashy brown. 

 Note : A guttural " coo." 

 Season : A rare summer resident. Last considerable flight some 20 



years ago. (Averill.) 

 Breeds: Locally and irregularly in the more northerly parts of its 



range. 

 Nest : Merely a lattice of small twigs, through which the eggs may be 



seen. 



Eggs : 2, white. 

 Eange : Eastern North America, from Hudson's Bay southward, and 



west to the Great Plains, straggling westward to Nevada and 



"Washington Territory. 



The beautifully tinted Wild Pigeon is now almost a thing 

 of the past. Thirty years ago it was one of our most 

 abundant Game-birds, but it has become exterminated in 

 some localities and is a rare summer resident whose appear- 

 ance is carefully noted. Old housekeepers remember when, 

 in New York and Boston every winter, carts loaded with 

 these birds went from door to door and potted pigeon was a 

 standard New England dish, alternating with roast beef, 

 turkey, and sparerib. 



The disappearance of this Pigeon is only a page in the 

 sad history of the destruction of bird life in the United 

 States, and it seems as if the founders of the country, as 

 well as the ever-increasing stream of emigrants, had too 

 much faith in its resources, believing it to be a land not 

 amenable to the laws of Nature. So ruthlessly have these 

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