COLUMBID^. 



COLUMBID^E. 



making a nest like that of the common turtle, and lays two white 

 eggs. It seeks its food in the open grounds, and subsists upon grain, 

 grass-seeds, and pulse, &c. Its trivial name is derived from a fanciful 

 resemblance to the human laugh in its cooings. (Selby.) 



A race between the common turtle and this species has been ob- 

 tained ; but the mules are stated to have been invariably barren. 



T. commnnis (Linnaeus), the Turtle Dove (Columba turtwr of authors), 

 is found in Great Britain. It occurs only as a summer visiter coming 

 from Africa. 



Mr. Selby provisionally places the C. lophotes of Temminck under 

 this genus. 



Ectopistes (Swainson). Bill slender, notched. Wings rather elon- 

 gated, pointed ; the first and third quill equal ; the second longest. 

 Tail rounded, or curvated. Feet short, naked ; anterior scales of the 

 tarsi imbricate ; lateral scales very small, reticulate. 



E. miffratoria. It is the C. migratoria of authors, the Passenger 

 Pigeon of Wilson, Audubon, ancl others. Our limits not allowing us 

 to give a detailed history of any length of the habits of more than 

 one species, we have selected Wilson's graphic account of this elegant 

 bird as the most striking : 



- 



Paiwnjer Pigeon (Ectopistti migratoria' 



" The roosiing-places are always in the woods, and sometimes 

 occupy a large extent of forest. When they have frequented one of 

 those places for some time, the appearance it exhibits is surprising. 

 The ground is covered to the depth of several inches with their dung ; 

 all the tender grass and underwood destroyed ; the surface strewed 

 with large limbs of trees, broken down by the weight of the birds 

 collecting one above another ; and the trees themselves, for thousands 

 of acres, killed ax completely as if girdled with an axe. The marks 

 of their desolation remain for many years on the spot ; and numerous 

 places could be pointed out where, for several years after, scarcely a 

 single vegetable made its appearance. When these roosts are first 

 discovered, the inhabitants, from considerable distances, visit them 

 in the night with guns, cluba, long poles, pots of sulphur, and various 

 other engines of destruction. In a few hours they nil many sacks 

 and load horses with them. By the Indians a pigeon-roost or breed- 

 ing-place is considered an important source of national profit and 

 dependence for that season, and all their active ingenuity is exercised 

 on the occasion. The breeding-place differs from the former in its 

 greater extent. In the western countries, namely, the states of Ohio, 

 Kentucky, and Indiana, these are generally in back woods, and often 

 extend in nearly a straight line across the country for a great way. 

 Not far from Shelbyville, in the state of Kentucky, about five years 

 ago, there wn one of these breeding-places, which stretched through 

 the woods in nearly a north and south direction, was several miles in 

 breadth, and was said to be upwards of forty miles in extent. In this 

 tract almost every tree was furnished with nests wherever the branches 

 could accommodate them. The pigeons made their first appearance 

 there about the 10th of April, and left it altogether with their young 

 -before the 25th of May. As soon as the young were fully grown, and 

 l-<bre they left the nesta, numerous parties of the inhabitants from 

 all parts of the adjacent country came with waggons, axes, beds, 



ng-utensils, many of them accompanied by the greater part of 



tVunilieK, anil encamped for several days at this immense nursery. 

 Seweral of them informed me that the noise was so great as to terrify 

 tUfchonvs, and that it was difficult for one person to hear another 

 l>*0c without bawling in his ear. The ground was strewed with 

 broken limbs of trees, eggs, and young squab pigeons, which had been 



lUted from above, and on which herds of hogs were fattening. 

 Hawkn, buzzards, and eagles were sailing about in great numbers, and 

 seizing the squabs from the nests at pleasure, while, from twenty feet 

 upwards to the top of the trees, the view through the woods presented 

 a perpetual tumult of crowding and fluttering multitudes of pigeons, 



.vings roaring like thunder, mingled with the frequent crash of 

 falling timber ; for now the axemen were at work, cutting down those 

 tree* tht seemed to be most crowded with nests, and contrived to fell 



them in such a manner, that in their descent they might bring down 

 several others ; by which means the falling of one large tree some- 

 times produced 200 squabs, little inferior in size to the old ones, and 

 almost one heap of fat. On some single trees upwards of 100 netts 

 were found, each containing one squab only ; a circumstance in the 

 history of this bird not generally known to naturalists. It was 

 dangerous to walk under these flying and fluttering millions, from the 

 frequent fall of large branches, broken down by the weight of the 

 multitudes above, and which in their descent often destroyed numbers 

 of the birds themselves; while the clothes of those engaged in 

 traversing the woods were completely covered with the excrements 

 of the pigeons. 



" These circumstances were related to me by many of the most 

 respectable part of the community in that quarter, and were con- 

 firmed in part by what I myself witnessed. I passed for several miles 

 through this same breeding-place, where every tree was spotted with 

 nests, the remains of those above described. In many instances I 

 counted upwards of ninety nests on a single tree ; but the pigeons 

 had abandoned this place for another, sixty or eighty miles off, towards 

 Green River, where they were said at that time to be equally numer- 

 ous. From the great numbers that were constantly passing over our 

 heads to or from that quarter, I had no doubt of the truth of this 

 statement. The mast had been chiefly consumed in Kentucky ; and 

 the pigeons, every morning a little before sunrise, set out for the 

 Indiana territory, the nearest part of which was about sixty miles 

 distant. Many of these returned before ten o'clock, and the great 

 body generally appeared on their return a little after noon. 1 had 

 left the public road to visit the remains of the breeding-place near 

 Shelbyville, and was traversing the woods with my gun, on my way 

 to Frankfort, when about ten o'clock the pigeons which I had observed 

 flying the greater part of the morning northerly, began to return in 

 such immense numbers as I never before had witnessed. Coming to 

 an opening by the side of a creek called the Benson, where I had a 

 more uninterrupted view, I was astonished at their appearance : they 

 were Hying with great steadiness and rapidity, at a height beyond gun- 

 shot, in several strata deep, and so close together that, could shot 

 have reached them, one discharge could not have failed of bringing 

 down several individuals. From right to left, as far as the eye could 

 reach, the breadth of this vast procession extended, seeming every- 

 where equally crowded. Curious to determine how long this appear- 

 ance would continue, I took out my watch to note the time, and sat 

 down to observe them. It was then half-past one ; I sat for more 

 than an hour, but instead of a diminution of this prodigious proces- 

 sion, it seemed rather to increase, both in numbers and rapidity; 

 and anxious to reach Frankfort before night I rose and went on. 

 About four o'clock in the afternoon I crossed Kentucky River, at the 

 town of Frankfort, at which time the living torrent above my head 

 seemed as numerous and as extensive as ever. Long after this I 

 observed them in large bodies that continued to pass for six or eight 

 minutes, and these again were followed by other detached bodies, all 

 moving in the same south-east direction, till after six o'clock in the 

 evening. The great breadth of front which this mighty multitude 

 preserved would seem to intimate a corresponding breadth of their 

 breeding-place, which, by several gentlemen who had lately passed 

 through part of it, was stated to me at several miles." 



Wilson then enters into a rough calculation of the numbers of this 

 mass, and he comes to the conclusion chat its whole length was 240 

 miles, and that the numbers composing it amounted to 2,230,272,000 

 pigeons, observing that this is probably far below the actual amount. 

 He adds, that allowing each pigeon to consume half a pint of food 

 daily, the whole quantity would equal 17,424,000 bushels daily. Mr. 

 Audubon confirms Wilson in every point, excepting that he very pro- 

 perly corrects that part of the narrative which would lead to the 

 conclusion that a single young one only is hatched each time. The 

 latter observes that the bird lays two eggs of a pure white, and that 

 each brood generally consists of a male and female. 



Description. Wings long and acuminate, having the second quill- 

 feather exceeding the others in length. The tail is greatly cuneiform 

 or graduated, and consists of twelve tapering feathers. Bill black, 

 and like that of the turtle. Legs purplish-red, short, and strong. 

 Iris bright orange-red, the naked orbit purplish-red. Head and cheeks 

 pale bluish-gray. Fore-neck, breast, and sides brownish-red, with a 

 purplish tinge. Abdomen and vent white. Lower part and sides of 

 neck purplish-crimson, reflecting tints of emerald green and gold. 

 Upper plumage deep bluish-gray, some of the scapulars and wing- 

 coverts spotted with black. Greater coverts gray, tipped with white. 

 Quills blackish-gray, their exterior webs bluish-gray. Tail with the 

 two middle feathers black, the other five on each side gray at the base, 

 with a black bar on the interior arch, and passing into white towards 

 the extremities. 



Thi female is rather smaller, and has the colours of her plumage 

 much duller than those of the male, though the distribution is the 

 same. (Selby.) 



The Passenger Pigeon inhabits the North American continent, be- 

 tween the 20th and U2nd degrees of north latitude. Mr. Eyton has 

 figured one as a visitant to our shores, on the authority of Dr. Fleming, 

 who, in his ' History of British Animals,' says that one was shot in 

 the parish of Monymeal, Fifeshire, on the 31st December, 1825. Mr. 



