PASSENGER PIGEON. 317 



Thrush, to Mr. John Norman for preservation, I received 

 the following notice of the occurrence from my young 

 friend Mr. Hale Wortham. This bird was obtained be- 

 tween Royston and Chishill, early in the month of July, 

 1844, by the sons of the tenant of the farm called Known's 

 Folly, about two miles east of Royston. When the lads 

 first saw the bird it appeared so much exhausted they 

 could have knocked it down with a pole, if they had had 

 one ; they however fetched a gun and shot it. When ex- 

 amined the crop was quite empty, but in the stomach there 

 were some few seeds, resembling cole-seed, and a few small 

 stones, but no barley, or any traces of artificial food. The 

 plumage was perfect, and neither the wings, the tail, or the 

 legs, exhibited any sign that the bird had been in confine- 

 ment. I have learned by a communication from the Rev. 

 Mr. Williams, who is well acquainted with birds, that he 

 saw a Passenger Pigeon in a wood near Tring, also in 

 Hertfordshire, though on the other side of the county ; but 

 this covert being strictly watched, as a preserve for Phea- 

 sants, the use of a gun and the requisite search were not 

 permitted. 



For long and particular accounts of the vast numbers and 

 extraordinary habits of this migratory or Passenger Pigeon 

 in America, I must refer to the ornithological histories of 

 Wilson and Audubon. Like other Pigeons, it makes a 

 slender platform nest ; but, unlike other Pigeons, it lays 

 but one egg. The following is an extract from the pub- 

 lished Proceedings of the Zoological Society for the year 

 1833, page 10. A note by James Hunt, one of the So- 

 ciety's keepers, was read. It related to the breeding of the 

 Passenger Pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius (Swains.), in the 

 Society's menagerie. A pair of these birds began to build 

 their nest on the 25th of April, 1832, having been three or 

 four days in selecting a proper place in a fir-tree in the 



