PIGEON. 



465 



temptation whatever to rear them artificially. Their 

 flesh, too, is not of the very best quality, and their 

 numbers and voracity are such as to render them 

 little short of nuisances upon the cultivated grounds. 

 Even in Canada their numbers are so great, and the 

 ravages which they commit upon the cultivated ground 

 so extensive, that instances are recorded in which the 

 Bishop has been seriously and earnestly implored to 

 exorcise them by " bell, book, and candle ; " that is, 

 to cast them out of the land by the same means 

 whereby unclean spirits, in the days (happily now 

 gone by) when they were troublesome to individuals, 

 were cast out of their possession of the bodies of 

 men and women. As the possession in the case of 

 the individual human beings was, according to our 

 modern notions, quite imaginary, it is highly probable 

 that the exorcism of bell, book, and candle, which 

 was also imaginary, might produce the desired effect. 

 But, as the passenger turtles were material beings, 

 and not spiritual, we rather suspect that the Bishop 

 had the good sense not to try the experiment upon 

 them ; at least La Houtan, who records the matter, 

 is perfectly silent as to the success or failure of the 

 experiment. 



Before we begin to give a short outline of the 

 manners of these extraordinary birds, it may be as 

 \vell to describe their personal appearance. They 

 are birds of particularly handsome form, with long 

 and pointed wings, and the tails also particularly 

 long and wedge-shaped, the lateral feathers being 

 not more than half the length of the central ones. 

 The male bird is sixteen inches long, of which, how- 

 ever, the tail occupies a half, or at least nearly so ; 

 the stretch of the wings is two feet, so that, altogether, 

 the flying feathers are very large and powerful in pro- 

 portion to the size and weight of the bird, and con- 

 sequently well suited to its migratory habits ; the head, 

 upper part of the neck, and chin, are of a fine slate-blue 

 colour, paler on the chin than the other parts, but alto- 

 gether forming a well-marked head ; the back, rump, 

 and tail-coverts, are deep slate-grey, dotted on the sca- 

 pulars with a few dusky marks, and tinged with brown 

 over the insertion of the wing ; the greater coverts 

 of the wings are light slate colour ; the quills arc 

 blackish, the primaries margined and tipped with 

 brownish white ; the tail is long, and, as has been 

 said, much wedge-shaped by the feathers increasing 

 in length from the sides to the middle ; the two 

 middle feathers are plain black ; the other five, on 

 each side, are bluish at their bases, passing into a 

 sort of greyish-white toward their tips, and marked 

 with a black spot on the inner web of each near the 

 base, and with a rust-coloured one still nearer ; the 

 bastard wing is black, and there are some black spots 

 on the wing-coverts ; the throat, breast, and sides, as 

 far as the thighs, are very pale reddish chestnut, 

 passing into a pale wine-red on the lower part of the 

 breast, and also on the feathers of the thighs ; the 

 belly and vent feathers are white ; the lower part of 

 the neck behind, and the sides of the same, are 

 crimson, inclining to purple, but with changeable 

 glosses of green and gold ; the bill, which is slender, 

 but has the upper mandible considerably arched, is 

 black, and the high naked skin in which the nostrils 

 are pierced is nearly of the same colour, and forms a 

 rounded protuberance ; the irides are brilliant reddish 

 orange, and the small portion of naked skin around 

 the eyes is deep purple ; the contrast of these 

 colours, with the delicate slate-blue in which they are 

 NAT. HIST. VOL. III. 



set, gives the eye a very striking and expressive 

 appearance ; the naked parts of the tarsi and the 

 toes are clear lake-red, streaked with white. The 

 female is half an inch shorter than the male, and an 

 inch less in the stretch of the wings ; the breast is 

 brownish ash, the upper part of the neck slightly ash- 

 coloured ; the changeably-coloured portion of the 

 neck is of smaller extent, and not nearly so brilliant ; 

 the tail-coverts have a brownish tinge ; and all the 

 other parts of the plumage, which resemble those of 

 the male in their disposition, are duller in the tint, 

 and have more or less of brown in them. Still both 

 sexes are beautiful birds. Their value, in an economi- 

 cal point of view, is not, however, in any way equal to 

 their beauty or their numbers. The flesh of the old ones 

 is dark, dry,.hard, and unpalatable, as is very generally 

 the case with birds which are much on the wing ; 

 but the young, or " squabs," as they are called by the 

 inhabitants of the United States, are remarkably fat ; 

 and as, in the places where the birds congregate, 

 they may be obtained without much difficulty, this fat 

 is obtained by literally melting them, and used instead 

 of lard, to which, however, it is inferior, as there is a 

 rankness of flavour about it. As they nestle in vast 

 multitudes at the same place, their nesting-places 

 have many attractions for birds of prey, which indis- 

 criminately seize upon both the old and the young. 

 The nests are very flimsy fabrics, and, though they 

 are placed in the very closest trees, the young may 

 readily be seen by those who pass into the forests 

 under them. The eggs, like those of most of the pigeon 

 tribe, are usually two in number ; but the number of 

 birds at one nesting-place is so great, that the young, 

 when they begin to branch and feed, literally drive 

 along the woods like a torrent. They feed upon the 

 fruits, which, at this time, they procure in the middle 

 height of the forests, and do not venture upon the 

 open grounds. The nests are far more closely packed 

 together than in any rookery, and are built one above 

 another from the height of twenty feet to the top of 

 the very tallest trees. Wilson says " As soon as the 

 young were fully grown, and before they left the 

 nests, numerous parties of the inhabitants, from all 

 parts of the adjacent country, came with waggons, 

 axes, beds, cooking utensils, many of them accom- 

 panied by the greater part ot their families, and 

 encamped for several days at this immense nursery. 

 [This nursery was near Shelbyville, in Kentucky, 

 forty miles long and several miles in breadth]. 

 Several of them informed rne that the noise in the 

 woods was so great as to terrify their horses, and that 

 it was difficult for one person to hear another speak 

 without bawling in his ear. The ground was strewed 

 with broken limbs of trees, eggs, and young squab 

 pigeons, which had been precipitated from above, and 

 on which herds of hogs were fatting. Hawks, buz- 

 zards, and eagles, were sailing about in great num- 

 bers, and seizing the squabs from their nests at 

 pleasure ; while, from twenty feet upwards to the 

 tops of the trees, the view through the woods pre- 

 sented a perpetual tumult of crowding and fluttering 

 multitudes of pigeons, their wings roaring like thun- 

 der, mingled with the frequent crash of falling timber ; 

 for now the axemen were at work cutting down those 

 trees which seemed to be most crowded with nests, 

 and seemed 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 two hundred squabs, little inferior in 

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