4G6 



PIGEON. 



size to the old ones, and almost one mass of fat. On 

 some single trees upwards of one hundred nests were 

 found, each containing 1 one young only a circum- 

 stance in the history of this bird not generally known 

 to naturalists. It was dangerous to walk under these 

 Iking 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." 



This is a scene to which we are aware of no parallel 

 in the nesting-places of the feathered tribes, and cer- 

 tainly there is nothing bearing the slightest approxi- 

 mation to it among the birds of the British islands. 

 In many of those detached isles, especially of the 

 north, such as Sula's Skerry and its stack, arid Cradle 

 Island in Shetland, where sea-birds " most do congre- 

 gate " for the rearing of their young, it is not easy for 

 the adventurous traveller to get a foot-fall without 

 breaking an egg ; but these birds build on the rock, 

 and their weight never injures its stability ; nor are 

 we aware of any other part of the world where the 

 trees are broken down by the multitudes of birds 

 which nestle in them. 



Where the birds roost for the night, although they 

 do not breed, and they are understood to have select 

 places for this purpose, the congregating, though not 

 permanent, day and night, is often as great and as 

 destructive of the forest. The native Indians rejoice 

 in a breeding or a roosting place of the migratory 

 turtle, as one which shall supply them with an un- 

 bounded quantity of provisions, in the quality of 

 which they are riot particularly chary. Nor are these 

 roosting places attractive to the Indians only, for the 

 settlers near them also pay them nocturnal visits. 

 They come with guns, clubs, pots of suffocating ma- 

 terials, and every other means of destruction that can 

 well be imagined to be within their command, and 

 procure immense quantities of the birds in a very short 

 time. These they stuff into sacks, load their horses 

 with, and so return home. 



On the subject of the migration of these birds we 

 have nothing to add to the following quotation from 

 Wilson : u These migrations appear to be undertaken 

 rather in quest of food than merely to avoid the cold 

 of the climate ; since we find them lingering in the 

 northern regions, around Hudson's Bay, so late as 

 December ; and since this appearance is so casual 

 and irregular, sometimes not visiting certain districts 

 for several years in any considerable numbers, while 

 at other times they are innumerable. I have wit- 

 nessed these migrations in the Gennesee country, 

 often in Pennsylvania, and also in various parts of 

 Virginia, with amazement ; but all that I had then 

 seen of them were mere straggling parties when com- 

 pared with the congregated millions which I have 

 since beheld in our western forests, in the states of 

 Ohio, Kentucky, and the Indian territory. These 

 fertile and extensive regions abound with the nutri- 

 tious beech nut, which constitutes the chief food of 

 the wild pigeon. In seasons when these nuts are 

 abundant, corresponding multitudes of pigeons may 

 confidently be expected. It sometimes happens that, 

 having consumed the whole produce of the beech 

 trees in an extensive district, they discover another, 

 at the distance perhaps of sixty or eighty miles, to 

 which they regularly repair every morning, and re- 



turn as regularly in the course of the day, or in the 

 evening, to the place of their general rendezvous, or, 

 as it is usually called, the roosting place. These 

 roosting places are always in the woods, and some- 

 times occupy a large forest. When they have fre- 

 quented one of these places for some time, the 

 appearance it exhibits is surprising. The ground is 

 covered for several inches with their dung ; all the 

 tender grasses and underwood destroyed ; the surface 

 strewed with large limbs of trees, broken down by 

 the weight of the birds clustering one above another; 

 and the trees themselves, for thousands of acres, killed 

 as completely as if girdled with an axe. The marks 

 of this desolation remain for many years on the spot, 

 and numerous places could be pointed out where, for 

 several years after, scarce a single vegetable made its 

 appearance." 



We have no more space for entering into the de- 

 tails of the habits of those very extraordinary pigeons. 

 There is little doubt that they could be domesticated, 

 at least as much as the common house-pigeon is 

 domesticated ; though, as their natural habit is to 

 nestle in trees, it is very doubtful whether they could 

 be made to make a pigeon-house their home. The 

 fact of their being found lingering as stragglers during 

 the winter, in latitudes where the temperature is con- 

 siderably below zero, is sufficient proof that they 

 would bear any climate of the eastern continent. It 

 may seem that the dark colour, dryness, and hardness 

 of the flesh of the old birds, would render them of 

 comparatively little value in an economical point of 

 view, but no positive conclusion can be drawn from 

 the quality of a bird's flesh in a state of nature, as to 

 what might be its qualities were it domesticated. It 

 is the violent and frequently-repeated labour to which 

 they are subjected that hardens the muscles of birds 

 in a state of nature ; and if the birds are brought up 

 from their earliest age, and kept upon rich pastures 

 where they have occasion to use the wing but little, 

 the tenderness and also the flavour of their flesh are 

 greatly improved. This has been established by 

 actual experience, in the case of the pigeon-house 

 pigeon and the wild-rock, the second being greatly 

 interior to the first, though dressed in precisely the 

 same manner, and served up at the same time, which 

 prevented any part of the decision from resting upon 

 the judgment of mere memory, which is never an 

 exact subject of comparison with present sensation. 

 Even in the case of pigeon-house pigeons, there is a 

 considerable difference in the quality, depending on 

 the kind of country in which the pigeon-house is situ- 

 ated. If that is a poor district, where leguminous 

 and other farinaceous seeds are few and of small size, 

 and where consequently the birds must use the wing 

 much in procuring their subsistence, then the flesh is 

 hard and in small quantity, and has its flavour sharp- 

 ened almost to bitterness. On the other hand, if the 

 pigeon-house is in a rich country, where cultivated 

 legumes and grain, the larger wild vetches and beech 

 wort, are to be had in abundance, with comparatively 

 little labour, then the flesh is not so dark in the 

 colour, it is much more abundant in quantity, more 

 juicy, and though not so pungent yet more agreeable 

 in flavour. The same law holds in the flesh of all 

 animals, and of course the quality may be carried to 

 an extreme both ways. Increase of fatigue on the 

 part of the animal invariably produces hardness, 

 dryness, and pungency of flavour, and if carried to 

 excess the flesh ceases to be eatable. In a similar 



