44 



difficult for a young person to appreciate the accounts the older inhabitants give 

 of the former abundance of these birds. I am indebted to my father, now over 

 eighty years of age, and a native of the Slate, for many facts relating to these and 

 also other birds. He says in 1831-2 the pigeon roosts in the vicinity of Vernon r 

 which had become noted as the most extensive in that part of the State, were occu- 

 pied by great numbers of pigeons. They moved in flocks so large the sky could 

 not be seen in any direction as far as the eye could reach. They also nested in 

 that locality in great abundance. The u roost " in the vicinity of Brookville in 

 the months of January and February, 1854, while not so large as many others, 

 was so near home that accounts of it made an impression upon my mind. One 

 evening when it was cloudy my father went with a company of friends to it. The 

 birds were much frightened by the ehooting about their roost, and just after sun- 

 down arose en masse and soared out of sight in the dusk of the winter evening^ 

 while from the direction of the cloud came a noise as of a violent windstorm. Aa 

 the darkness increased the multitude descended and alighted upon the limbs of the 

 forest trees in such numbers as to break many off. After night the scene is de- 

 scribed as one never to be forgotten. The squawking of the pigeons, the breaking 

 of the limbs of giant trees beneath their living weight, the continuous rumble 

 arising from the whirr of countless wings, the rapid firing of guns, produced 

 an effect which no words can convey to one who has not experienced a night at a 

 "pigeon roost." In 1869 Dr. Haymond said, "still eeen in large numbers, though 

 evidently they have been constantly diminishing in numbers for the last forty 

 years, and are probably not half so numerous as they formerly were." 



I can remember a number of interesting flights in my boyhood, but the last 

 was seen in the fall of 1877, when a few hundred represented the countless num- 

 bers of a half century or less ago. Mr. William Brewster visited the localities so 

 well known as breeding grounds for pigeons throughout Michigan in the spring of 

 1888. While the pigeons had' not made the flight they had in former years, still 

 he assures us the flight was a large one. They passed beyond the lower peninsula 

 and doubtless found a breeding ground remote from persecution Mr. Brewster is 

 of the opinion that there are left enough pigeons to restock the West, provided they 

 could be protected by adequate laws. ("The Auk," October, 1889, p. 285 et. seq.) 



GENUS ZENAIDUKA BONAPARTE. 



Head and foot of Carolina Dove, nat. size. 



''115. Zenaidura macroura (Linn.). MOURNING DOVE; CAROLINA DOVE; TURTLE DOVE. 



Common summer resident northward ; southward common resident ; a few 

 pass the winter as far north as Terre Haute (Blatchley), Carroll County, Monroe 

 County (Evermann), Kichmond (McCoy), and possibly even further north. They 

 mate early and their nests with complement of eggs are often found early in April. 



