212 HISTORY OF 



as they express it, to a feather. From hence we have the vario'is 

 names of croppers, carriers, jacobines, powters, runts, turbits : all 

 birds that at first might have accidentally varied from the stock- 

 dove; and then, by having these varieties still heightened by 

 food, climate, and pairing, different species have been produced. 

 But there are many species of the wild pigeon, vvliich, though 

 bearing a strong affinity to the stock-dove, are, nevertheless, 

 sufficiently different from it to deserve a distinct description. — 

 The ring-dove is of this number; a good deal larger than the 

 former ; and building its nest with a few dry sticks, in tiie 

 bou!;hs of trees. This seems a bird much fonder of its native 

 freedom than the former ; and attempts have been frequently 

 made to render it domestic ; but they have hitherto proved fruit- 

 less, for though their eggs have been hatched by the tame pigeon 

 in a dove-house, yet, as soon as they could fly, they always be- 

 took themselves to the woods where they were first produced. 

 In the beginning of winter these assemble in great flocks in the 

 woods, and leave off cooing ; nor do they resume this note of 

 courtship till the beginning of March, when the genial season, 

 by supplying them with food, renews their desires.* 



* Of the migratory or wild pigeon of North America Wilson gives the 

 fullowing extraordinary account. — " The most remarkable characteristic of 

 these birds,'' he says, " is their associating together, both iu their migrations, 

 and also during the period of incubation, in such prodigious numbers, aa 

 almost to surpass belief ; and which has uo parallel among any other of the 

 feathered tribes, on the face of the earth, with wliich naturalists are ac 

 quainted. 



" These migrations appear to be undertaken rather in quest of food, than 

 v.^c rely 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 their 

 apn earance is so casual and irregular, sometimes not visiting certain districts 

 for several yeai-s in any considerable numbers, while at other times they are 

 innumerable. I have witnessed these migrations in the Gennesee country, 

 often in Pennsylvania, and also iu 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 Indiana territory. 

 These fertile and extensive regions abound with the nutricious beech nut, 

 wliich constitutes the chief food of the wild pigeoB. In seasons when these 

 nuts are abundant, corresponding multitudes of pigeons may be confidently 

 expected. It sometimeshappens 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 return as regularly in the course of the day, or in the 

 sveoiiig, to tlieir place of geucriU reudezvoitt, or, as it is usually raliedj tU 



