THE PASSENGER PIGEON. 



125 



tip of the lower mandible, thus increasing the width of the gape. All those whose nidification is 

 known lay but one egg." * 



In the second division of the True Pigeons the tarsus is short, as in the previous division, 

 feathered in front but bare at the sides ; the front toes are more slender and rather smooth, the hind 

 toe is broad at the base, and the wing is long. In this division are found the True Doves, to which 

 belong the English Wood Pigeon, Stock Dove, and Rock Dove ; tliR latter being the wild stock from 

 which Domestic Pigeons have been derived. In the third division, wherein the tail is very Ions, 

 graduated, and pointed, are found the Cuckoo Doves (Macropyyia) and the Passenger Pigeon of 

 America. This latter extraordi- 

 nary bird has occasionally been 

 met with in England ; it is to be 

 found all over the United States, 

 and Dr. Brewer writest : " The 

 Wild Pigeon appears to be al- 

 most entirely influenced in its 

 migration by the abundance of 

 its food, excepting in those parts 

 of the country in which it has 

 not been known to remain during 

 winter. Even in these move- 

 ments it is largely influenced by 

 instinctive considerations of food. 

 Evidently the temperature has 

 but little to do with their migra- 

 tions, as they not unfrequently 

 move northward in large columns 

 as early as the 7th of March, 

 with a thermometer twenty 

 degrees below the freezing point. 

 In the spring of 1872 a large 

 accumulation of these birds took 

 place early in March in the 

 eastern portion of New York. 

 They were present in the forests 

 about Albany, and were taken in 

 such immense numbers, that the 

 markets of New York and Boston 

 were very largely supplied with 

 them. They are capable of pro- 

 pelling themselves in long-con- 

 tinued flights, and ai-e known to 



move with an almost incredible rapidity, passing over a great extent of country in a very 

 short time. It is quite a common and well-ascertained fact that pigeons are captured in the 

 State of New York with their crops still filled with the undigested grains of rice that must 

 have been taken in the distant fields of Georgia or South Carolina, apparently proving that 

 they must have passed over the intervening space within a very few hours. Audubon esti- 

 mates the rapidity of their flight as at least a mile a minute. They are said to move in 

 their flight by quickly repeated flaps of the wings, which are brought more or less near to the body, 

 according to the degree of velocity required. During the love-season they often fly in a circling 

 manner, supporting themselves with both wings angularly elevated. Before alighting, they break the 

 force of their flight by repeated flappings. Their great powers of flight, and the ability thus given to 

 change at will their residence, and their means of renewing a supply of food, are also thought to be 



PASSENGER PIGEON. 



* Jerdon: "Birds of India/' Vol. III., i. 4;V>. 

 159 



t " History of North American Birds," VoL II., p. 379. 



