230 VERTEBRATA. 



hero in larjro numbors. Other species of Columbu known in the United States are as follows : C. 

 fasciitta, sixteen inches long, purplish-gray, found in the Rocky Mountains; C. leucocephala, four- 

 teen mid a half inches long, slate-blue, head white, found in the Keys of Florida ; C. zenaida — 

 ZeiHiiiht aumbilix of lionaparto— a beautiful and gentle species, twelve and a half inches long, 

 brownish-ash, found in Florida and the West Indies: C. Jiavirosiris^ iownd on the lower Rio 

 (Jratule: Mrlopclia kncoptem ; Scardafvlla squamosa: Orcopcleia Martinica and Siarn(£nas cya- 

 nocephala, all found in the Soutiiern Territories of the United States and the West Indies. 



Gvnus ECTOriSTES : Ectopistcs. — This includes the Common Wild Pigeon of the United 



St^jt^.s often called the Passenger Fir/eon — E. mir/ratoria, sixteen to eighteen inches long, bluish- 



•'rav above, breast reddish-brown : the food consists of beech-nuts, acorns, berries, rice, seeds, <k,c. 

 It ranges throu<i-hout North America from 25° to 62° north. It builds a slight, flat nest of sticks, 

 and lavs two eg'i's. It is migratory, moving to the northwest in vast flocks in April and return- 

 ing to the South in August and September. The migrations are variable as to time and numbers; 

 latterly they have been less multitudinous than they were fifteen or twenty years ago. Audubon 

 noticed a continuous flight for three days; the whole number of birds, according to this calcula- 

 tion, amounting to one billion one hundred and fourteen millions 1 As every pigeon consumes 

 half a pint of food daily, the consumption of these each day would be eight millions seven hun- 

 dred and twelve thousand busliels! Wilson gives the following graphic account : " The roosting- 

 placcs are always in the woods, and sometimes occupy a large extent of forest. When they have 

 frequented one of those places for some time, the appearance it exhibits is surprising. The 

 ground is covered to the depth of several inches with their dung ; all the tender grass and under- 

 wood destroyed ; the surface strewed witb large limbs of trees, broken down by the weight of 

 the birds collecting one above another; and the trees themselves, for thousands of acres, killed 

 as completely as if girdled with an axe. The marks of their desolation remain for many years on 

 the spot; and numerous places could be pointed out where, for several years after, scarcely a 

 single vegetable made its appearance. When these roosts are first discovered, the inhabitants, 

 from considerable distances, visit them in the night with guns, clubs, long poles, pots of sulphur, 

 and various other engines of destruction. In a few hours they fill many sacks and load horses 

 with them. By the Indians a pigeon-roost or breeding-place is considered an important source 

 of national profit and dependence for that season, and all their active ingenuity is exercised on 

 the occasion." "This breeding-place differs from the former in its greater extent. In the western 

 countries, namely, the States of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, these are generally in back woods, 

 and often extend in nearly a straight line across the country for a great way. Not far from Shel- 

 byville, in the State of Kentucky, about five years ago, there was one of these breeding-places, 

 which stretched through the woods in nearly a north and south direction, was several miles in 

 breadth, and was said to be upward of forty miles in extent. In this tract almost every tree was, 

 furnished with nests wherever the branches could accommodate them. The pigeons made their-! 

 first appearance there about the 10th of April, and left it altogether with their young before the 

 25th of May. 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 wagons, axes, beds, 

 cooking utensils, many of them accompanied by the greater part of their families, and encamped 

 for several days at this immense nursery. Several of them informed me that the noise 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 liad been precipitated from above, and on which herds of hogs were fatten- 

 ing. Hawks, buzzards, and eagles were sailing about in great numbers, and seizing the squabe, 

 from the nests at pleasure, while, from twenty feet upward to the tops of the trees, the view, 

 through the woods presented a perpetual tumult of crowding and fluttering multitudes of pigeons.; 

 their wings roaring like thunder, mingled with the frequent crash of falling timber ; for now thcj 

 axemen were at work, cutting down those trees that seemed to be most crowded with nests, anc- 

 contrived to fell them in such a manner, that in their descent thev micrht brina down severa 

 others; by which means the falling of one large tree sometimes produced two hundred squabs 

 little inferior in size to the old ones, and almost one heap of fat. On some single trees upwarc 



