86 THE PASSENGER PIGEON. 



approaching the wood, can with difficulty hear each 

 other speak. Amidst these scenes of apparent bustle 

 and confusion, there reigns, notwithstanding, the 

 most perfect regularity and order. The old ones 

 take their turns regularly in feeding their young; 

 and when any of them are killed upon their nests, 

 others immediately supply their places. 



It has been said, that they only lay one egg at a 

 time, but this is not strictly true, many of them 

 laying two. But even at this rate, it would be dif- 

 ficult to account for their vast numbers, without the 

 further knowledge of their prolific nature, and the 

 rapid growth of the young birds. Their sittings 

 are renewed, or rather continued; one pair having 

 been thus known to produce seven, and another, 

 eight times in one year. In twenty-three days from 

 the laying of the egg, the young ones could fly, being 

 completely feathered on the eight day. When the 

 broods are matured, with the exception of, probably, 

 some tons of the young, which are killed, and carried 

 off by actual wagon-loads, being more esteemed for 

 food than the old ones, they continue their course 

 towards the north; from whence, in December, they 

 return in the same dense mass, and are usually 

 found to be remarkably fat; proving, that in the 

 northern regions they find an ample supply of food ; 

 and vast, indeed, must be the stock, to furnish and 

 fatten such a swarm of hungry mouths. In the 

 crop of one of our common English Wood-Pigeons, 

 just killed, we found upwards of an ounce of the 

 fresh-budding leaves of clover, and in another, men- 

 tioned by Mr. White, of Selborne, was found 

 an equal quantity of tender turnip-tops, so nice 



