1889.] BREWSTER on the Present Status of the Wild Pigeon. 287 
for twenty-eight miles, averaging three or four miles wide. The 
birds arrived in two separate bodies, one directly from the south 
by land, the other following the east coast of Wisconsin and 
crossing at Manitou Island. He saw the latter body come in from 
the lake at about three o’clock in the afternoon. It was a com- 
pact mass of Pigeons, at least five miles long by one mile wide. 
The birds began building when the snow was twelve inches deep 
in the woods, although the fields were bare at the time. So 
rapidly did the colony extend its boundaries that it soon passed 
literally over and around the place where he was netting, although 
when he began, this point was several miles from the nearest nest. 
Nestings usually start in deciduous woods, but during their 
progress the Pigeons do not skip any kind of trees they encounter. 
The Petosky nesting extended eight miles through hard-wood 
timber, then crossed a river bottom wooded with arbor-vite, and 
thence stretched through white pine woods about twenty miles. 
For the entire distance of twenty-eight miles every tree of any 
size had more or less nests, and many trees were filled with them. 
None were lower than about fifteen feet above the ground. Pig- 
eons are very noisy when building. They make a sound resem- 
bling the croaking of wood-frogs. Their combined clamor can be 
heard four or five miles away when the atmospheric conditions 
are favorable. Two eggs are usually laid, but many nests con- 
tain only one. Both birds incubate, the females between two 
o’clock Pp. M. and nine or ten o’clock the next morning; the males 
from nine or ten o’clock a. M. to two o’clock p.m. The males 
feed twice each day, namely, from daylight to about eight o’clock 
A. M., and again late in the afternoon. The females feed only 
during the forenoon. The change is made with great regularity 
as to time, all the males being on the nest by ten o’clock a, m. 
During the morning and evening no females are ever caught by 
the netters; during the forenoon no males. The sitting bird does 
not leave the nest until the bill of its incoming mate nearly touches 
its tail, the former slipping off as the latter takes its place. Thus 
the eggs are constantly covered, and but few are ever thrown out 
despite the fragile character of the nests and the swaying of the 
trees in high winds. The old birds never feed in or near the ‘nest- 
ing,’ leaving all the beech mast, etc., there for their young. Many 
of them go one hundred miles each day for food. Mr. Stevens is 
satisfied that Pigeons continue laying and hatching during the 
