PASSENGER PIGEON. 305 



THE genus Ectopistes, the characters of which were first 

 published in the third volume of the Zoological Journal, 

 page 362, was instituted by Mr. Swainson, for the recep- 

 tion of the Columba migratoria, and Columba Carolinensis 

 of authors, birds which, Mr. Selby observes in the volume 

 quoted, " though nearly allied in other characters, are dis- 

 tinguished from the rest of the Turtles by the greater 

 length of their wings and tail, those essential organs of 

 motion, the extra developement of which necessarily in- 

 dicates an economy and mode of life different from that of 

 those species where these members are comparatively short, 

 and differently proportioned." 



This beautiful Pigeon is a native of North America, over 

 nearly the whole of which immense continent it occasion- 

 ally rambles, the country to the west of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains only excepted. According to Mr. Hutchins, they 

 abound in the country round Hudson's Bay, where they 

 usually remain as late as December, feeding, when the 

 ground is covered with snow, on the buds of juniper. Dr. 

 Richardson says this celebrated bird arrives in the fur- 

 countries in the latter end of May, and departs in October. 

 It annually attains the sixty-second degree of latitude in 

 the warmer central districts, but reaches the fifty-eighth 

 parallel on the coast of Hudson's Bay in very fine summers 

 only. Mr. Hutchins mentions a flock of these Pigeons 

 visiting and staying two days at York Factory in 1775, as 

 a remarkable occurrence. Wilson says they spread over 

 the whole of Canada ; were seen by Captain Lewis and his 

 companions near the great falls of the Missouri, upwards of 

 two thousand five hundred miles from its mouth, reckoning 

 the meanderings of the river ; were also met with in the 

 interior of Louisiana by Colonel Pike; and extend their 

 range as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, occasionally 



VOL. n. x 



