580 THE STOCK-DOVE. 



whilst eagles and hawks of different species, accompanied by a crowd of vultures, came 

 to supplant them, and enjoy their share of the spoil." 



The chief food of the Passenger Pigeon is beech -mast, but the bird feeds on numerous 

 other o-rains and fruits, such as acorns, buckwheat, hempseed, maize, holly-berries, huckle- 

 berries, and chestnuts. Ptice is also a favourite article of food, and pigeons have been 

 killed with rice still undigested in their stomachs, though the nearest rice plantation was 

 distant several hundred miles. The amount of food consumed by these birds is almost 

 incredible. Wilson calculates that taking the breadth of the great column of pigeons 

 mentioned above, to be only one mile, its length to be two hundred and forty miles, and 

 to contain only three Pigeons in each square yard (taking no account of the several 

 strata of birds, one above the other,) and that each bird consumes half-a-pint of food 

 daily ; all which assumptions are below the actual amount, the quantity of food consumed 

 in each day would be seventeen million bushels. Audubon makes a similar calculation, 

 allowing only two birds to the square yard. 



Although these birds are found in such multitudes, there is only a single young 

 one each time of hatching, though there are probably two or even three breeds in a 

 season. The young birds are extremely fat, and their flesh is very delicious, only, as 

 during their stay every one eats pigeons all day and every day, they soon pall upon the 

 taste. So plump are these birds, that it is often the custom to melt them down for the 

 sake of their fat alone. 



When they begin to shift for themselves they pass through the forest in search of 

 their food, hunting among the leaves for mast, and appear like a prodigious torrent 

 rolKng along through the woods, every one striving to be in the front. " Vast numbers of 

 them are shot while in this situation. A person told me that he once rode furiously into 

 one of these rolling multitudes and picked up thirteen pigeons, which had been trampled 

 to death by his horse's feet. In a few minutes they will beat the whole nuts from a tree 

 with their wings, while all is a scramble, both above and below, for the same." The 

 young, the males and females, have a curious habit of dividing into separate flocks. 



One or two specimens of this bird have been taken in Europe, and one individual was 

 shot in Eifeshire in 1825. This species has bred in the Zoological Gardens, and it is 

 rather remarkable that the female made the nest while her mate performed the duties of 

 hodman by bringing materials. The nest is very slight, being only composed of a few 

 twigs rudely woven into a platform, and so loosely made that the eggs and young can be 

 seen from below. In tliis instance the nest was begun and finished in the same day. 

 The young bird was hatched after sixteen days. 



The colour of the Passenger Pigeon is as follows : The head, part of the neck and the 

 chin are slate-blue, and the lower part and sides of the neck are also deep slate " shot " 

 with gold, green, and purplish crimson, changing at every movement of the bird. 

 The throat, breast, and ribs are reddish hazel ; the back and upper tail-coverts dark slaty 

 blue, slightly spotted with black upon tlie shoulders. The primary and secondary quill- 

 feathers of the wings are black, the primary being edged and tipped with dirty white. 

 The lower part of the breast is a pale purplish red, and the abdomen is white. The long 

 and pointed tail has the two central feathers deep black, and the rest white, taking a 

 bluish tint near their bases, and Ijeing marked with one black spot and another of rusty 

 red on the inner webs. The beak is black, the eye fiery orange, and a naked space 

 around it is purplish red. The female is known by her smaller size, her oaken-brown 

 breast and ashen neck, and the slaty hue of the space round the eyes. The total length 

 of the adult male is about sixteen inches. 



The Stock-Dove derives its name from its habit of building its nest in the stocks or 

 stumps of trees. It is one of our Britisli Pigeons, and is tolerably common in many parts 

 of England. 



It is seldom found far northward, and even when it does visit such localities, it is 

 only as a summer resident, making its nest in warmer districts. As has already been 

 mentioned, the nest of this species is made in the stocks or stumps of trees, the birds finding 



