138 LIFE HISTORIES OP NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



rying the material, whilst the female busied herself in placing it. A single 

 egg was soon laid in each nest and incubation commenced. On March 16, 

 there was quite a heavy fall of snow, and on the next morning I was unable 

 to see the birds on their nests on account of the accumulation of the snow 

 piled on the platforms around them. Within a couple of days it had all 

 disappeared, and for the next four or five nights a self-registering thermom- 

 eter, hanging in the aviary, marked from 14° to 19°. In spite of these 

 drawbacks both of the eggs were hatched and the young ones reared. They 

 have since continued to breed regularly, and now I have twenty birds, having 

 lost several eggs from falling through their illy-contrived nests and one old 

 male."i 



The Passenger Pigeon has been found nesting in Wisconsin and Iowa 

 during the first week in April, and as late as June 5 and 12 in Connecticut 

 and Minnesota. Their food consists of beechnuts, acorns, wild cherries, and 

 berries of various kinds, as well as different kinds of grain. They are said 

 to be very fond of, and feed extensively on, angle worms, vast numbers of 

 which frequently come to the surface after heavy rains, also on hairless cater- 

 pillars. 



Their movements, at all seasons, seem to be very irregular, and are 

 greatly affected by the food supply. They may be exceedingly common at 

 one point one year, and almost entirely wanting the next. They generally 

 winter south of latitude 36°. 



Their notes during the mating season are said to be a short "coo-coo," 

 and the ordinary call note is a "kee-kee-kee," the first syllable being louder 

 and the last fainter than the middle one. 



Opinions differ as to the number of broods in a season; while the majority 

 of observers assert that but one, a few others say that two, are usually raised. 

 The eggs vary in number from one to two in a set, and incubation lasts 

 from eighteen to twenty days, both sexes assisting. These eggs are pure 

 white in color, slightly glossy, and usually elliptical oval in shape; some may 

 be called broad elliptical oval. 



The average measurements of twenty specimens in the U. S. National 

 Museum collection is 37.5 by 26.5 millimetres. The largest egg measixres 

 39.5 by 28.5, the smallest 33.5 by 26 millimetres. 



The type specimen figured (No. 18544, PI. 4, Fig. 6), was taken from the 

 oviduct of a bird, in May, 1882, by Messrs. H. T. Phillips & Co., Detroit, 

 Michigan. 



' Bulletin Nuttall Ornithological Club, Vol. vi, 1881, p. 122. 



