172 BIRDS 



lenging eveiy other gobbler. I was fortunate in discovering 

 a nest under a fallen tree, on a little knoll between -two 

 gullies. The bird used a large quantity of dead leaves and 

 feathers in constructing the nest, so that it was suggestive 

 of a wild duck's nest. It contained thirteen eggs when 

 found. In shape and markings they resemble those of the 

 domestic turkey, but are slightly paler and smaller. The 

 nest is generally abandoned if the eggs are touched. 



PASSENGER PIGEON 



The former range of the Passenger Pigeon, or Wild 

 Pigeon, was eastern North America northward to Hudson 

 Bay. 



" No more marvelous tales have been handed down to us 

 from a remote past than those which our o^vn fathers tell 

 concerning the former abundance of the wild pigeon during 

 its migrations and in its breeding haunts. During their 

 passage the sun was darkened, the beating of their wings 

 was like thunder, and their steady oncoming like the 

 continuous roar of Niagara. Where they roosted great 

 branches, and even trees two feet in diameter, were broken 

 doAvn beneath their weight, and where they bred a hundred 

 square miles of timber was weighted down with their nests. 

 When they lighted on the ground in vast swarms to feed, 

 the rear birds flew over the flock to alight in front, looking 

 like a rolling surf wave of blue. 



"Until the middle of the last century the species enjoyed 

 a general distribution throughout eastern North America, 

 and was found scatteringly to the Pacific Coast. The birds 



