174 BIRDS 



"It is evident that such wholesale slaughter could not 

 go on forever. The extraordinary flights suddenly ceased 

 during the '80s. Since that time, ' What has become of the 

 passenger pigeon?' has been the puzzling question. It is 

 known that the birds still breed by single pairs, to some 

 extent at least; but doubtless the passenger pigeons are 

 gone — gone irretrievably, after the manner of the bison — 

 lost in the maw of human greed. 



" One or two white eggs in a rude platform of sticks 

 was laid on everj' available branch." (Adapted from Daw- 

 son's Birds of Ohio.) 



MOURNING DOVE 



The Mourning Dove ranges throughout the United 

 States and southern Canada, breeding from Cuba north 

 to Ontario and Quebec. 



Since the extinction of the passenger pigeon, the mourn- 

 ing or turtle dove is the only representative of the family we 

 have in eastern North America north of Florida and Louisi- 

 ana. The bird's rapid and irregular flight is accompanied 

 by a whistling of the wings. Disturbed while nesting, the 

 birds alternately flutter and hop until they have misled the 

 trespasser. INIourning doves are gregarious when migrat- 

 ing, and again flock soon after the young leave the nest. 

 When gregarious they visit cornfields, consequently their 

 flesh is very palatable, and farmers kill them in great num- 

 bers in open season as game and because of their destruction 

 of grain. Fond of salt, they are found where stock is 

 salted. 



