78 



THE IOWA ORNITHOLOGIST. 



Crows, Owls, Turtle Doves and 

 Pig-eons, nesting- in considerable 

 numbers. Speaking- of the wild 

 Pig-eon, Passeng-er Pig-eon, Ecto- 

 f^isics mii^raioria it seems strangle 

 that a bird, once so plentiful, 

 should have become so scarce. 

 In those days I have seen the Sun 

 clouded by the flig-ht of millions 

 of them, while later on in nesting- 

 time it was far easier to lind 

 Pig-eon's nests than those of the 

 Mourning- Dove. Today eggs are 

 priced by some dealers at $3 per 

 eg-g-, while if as plenty as then 

 I doubt if they would bring- more 

 than five cents apiece. I noticed 

 an article sometime since, where 

 the writer claimed they only laid 

 one eg-g-, but I would have to 

 differ with him. I have often 

 found one eg-g- in a nest and 

 also one squab or young- bird, but 

 while that is so, yet I have found 

 two in far the g-reater number of 

 cases, the same as the domestic 

 Pig-eon or the Mourning- Dove. 



Doubtless all my readers have 

 heard of the g-reat (to them in- 

 credulous numbers of them that 

 were common in earlier days up 

 to the seventies, of catching- them 

 in nets by thousands, of g-oing- to 

 their roosts and killing- them by 

 the wag-on loads and hauling^ 

 them home to feed their swine. 

 To boys who never saw the sun 

 darkened by their presence for 

 hours at a time, and timber 

 broken down by the vast numbers 

 roosting- upon the trees I do not 



wonder they are surprised, 

 nor would I be surprised 

 to hear them say "Oh! what a 

 whopper", yet I venture to say 

 there are those who will read this 

 article who have seen g-reater 

 sig-hts than I, but will say that in 

 the spring- of 18(^;3 I lived on a 

 farm in Wabasha Co., Minn. In 

 those davs broad cast seeders 

 were not common and wheat was 

 neatlv :ill sown by hand and as 

 there was considerable wind at 

 seeding- time advantag-e was 

 always tiiken of iiny calm time. 

 One evening it being- c|uite still 

 my Father sowed some three 

 rxres of wheat; rising early the 

 next morning he scAved about two 

 acres more and came into break- 

 fast. I had the chores all done 

 and the team ready to hitch up, 

 as soon as breakfast was over I 

 went to the barn for that pur- 

 pose. When I saw a sig-ht that I 

 will never forget; a cloud of 

 those Pigeons had settled upon 

 the wheat and like the rolling of 

 a big wave at sea they were pas- 

 sing over the field. As soon as 

 the hindermost ones had picked 

 up the wheat clean the}' would 

 fly to the front and "down to bus- 

 iness" again, in a way that the}' 

 kept up a constant roll like a 

 wave coming shoreward. I start- 

 ed for them as hard as I could run 

 and scared them off, but in an 

 incredibly short time they were 

 there, and had completely strip- 

 ped over three acres (about four 



