DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 23 



Spring, wherever they may roost; but their disappearance from 

 old haunts is due to the destruction of former roosting and 

 nesting place. ' ' 



"The appearance of the pigeons in the Spring Creek woods 

 and in the woods along Palate Creek has been quickly followed 

 by hundreds of hunters and netters, both professional and 

 amateur. The farmer, the bark peeler, the villager, the oil 

 scout, and the wild-catter are now out in force, and, in spite of 

 the strict law forbidding the capturing of wild pigeons during 

 the nesting season, are making away with the birds and their 

 young by the thousand every day. Besides the barrels full of 

 pigeons and squabs that are daily shipped away from every 

 available railway station myriads of the birds are killed and 

 left to rot in the woods." 



' ' As soon as a colony of wild pigeons is settled in its roosting 

 place the mating of the birds begins. The cooing of thousands 

 upon thousands of pigeons in the roost during the courting 

 period is kept up constantly for three days. This is the love 

 note of the male. A torn pigeon, as the male is called, selects 

 the hen he fancies, and wooes her alone. If another tom wants 

 her, there must be a fight between the rivals, which is always a 

 fierce one. The hen perches on a limb near by while the fight 

 for her possession is going on, and when it is over she is claimed 

 by the winner, and she becomes his at once. She has no other 

 mate during the succeeding nesting period, and if a hen loses 

 her mate she remains a widow until the next season. The tom 

 gathers sticks and moss to make the nest with and his wife 

 builds the nest. It takes three days to complete the nest. She 

 lays one egg generally, but sometimes two. While she is on 

 the nest the tom carries her the choicest food he can find and 

 takes his place on the egg every afternoon for an hour or two 

 while the hen takes an airing. There may be 50 nests in one 

 tree. The egg is 13 days in hatching. The young bird is fed 

 by its parents for 13 days. The food is sometimes carried 20 

 miles or more by the old birds. By some mysterious process it 

 is changed in their crops to a sort of whey. This the young 

 bird sucks from the crop by inserting its beak in the open mouth 

 of the old bird. This food is called ' pigeon milk.' When the 



