552 PASSENGER PIGEON. 



Texas, I was assured that the Passenger Pigeon was plentiful there, 

 although at irregular intervals. In the neighbourhood of Boston it ar- 

 rives, as Dr T. M. Brewer informs me, in small scattered flocks, much 

 less numerous than in the interior of that State. 



Some persons have thought fit to consider my account of the roost- 

 ing and breeding of this species as fabulous ; but I freely forgive them, 

 well knowing that they have never seen even a single flock. Eight 

 years and a half have elapsed since the publication of my first volume 

 of Ornithological Biography. I have since that time spoken to many 

 persons who have been witnesses of such scenes as I have described, 

 and from whom I could easily have obtained corroborative statements ; 

 but what I have related is true, and why should I attempt to satisfy 

 those who doubt its accuracy ? 



My friend Dr Bachman says, in a note sent to me, " In the more 

 cultivated parts of the United States, these birds now no longer breed 

 in communities. I have secured many nests scattered throughout the 

 woods, seldom near each other. Four years ago, I saw several on the 

 mountains east of Lansinburgh, in the State of New York. They were 

 built close to the stems of thin but tall pine trees (Pinus strohus), 

 and were composed of a few sticks ; the eggs invariably two, and white. 

 There is frequently but one young bird in the nest, probably from the 

 loose manner in which it has been constructed, so that either a young 

 bu'd or an egg drops out. Indeed, I have found both at the foot of 

 the tree. This is no doubt accidental, and not to be attributed to a 

 habit which the bird may be supposed to have of throwing out an egg 

 or one of its young. I have frequently taken two of the latter from 

 the same nest and reared them. The Wild Pigeons appear in Caro- 

 lina during winter at irregular periods, sometimes in cold, but often in 

 warm weather, driven here no doubt, as you have mentioned, not by 

 the cold, but by a failm-e of mast in the western forests." 



A curious change of habits has taken place in England in those Pi- 

 geons which I presented to the Earl of Derby in 1830, that nobleman 

 having assm-ed me that ever since they began breeding in his aviaries, 

 they have laid only one egg. My noble friend has raised a great number 

 of these birds, and has distributed them freely. It is not therefore 

 very siurprising that some which have escaped from confinement have 

 been shot ; but that this species should naturally have a claim to be 

 admitted into the British Faima appears to me very doubtful. The 



