"WILD PIGEON. 441 



olivaceous above, below dnll grayish, with a tawny tinge anteriorly, or quite gray ; 

 very young have the feathers skirted with whitish ; length, 15-17 ; wing, 7-8 ; tail 

 abont the same. 



Habitat, the greater portion of North America, but scarcely west of the Rooky Moun- 

 tains. Pacific coast near latitude 49°. Nevada. Cuba. Accidental in Europe. 



Formerly an extremely abundant summer resident and migrant, 

 appearing in all seasons. Now, much less abundant and irregular. Not 

 known to breed at present, though it probably does so. Until about 

 1855, Pigeons were extremely abundant in Central Ohio, having at and 

 before this time a roost and breeding place near Kirkersville, Licking 

 county. Then, for weeks at a time, they might be observed flying over 

 this city or around its suburbs. In the morning soon after sunrise until 

 9 o'clock or after, their flight was westward, from the roost. In the after- 

 noon, from four o'clock till sundown they were returning. During these 

 periods, they were never out of sight, and often dozens of flocks were in 

 view at once. These flocks were not of large size, but may be estimated 

 to consist of from five hundred to fifty thousand birds, and it was their 

 dailj' habit to leave their roost in search of food, in this manner. Whether 

 those leaving in the morning invariably returned the same evening, or 

 how far their journeys for food extended is not known. At such times 

 they fed both in beech and oak woods and cornfields. When feeding 

 upon acorns they were rather quietly dispersed among the branches of 

 the trees, but beech nuts were generally collected from the ground. In 

 their flight over the city, they were usually at long gun-shot range or 

 higher, but in the country they flew nearer the ground, and following the 

 plane of any inequalities. Vast numbers were shot, killed with poles 

 on their roosts, or captured in nets. Dr. Kirtland states that near Circle- 

 ville, in 1850, 1,285 were caught in a single net in one day. And even 

 this number was not exceptional if the price at which they were sold is any 

 indication. Many thousands were offered for sale in the market of this 

 city. Most of them were brought alive in coops, and the purchaser had 

 the choice of carrying them home alive or having them killed on the spot. 

 If he chose the latter, the seller by a dexterous movement fractured or 

 dislocated the bird's neck between his teeth. The average price at this 

 time was five or six cents a dozen. 



Mr. Read states that in the spring of 1851, they appeared " in vast 

 numbers in the fields feeding upon the dead grasshoppers, the remains 

 of the countless hordes, which well nigh devoured ' every green thing ' 

 during the preceeding summer and fall," a statement which will surprise 

 ornithologists who have been accustomed to consider birds of this family 

 as exclusively vegetarian. 



