CHAPTER XVII. 
PIGEONS, DOVES, BITTERNS, CRANES, AND HERONS. 
Terms used by sportsmen for describing companies of birds. - 
The wild pigeon (Hefopistes migratorius) is more 
abundant than any other bird on the Continent, for its 
numbers are so incalculable that the word ‘ myriads” 
is the only one which will give a person an idea of 
the vast throngs that swarm over the country during 
the breeding season. ‘These pass certain regions in 
such dense masses that they actually shut out the sun, 
while the movements of their wings produce a roar like 
that of a hurricane. When they alight in a forest, the 
trees seem to be one mass of feathers, for scarcely a leaf 
can be seen, and every branchlet capable of holding a bird 
contains one. Some of the pigeonries cover an area of one 
hundred and eighty square miles, and as each tree bears 
from one to fifty nests, a person can imagine what a stir- 
ring scene the forest presents. The birds begin building 
their nests about the first of April, and before that time 
if the season is favorable. These nests consist of a few 
bunches of dry sticks and twigs, yet they are so ingen- 
iously interlaced with the branches that heavy winds can- 
not dislodge them. The female lays only one or two 
eggs, and these are generally fertile. When the young 
are hatched the branches are sometimes so heavily 
weighted that they snap and fall to the ground, or re- 
main hanging like broken limbs. The forest presents a 
very ragged appearance on such occasions, and looks as 
if it had been swept by a tornado. If the first laid eggs 
are destroyed, the pigeons are supposed to lay another 
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