138 



SUBEllfGDOM VERTEBKATA. 



numbers as to load with nests every tree in a forest forty 



miles long. Each nest 

 ^' ^^ ' contains two eggs, hatch- 



ing usually a male and 

 female, which are believed 

 to pair afc maturity. The 

 male often makes daily 

 excursions of a hundred 

 miles to procure food.* 

 Many millions being thus 

 congregated, it is astonish- 

 ing how each bird in re- 

 turning should go straight 

 to its own mate and nest. 



Ectopistes ?nigratoria, 

 Passenger Pigeon. \. 



ORDER GALLIN.^. 



General Characteristics. — This order includes the 

 hen-like birds. They generally have feeble powers of flight, 



* Their speed is very great. Pigeons have been killed near New York with their 

 crops full of rice, which must have been eaten in the plantations of Georgia and 

 Carolina, six or seven hundred miles distant. As Ihey would digest grain in twelve 

 hours, they must have traveled a mile per minute. They fly in enormous columns 

 miles in length and width. It is estimated that such a flock would require millions of 

 bushels of food each day. Andubon gives a vivid description of a resting-place on 

 Green Kiver, Kentucky. He says : " The noise which they made reminded me of a 

 strong sea-breeze amongst the cordage of a ship. When they passed above my head 

 I felt a current of air which astonished me. Thousands were already struck down 

 by meli armed with poles, but they continued to arrive without intermission. Fires 

 were lighted. The birds precipitated themselves in masses, and pitched where they 

 could, one upon the other, in large heaps like barrels. Then the branches gave way 

 undei' the weight, cracked and fell, bringing to the ground and crushing the closely- 

 packed flocks, which covered every part of the trees. It was a scene of tumult and 

 confusion. In vain I tried to speak, or even to call the persons nearest to me. It 

 was with difficalty that I could hear the guns fire, and I only perceived the men had 

 fired by seeing them reload their arms. Pii^'^eons continued to come, and it was past 

 midnight before I noticed any diminution. The uproar continued all night. At last 

 the day approached, the noise began to abate a little, and long before we could dis- 

 tinguish objects the pigeons commenced to ntart, and at sunrise all that could fly 

 had disappeared. Now it was the ivohes' turn, the howls of which saluted our ears. 

 Foxes, lynses, couG:ars, bears, rats;, opossums, and martens, bounding, running, 

 climbing, pressed to the quarry, whilst eagles and falcons of diiferent species flew 

 down from the air to take their part of such rich booty. The sportsmen then, in 

 their turn, entered into the midst of the dead, the dying, and the wounded. The 

 pigeons were piled in heaps, each took what he wished, and the pigs were left to 

 aatiate themselves on the remainder." 



