WHITE NUTMEG PIGEON 115 



has been made each season in succession, to estimate the 

 number of nutmeg pigeons passing a given point per 

 minute on their evening flight. With so methodical a 

 bird, it was to be expected that the companies would have 

 favoured points of departure from the mainland, and would 

 fly along precise routes to a common destination. There 

 are thousands of stragglers all along the coast, but the 

 main bodies keep to particular routes. Most of those 

 which rest on the islands in this neighbourhood quit the 

 mainland between Clump Point and Tam o' Shanter, the 

 trend of numbers being toward the latter point. Six 

 miles separate these headlands, but the channel between 

 Tam o' Shanter and Dunk Island is little more than 

 2j miles, so that the pigeons here become concentrated to 

 a certain extent. Early in the season they pass Dunk 

 Island at the rate of about 300 per minute, during the hour 

 and a half preceding sunset. To speak more definitely, but 

 well within the mark, those flying south, easily within 

 range of sight from the sand spit here, may be calculated 

 at something like 27,000. But in reality the procession of 

 birds may cover a breadth of 2 miles, while only those 

 flocks nearest to the observer are included in the estimate. 

 No doubt, fully 100,000 come and go evening and morning. 

 When the incubating season is at its height the number 

 lessens ; when all the young are hatched the unmarshalled 

 procession trails along with but brief intervals between the 

 companies — some flying low over the water, others high 

 and wide. 



Great as the company of birds seems, it is small com- 

 pared with the myriads that favoured the islands in years 

 gone by. Pioneers tell of the days when blacks were 

 wont to make regular expeditions, returning to the main- 

 land with canoes ladened with fledglings and eggs, which 

 in accordance with tradition were devoured by the older 

 men and women. The youngsters of the tribes were 

 nurtured in the belief that if they partook of such luxuries 

 all the pigeons would fly away never to re- visit their haunts. 

 Strange as it may seem, the vast quantities eaten by the 



