PASSENGER PIGEON. 253 



ralist was pleased to declare himself fully satisfied ; adding that he had 

 now no doubt of the Night-hawk and the Whip-poor-will heing two very 

 distinct species of Caprimulgus. 



" It is not the intention of the writer of this to enter at present into 

 a description of either the plumage, manners, migrations, or economy 

 of these birds, the range of country they inhabit, or the superstitious 

 notions entertained of them ; his only object at present is the correction 

 of an error, which, from the respectability of those by whom it was 

 unwarily adopted, has been but too extensively disseminated, and re- 

 ceived by too many as a truth." 



ORDER lY. COLUMBJ:. COLUMBINE. 



Genus XLVIII. COLUMBA. PIGEON. 



Species I. C. MIGBATORIA. 



PASSENGER PIGEON. 



[Plate XLIV. Pig. 1.] 



Catesb. I., 23.— Linn. Syst. 285.— Tcrton, Al^.—Arct. Zool. p. 322, No. 187. 

 — Beisson, I., 100.— Buff, ii., 527.* 



This remarkable bird merits a distinguished place in the annals of 

 our feathered tribes ; a claim to which I shall endeavor to do justice ; 

 and though it would be impossible, in the bounds allotted to this account, 

 to relate all I have seen and heard of this species, yet no circumstance 

 shall be omitted with which I am acquainted (however extraordinary 

 some of these may appear), that may tend to illustrate its history. 



The Wild Pigeon of the United States inhabits a wide and extensive 

 region of North America, on this side of the Great Stony Mountains, 

 beyond which to the westward, I have not heard of their being seen. 

 According to Mr. Hutchins, they abound in the country round Hud- 

 son's Bay, where they usually remain as late as December, feeding, 

 when the ground is covered with snow, on the buds of juniper. They 

 spread over the whole of Canada — were seen by Captain Lewis and 

 his party near the Great Falls of the Missouri, upwards of two thousand 

 five hundred miles from its mouth, reckoning the meanderings of the 

 river — were also met with in the interior of Louisiana, by Colonel Pike ; 

 and extend their range as far south as the Gulf of Mexico ; occasionally 

 visiting or breeding in almost every quarter of the United States. 



* Columba migratoria, Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 612, No. 70. 



