394 PASSENGER PIGEON. 
PASSENGER PIGEON.—COLUMBA MIGRATORIA.—Fic. 182. 
Catesby, i, 23.— Linn. Syst. 285.— Turton, 479.— Arct. Zool. p. 322, No. 
87.— Briss. i. 100.— Buff. ii. 527. — Peale’s Museum, No. 5084. 
ECTOPISTES MIGRATORIA.~Swatnson.* 
Ectopistes, Swain. N. Groups, Zool. Journ. No. xi. p. 362. — Columba migratoria 
Bonap. Synop. p. 120.— The Passenger Pigeon, Aud. Orn. Biog.i. p. 319, male 
and female. — Columba (Ectopistes) migratoria,,North. Zool. ii. p. 363. 
_ Tuts remarkable bird merits a distinguished place in the annals-of 
our feathered tribes, —a claim to which I shal] endeavor to do justice ; 
and, though it would be impossible, in the bounds allotted to this 
* In all the large natural groups which have already come under our notice, we 
have seen a great variation of form, though the essential parts of it were always 
beautifully kept up. In the present immense family, Mr. Swainson has charac- 
terized the Passenger Pigeons under the name of Ectopistes, at once distinguished 
by their graceful and lengthened make, and well represented by the common Co- 
lumba migratoria and the Carolina Pigeon of our author, The nicer distinctions 
will be found in the slender bill, and the relative proportions of the feet and wings. 
As far as our knowledge extends, the group is confined to both’ the continents of 
America. A single individual of this species was shot, while perched on a wall, in 
the neighborhood of a pigeon-house at Westhall, in the parish of Monymeal, Fifeshire, 
in December, 1825. It came into the possession of Dr. Fleming, of Flisk, who has 
recorded its occurrence in his British Poahogt. He remarks, that the feathers were 
quite fresh and entire, like a wild bird; but we can only rank it as a very rare 
ga a 
t. Audubon mentions having brought over 350 of these birds, when he last vis- 
ited this country, and distributed them among different country gentlemen. Lord 
Stanley received tifty of them, which he intended to turn out in his park, in-the 
neighborhood of Liverpool. 
5 We have the following additional account from Audubon, of their flights, roost- 
ing, and destruction, in every thing corroborating the «story of Wilson, but too 
interesting to pass by :— 
“Their great power of flight enables them 1o survey and pass over an astonish- 
ing extent of country in a very short time. Thus, Pigeons have been killed in the 
neighborhood of New York, with their crops full of rice, which they must have 
collected in the fields of Georgia and Carolina, these districts being the nearest in 
which they could possibly have procured a supply of food. As their power of di- 
gestion is’so great, that they will decompose food entirely-in twelve hours, they 
must, in this case, have travelled between three and four hundred miles in six hours, 
which shows their speed to be, at an average, about one mile in a minute. A ve- 
locity such as this, would enable one of these birds, were it so inclined, to visit the 
European continent in less than three days. 
“Jn the autumn of 1813, I. left my house at Henderson, on the banks of the 
Ohio, on my way to Louisville. In passing over the Barrens, a few miles beyond 
Hardensburgh, I observed the Pigeons flying from northeast to southwest, in gredter 
numbers than I thought I had ever seen them before. I travelled on, and still met 
more, the farther I proceeded. The air was literally filled with Pigeons. The light 
of the noon day was obscured as by an eclipse. The dung fell in spots not unlike 
melting flakes of snow; and the continued’ buzz of wings had a tendency to Jull 
my senses to repose. ; d 
“ Before sunset I reached Louisville, distant frog: Hardensburgh fifty-five miles. 
‘The Pigeons were still passing in undiminished numbers, and continued to do go for 
three days in succession. The people were all in arms. The banks of the Ohio 
were crowded with men and boys, incessantly shooting at the pilgrims, which there 
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