The Passenger Pigeon 65 



a sound resembling the croaking of wood frogs. Their 

 combined clamor can be heard 4 or 5 miles away when 

 the atmospheric conditions are favorable. Two eggs 

 are usually laid, but many nests contain only one. Both 

 birds incubate, the females between 2 o'clock P.M. and 

 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock the next morning; the males 

 from 9 or 10 o'clock a.m. to 2 o'clock p.m. The 

 males feed twice each day, namely, from daylight to 

 about 8 o'clock A.M. and again late in the afternoon. 

 The females feed only during the forenoon. The 

 change is made with great regularity as to time, all the 

 males being on the nest by 10 o'clock A.M. 



"During the morning and evening no females are 

 ever caught by the netters; during the forenoon no 

 males. The sitting bird does not leave the nest until 

 the bill of its Incoming mate nearly touches its tail, 

 the former slipping off as the latter takes It place. 



"Thus the eggs are constantly covered, and but few 

 are ever thrown out despite the fragile character of the 

 nests and the swaying of the trees in the high winds. 

 The old birds never feed in or near the nesting, leaving 

 all the beech mast, etc., there for their young. Many 

 of them go 100 miles each day for food. Mr. Stevens 

 is satisfied that pigeons continue laying and hatching 

 during the entire summer. They do not, however, use 

 the same nesting place a second time in one season, the 

 entire colony always moving from 20 to 100 miles after 

 the appearance of each brood of young. Mr. Stevens, 



