The Flocks of Wild Pigeons. 37 



the Passenger pigeon of America (Columha migratoria). 

 While shooting, or as there called "hunting," these birds 

 in the State of Tennessee, where there are extensive 

 tracts of beech forests, I have seen " gangs " of them so 

 thick on the ground, gobbling up the mast, that not a spot 

 of bare earth has been visible between their bodies. Nay, 

 more, they sometimes crowded so close as to alight on one 

 another's backs, as House pigeons may be often seen to do 

 in a farmyard when the food is thrown down to them in a 

 lump. Never stationary, however, these migratory birds 

 of America. With wonderful rapidity those in the ad- 

 vance clear off the fallen mast, licking it up, as it were, 

 in an instant, the cohort behind constantly taking wing, 

 and flying over to form the front rank, and so on alter- 

 nately, till the surface of the ground, or rather its plumed 

 occupants, seem a sea of slate-blue colour, stirred by 

 wavy undulations. I may add that I have discharged a 

 double-barrelled gun, loaded with No. 5 shot, right in the 

 face of such a flock advancing towards me, and at less than 

 forty yards distance, the result, simply to scare them off, 

 without killing a single pigeon. I was never sure about 

 the reason of this failure of the lead to take effect, nor 

 were others to whom the same circumstance had oft-times 

 occurred, the general belief being, that it was due to the 

 wind from the pigeons' wings sending the shot astray. 

 More likely, . the thick, close plumage on their gorgets 

 and breasts is the shield which protects them. 



The Passenger pigeon is often observed in the northern 

 countries of Europe, and I think it likely breeds in 

 Siberia as well as in America. In the latter, its range 

 extends to the most northern portion of the Continent, 

 and the passage across Behring Straits would be but a 

 few minutes' flight for it. Though having a place in the 



