114 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



they make! Thus they are concealed. Not only their 

 prating or quivet is like a sharp creak, but I heard a 

 sound from them like a dull grating or cracking of 

 bough on bough. 



On a white oak beyond Everett's orchard by the road, 

 I see quite a flock of pigeons; their blue-black droppings 

 and their feathers spot the road. The bare limbs of the 

 oak apparently attracted them, though its acorns are 

 thick on the ground. These are found whole in their 

 crops. They swallow them whole. I should think from 

 the droppings that they had been eating berries. I hear 

 that Wetherbee caught ninety-two dozen last week. 



April 16, 1855. In the meanwhile heard the quivet 

 through the wood, and, looking, saw through an opening 

 a small compact flock of pigeons flying low about. 



April 26, 1855. Going over Ponkawtasset, hear a 

 golden-crested (?) wren, 1 — the robin's note, etc., — in 

 the tops of the high wood ; see myrtle-birds and half a 

 dozen pigeons. The prate of the last is much like the 

 creaking of a tree. They lift their wings at the same 

 moment as they sit. There are said to be many about 

 now. See their warm-colored breasts. 



April 27, 1855. Heard a singular sort of screech, 

 somewhat like a hawk, under the Cliff, and soon some 

 pigeons flew out of a pine near me. 



May 26, 1855. Saw a beautiful blue- backed and long- 

 tailed pigeon sitting daintily on a low white pine limb. 



Sept. 2, 1856. A few pigeons were seen a fortnight 



1 [He afterwards learned that this bird with the robin-like notes in 

 its song was the ruby-crowned wren, or kinglet, not the golden-crowned.] 



