BRITISH WILD PIGEONS. 39 



most were caught and taken indoors for the 



winter. 



The last of the wild pigeons is in some respects 

 the most interesting. This is the American 

 Passenger Pigeon, and, upon what is generally 

 considered sufficient evidence, it is now recog- 

 nized as a British bird. Several examples have 

 occurred, and whilst some of these were probably 

 " escapes," others doubtless were wild birds. 

 These had perfect plumage, were taken in an 

 exhausted condition, and their crops showed 

 only the slightest traces of food. As is well 

 known, the Passenger Pigeon is a bird of 

 immense power of flight, and in its overland 

 journeys often flies at the rate of a mile a 

 minute. Wild birds, however, can only come 

 from America ; and this opens up the inter- 

 esting question as to the possibility of birds 

 crossing the whole Atlantic without resting. 

 Naturalists of the present day say that this feat 

 is not only probable, but that it is actually ac- 

 complished by several wild birds. Mr. Darwin 

 somewhere asserts that one or two of them are 

 annually blown across the ocean ; and it is 

 certain that half a dozen species have occurred 

 upon the west coasts of England and Ireland 



