52 BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Immature birds very similar to i'emale but much duller in color ; the wing-coverts 

 and scapular feathers, also most of the feathers of head and neck being margined 

 with whitish, have a spotted appearance. 



Length, about 17 inches ; extent, about 24; wing, 8.50 ; tail, 8.40 ; tarsus, 1 inch. 



Hab. Eastern North America, from Hudson's Bay southward, and west to the 

 (Treat Plains, straggling westward to Nevada and Washington Territory. 



The Wild Pigeon and Turtle Dove are the only representatives of 

 the Pigeon family occurring in Pennsylvania. Both species are highly 

 esteemed as articles of food, and in the autumn are eagerly sought 

 after by gunners. Wild Pigeons, during the fall especially, are fre- 

 quently found in this State. They are seen usually in small parties ; 

 a few remain during the summer season and rear their young, in dif- 

 ferent sections of this Commonwealth. 



" We do not have the c millions ' that the earlier writers speak of in 

 the eastern United States now ; * * * the greatest roosts and 

 flights we now hear of are in the upper Mississippi Valley. Nest in 

 trees and bushes, a slight, frail platform of twigs, so open as to leave 

 the egg visible from below. Eggs, white 1 or 2, equal-ended, 1.45 by 

 1,05." Cones. The following interesting description of a flight and 

 roosting place are taken from Audubon's Birds of America : 



"In 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 Hardensburg, I observed the pigeons fly- 

 ing from north-east to south-west, in greater numbers than I thought 

 I had ever seen them before, and feeling an inclination to count the 

 flocks that might pass within the reach of my eye in one hour, I dis- 

 mounted, seated myself on an eminence, and began to mark with my 

 pencil, making a dot for every flock that passed. In a short time, 

 finding the task which I had undertaken impracticable, as the birds 

 poured in in countless multitudes, I rose, and counting the dots then 

 put down, found that 163 had been made in twenty-one minutes. I 

 traveled on, and still met more the farther I proceeded. The air was 

 literally filled with pigeons ; the light of noonday was obscured as by 

 an eclipse ; the dung fell in spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow. 

 Whilst waiting for dinner at an inn at the confluence of Salt river 

 with the Ohio, I saw, at my leisure, immense legions still going by, 

 with a front reaching far beyond the Ohio on the west, and the beech- 

 wood forests directly on the east of me. Not a single bird alighted ; 

 for not a nut or acorn was that year to be seen in the neighborhood. 

 They consequently flew so high that different trials to reach them 

 with a capital rifle proved ineffectual. Before sunset I reached Louis- 

 ville, distant from Hardensburg fifty-five miles. The Pigeons were still 

 passing in undiminished numbers, and continued to do so 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 



