PASSENGER PIGEON. 2 Q-J 



The nest of the wild pigeon is formed of a few dry slender 

 twigs, carelessly put together, and with so little concavity, 

 that the young one, when half grown, can easily be seen from 

 below. The eggs are pure white. Great numbers of hawks, 

 and sometimes the bald eagle himself, hover about those 

 breeding places, and seize the old or the young from the nest 

 amidst the rising multitudes, and with the most daring 

 effrontery. The young, when beginning to fly, confine them- 

 selves to the under part of the tall woods where there is no 

 brush, and where nuts and acorns are abundant, searching 

 among the leaves for mast, and appear like a prodigious torrent 

 rolling along through the woods, every one striving to be iu 

 the front. Vast numbers of them are shot while in this 

 situation. A person told me that he once rode furiously into 

 one of these rolling multitudes, and picked up thirteen pigeons, 

 which had been trampled to death by his horse's feet. In a 

 few minutes they will beat the whole nuts from a tree with 

 their wings, while all is a scramble, both above and below, 

 for the same. They have the same cooing notes common to 

 domestic pigeons, but much less of their gesticulations. In 

 some flocks you will find nothing but young ones, which are 

 easily distinguishable by their motley dress. In others, they 

 will be mostly females ; and again, great multitudes of males, 

 with few or no females. I cannot account for this in any other 

 way than that, during the time of incubation, the males are 

 exclusively engaged in procuring food, both for themselves 

 and their mates ; and the young, being unable yet to undertake 

 these extensive excursions, associate together accordingly. 

 But, even in winter, I know of several species of birds who 

 separate in this manner, particularly the red-winged starling, 

 among whom thousands of old males may be found with few 

 or no young or females along with them. 



Stragglers from these immense armies settle in almost 

 every part of the country, particularly among the beech woods, 

 and in the pine and hemlock woods of the eastern and 

 northern parts of the continent. Mr Pennant informs us 



