PASSENGER PIGEON. 



36 



heavens resembling the windings of a vast and majestic river. 

 When this bend became very great, the birds, as if sensible of the 

 unnecessary circuitous course they were taking, suddenly changed 

 their direction, so that what was in column before became an 

 immense front, straightening all its indentures until it swept the 

 heavens in one vast and infinitely extended line. Other lesser 

 bodies also united with each other, as they happened to approach, 

 with such ease and elegance of evolution, forming new figures, and 

 varying them as they united or separated, that I never was tired of 

 contemplating them. Sometimes a Hawk would make a sweep on 

 a particular part of the column from a great height, when, almost 

 as quick as lightning, that part shot downward out of the common 

 track; but, soon rising again, continued advancing at the same 

 height as before. This inflection was continued by those behind, 

 who, on arriving at this point, dived down almost perpendicularly 

 to a great depth, and, rising, followed the exact path of those that 

 went before. As these vast bodies passed over the river near me, the 

 surface of the water, which was before smooth as glass, appeared 

 marked with innumerable dimples, occasioned by the dropping of 

 their dung, resembling the commencement of a shower of lar^e 

 drops of rain or hail. 



" Happening to go ashore one charming afternoon to purchase 

 some milk at a house that stood near the river, and while talking 

 with the people within doors, I was suddenly struck with astonish- 

 ment at a loud rushing roar, succeeded by instant darkness, which, 

 on the first moment, I took for a tornado about to overwhelm the 

 house and everything around in destruction. The people, observ- 

 ing my surprise, cooly said, ' It is only the Pigeons ;' and on run- 

 ning out, I beheld a flock, thirty or forty yards in width, sweeping 

 along very low between the house and the mountain, or height, 

 lhat formed the second bank of the river. These continued pass- 

 ing for more than a quarter of an hour, and at length varied their 

 bearing so as to pass over the mountain, behind which they disap- 

 peared before the rear came up. 



" In the. Atlantic States, though they never appear in sucn 

 unparalleled numbers, they are sometimes very numerous, and 

 great havoc is then made among them with the gun, the clap-net, 

 and various other implements of destruction. As soon as it is 

 ascertained in a town that the Pigeons are flying numerously in 

 the neighborhood, the gunners rise en masse; the clap-nets are 

 spread out on suitable situations, commonly on an open height in 

 an old buckwheat-field ; four or five live Pigeons, with their eye- 

 lids sewed up, are fastened on a movable stick ; a small hut of 

 branches is fitted up for the fowler at the distance of forty or fifty 

 yards. By the pulling of a string, the stick on which the Pigeon 

 rests, is alternately elevated and depressed, which produces a 

 fluttering of their wings similar to that of birds just alighting. 

 This being perceived by the passing flocks, they descend with 

 great rapidity, and, finding corn, buckwheat, etc., strewed about, 

 begin to feed, and are instantly, by the pulling of a cord, covered 

 by the net. In this manner ten, twenty, and even thirty dozen, 

 have been caught at one sweep. Meantime the air is darkened 

 with large bodies of them moving in various directions ; the woods 

 also swarm with them in search of acorns ; and the thundering of 

 musketry is perpetual on all sides from morning to night. Wagon- 

 loads of them are poured into market, and Pigeons become the 

 order of the day at dinner, breakfast, and supper, until the very 

 name becomes sickening. When they have been kept alive and 

 fed for some time on corn and buckwheat, their flesh acquires 

 great superiority ; but in their common state they are dry and 

 blackish, and far inferior to the full-grown young ones, or squabs. 

 " 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 these breeding-places, and 

 seize the old or the young from the nest amid the rising multitudes, 

 and with the most daring effrontery. The young, when beginning 



to fly, confine themselves to the under part of the tall woods, where 

 there is no brush, and where nuts'and acorns are abundant, search- 

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

 rolling along through the woods, every one striving to be in 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 gesticu- 

 lations. 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 can not account for this in any other 

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

 sively 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. 



" Strao-pflers 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 that they breed near Moose 

 Fort, at Hudson's Bay, in N. lat. 51 ; and I myself have seen the 

 remains of a large breeding-place as far south as the country of 

 the Choctaws, in lat. 32 . In the former of these places they are 

 said to remain until December, from which circumstance it is 

 evident that they are not regular in their migrations, like many 

 other species, but rove about as scarcity of food urges them. 

 Every spring, however, as well as fall, more or less of them are 

 seen in the neighborhood of Philadelphia ; but it is only once in 

 several years that they appear in such formidable bodies, and this 

 commonly when the snows are heavy to the north, the winter here 

 more than usually mild, and acorns, etc., abundant. 



" The Passenger Pigeon is sixteen inches long and twenty-four 

 inches in extent ; bill black ; nostril covered by a high rounding 

 protuberance ; eye, brilliant fiery orange ; orbit, or space surround- 

 ing it, purplish flesh-colored skin ; head, upper part of the neck, 

 and chin, a fine slate-blue, highest on the chin ; throat, breast, and 

 sides, as far as the thighs, a reddish-hazel ; lower part of the neck 

 and sides of the same, resplendent changeable gold, green, and 

 purplish crimson, the latter most predominant : the ground color, 

 slate (the plumage of this part is of a peculiar structure, ragged 

 at the ends) ; belly and vent, white ; lower part of the breast, 

 fading into a pale, vivacious red ; thighs, the same ; legs and feet, 

 lake, seamed with white ; back rump and tail-coverts, dark slate, 

 spotted on the shoulders with a few scattered marks of black ; the 

 scapulars tinged with brown ; greater coverts, light slate ; pri- 

 maries and secondaries, dull black, the former tipped and edged 

 with brownish white; tail, long and greatly cuniform, all the 

 feathers tapering toward the point — the two middle ones plain, deep 

 black, and the other five, on each side, hoary white, lightest near the 

 tips, deepening into bluish near the bases, when each is crossed 

 on the inner vane with a broad spot of black, and nearer the root 

 with another of ferruginous ; primaries, edged with white ; bastard 

 wing, black. 



" The female is about half an inch shorter, and an inch less in 

 extent ; breast, cinereous brown ; upper part of the neck inclining 

 to ash ; the spot of changeable gold, green, and carmine, much 

 less, and not so brilliant; tail-coverts, brownish slate; naked 

 orbits, slate-colored; in all other respects like the male in color, 

 but less vivid, and more tinged with brown ; the eye not so brill- 

 iant an orange. In both, the tail has only twelve feathers." 

 The following account is taken from " Nuttall's Ornithology :" 



