TAME PIGEONS IN TREES 
53 
municated by ’phone with Mr. Hollis- 
ter, the Superintendent of the Park, and 
he kindly informed me of the fact that 
what I had observed was an everyday 
occurrence with the big flock of tame 
pigeons that “infest” the Park — a 
flock numbering some fifty or sixty 
birds, possibly more. 
Mr. Hollister is of the opinion that 
this flock of pigeons breed under the 
flooring of the great Connecticut Ave- 
nue bridge outside the limits of the 
park, and that they come to the latter at 
sunrise, remaining there until roosting 
time. They are a great nuisance, for 
when the wild fowl are fed at the 
ponds, the entire flock of pigeons a light 
there as the food is spread out, and, 
being rapid feeders, they soon consume 
a good part of it. When anything 
alarms them, the flock flies up and 
alights in some neighboring tree, “just 
like a flock of sparrows:” So numer- 
ous have these pigeons become, and so 
expensive are they on account of the 
food they get away with that has been 
fed to the wild fowl at the ponds and 
other places, that recently it has be- 
come necessary to resort to the shot- 
gun, in that their numbers may be kept 
within reasonable bounds. 
However all this may be, I am still 
of the opinion that the alighting in 
trees of tame pigeons is a reversion to 
a habit possessed by the wild pigeons 
of ancient time, from which the present 
domestic pigeons are descended. 
Tame Pigeons Alighting in Trees. 
Villamont, Virginia. 
To the Editor : 
With reference to the note by Dr. R. 
W. Shufeldt of Washington, D. C.. on 
the above mentioned subject, I am glad 
to have the fact stated by some one else, 
for it confirms my observations. There 
are a number of wild tame pigeons that 
make a fair share of their living on my 
hens’ feed. As many as ten come 
around in the morning and help the 
hens to clean up the place if allowed, 
and they are really clever at it. As the 
day advances most of these leave and 
do not return until the following morn- 
ing, but there are two which come 
around during the day. When I drive 
them off, they generally fly into the 
timber at the back of the house. This 
is so dense that it is difficult to see 
them after they get among the foliage. 
I have watched a light colored one, and 
am almost certain that it alights on the 
tall trees, as everything seems to indi- 
cate that it does so. 1 will do my best 
to make sure and report. 
(Rev.) A. F. Gordon Mackay, 
F. R. M. S. 
“Can You See?” 
Knoxville, Tennessee. 
To the Editor : 
In your July issue you have an in- 
teresting article entitled “Can You 
See?” by the editor of “Lepidoptera.” 
Answernig the query for the vast ma- 
jority of human eyes, I will say — very, 
very dimly! Through a glass darkly, 
I might say. 
This morning while waiting for my 
street car, I called a neighbor’s atten- 
tion to the great number of bees work- 
ing in the sweet clover. It interested 
him. After watching intently for a 
while he said, “Well, well, I never no- 
ticed any honeybees around here be- 
fore.” Within a radius of three miles 
of this man’s home, there are more than 
a million bees. The air is virtually 
alive with the industrious little work- 
ers, yet he had never seen a single one. 
Our country club felt the need of 
additional acres to enlarge its golf 
course. We were endeavoring to buy 
an adjoining field. An expert in laying 
out golf courses happened to be a guest 
of the club one day, and he quickly saw 
that by rearranging the course some- 
what seven acres that had not been 
utilized would become available. Think 
of it! Seven acres of valuable land, 
seven acres that all of us had walked 
over and played over day after day for 
years, and not one pair of eyes could 
even see the ground we walked on ! 
How plainly we see the myriads of 
insects in the air when the sun’s rays 
fall just right for our bedimmed and 
uncultivated eyes. Few of us see the 
beauties of this world. Our vision is 
clouded by indifference and ignorance. 
Sight is by much the noblest of our 
senses. Addison tells us, “Our sight is 
the most perfect and delightful of our 
senses : it fills the mind with the largest 
variety of ideas ; converses with its ob- 
jects at the greatest distance and con- 
tinues the longest in action without be- 
ing tired or satiated with its proper en- 
joyments.” Respectfully, 
R. E. Gettys. 
