PASSENGER PIGEON. 
5 
It, and removed sixty or eighty miles off to the banks of Green 
River in the same State, where they congregated in equal 
numbers. These situations seem regulated by the prospect of 
n supply of food, such as beech and oak mast. They also 
feed on most kinds of pulse and grain, as well as whortle- 
berries, with those of the holly and nettle tree. Wilson often 
counted upwards of ninety nests in a single tree, and the whole 
forest was filled with them. These frail cradles for the young 
nre merely formed of a few slender dead twigs negligently put 
together, and with so little art that the concavity appears 
scarcely sufficient for the transient reception of the young, who 
readily seen through this thin flooring from below. The 
eggs are white, as usual, and only two in number, one of them 
abortive, according to Wilson, and producing usually but a 
®®gle bird. Audubon, however, asserts that there are two, as 
to the tame Pigeons, where the number of the sexes in this 
^dhful tribe are almost uniformly equal. Their cooing call, 
ing, and general demeanor are apparently quite similar to 
c behavior of the domestic species in the breeding-season. 
It s of prey, and rapacious animals generally, are pretty 
tegular attendants upon these assailable communities. But 
*t most destructive enemy is man ; and as soon as the 
y®ung are fully grown, the neighboring inhabitants assemble 
encamp for several days around the devoted Pigeons with 
^^gons, axes, and cooking utensils, like the outskirts of 
cstnictive army. The perpetual tumult of the birds, 
crowding and fluttering multitudes, the thundering roar of 
you'^ ^^cl the crash of filling trees, from which the 
^ij'ug are thus precipitated to the ground by the axe, pro- 
^together a scene of indescribable and almost terrific 
cr R fo dangerous to walk beneath these clustering 
^ birds, from the frequent descent of large branches 
the congregating millions ; the horses start at 
conversation can only be heard in a shout. 
i nese , 
a 
the 
and conversation can only be heard 
are pr young Pigeons, of which three or four broods 
^nd aT season, are extremely fat and palatable, 
've 1 as the old birds killed at the roosts are often, with 
