86 
THE PASSENGER PIGEON. 
approaching the wood, can with difficulty hear each 
other speak. Amidst these scenes of apparent bustle 
and confusion, there reigns, notwithstanding, the 
most perfect regularity and order. The old ones 
take their turns regularly in feeding their young ; 
and when any of them are killed upon their nests, 
others immediately supply their places. 
It has been said, that they only lay one egg at a 
time, but this is not strictly true, many of them 
laying two. But even at this rate, it would he dif- 
ficult to account for their vast numbers, without the 
further knowledge of their prolific nature, and the 
rapid growth of the young birds. Their sittings 
are renewed, or rather continued ; one pair haring 
been thus known to produce seven, and another, 
eight times in one year. In twenty-three days from 
the laying of the egg, the young ones could fly, being 
completely feathered on the eighth day. When the 
broods are matured, with the exception of, probably, 
some tons of the young, which are killed, and carried 
off by actual waggon-loads, being more esteemed for 
food than the old ones, they continue their course 
towards the north; from whence, in December, they 
return in the same dense mass, and are usually 
found to be remarkably fat: proving, that in the 
northern regions they find an ample supply of food ; 
and vast, indeed, must be the stock, to furnish and 
fatten such a swarm of hungry mouths. In the 
crop of one of our common English Wood-Pigeons, 
just killed, we found upwards of an ounce of the 
fresh-budding leaves of clover, and in another, men- 
tioned by Mr. White, of Selborne, was found 
an equal quantity of tender turnip-tops, so nice 
