PASSENGER PIGEON. 
633 
ders of Lake Champlain in New York, and that the for- 
est to a great extent presented a scene of total ruin. 
The breeding-places , as might naturally be expected, 
differ from the roosts in their greater extent. In 1807, 
according to Wilson, one of these immense nurseries, 
near Shelbyville in Kentucky, was several miles in 
breadth, and extended through the woods for upwards of 
40 miles ! After occupying this situation for a succession 
of seasons, they at length abandoned it, and removed 60 
or SO 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 a 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 count- 
ed upwards of 90 nests in a single tree, and the whole for- 
est was filled with them. These frail cradles for the young 
are merely formed of a few slender dead twigs, negli- 
gently put together, and with so little art, that the con- 
cavity appears scarcely sufficient for the transient recep- 
tion of the young, who are 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 single bird. Audu- 
bon, however, asserts, that there are two, as in the tame 
Pigeons, where the number of the sexes in this faithful 
tribe are almost uniformly equal. Their cooing call, 
billing, and general demeanor are apparently quite simi- 
lar to the behaviour of the domestic species in the breed- 
ing-season. Birds of prey, and rapacious animals gener- 
ally, are pretty regular attendants upon these assailable 
* By some remarkable inadvertence, this place, with all the circumstances , is de- 
scribed by Audubon as a roost of 40 miles by 3 in breadth, about the dimensions of 
Wilson’s breeding-place. 
