MIGRATORY PIGEON. 
293 
also wants the rich silky bine on the crown, and much 
of the splendour of the neck ; the tail is also somewhat 
shorter, and the white, with which it is marked, less 
pure. 
188. COLUMBA MIGRA TORIA, LINNJEUS AND WILSON. 
MIGRATORY PIGEON. 
WILSON, PLATE XLIV. FIG. I. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
This remarkable bird merits a distinguished place in 
the annals of our feathered tribes ; a claim to which I 
shall endeavour to do justice ; and, though it would he 
impossible, in the bounds allotted to this account, to 
relate all I have seen and heard of this species, yet 
no circumstance shall be omitted with which I am 
acquainted, (however extraordinary some of these may 
appear), that may tend to illustrate its history. 
The wild pigeon of the United States inhabits a wide 
and extensive region of North America, on this side 
of the Great Stony Mountains, beyond which, to the 
westward, I have not heard of their being seen. 
According to Mr Hutchins, they abound in the country 
round Hudson’s Bay, where they usually remain as late 
as December, feeding, when the ground is covered with 
snow, on the buds of juniper. They spread over the 
whole of Canada ; were seen by Captain Lewis and his 
party near the Great Falls of the Missouri, upwards of 
2,500 miles from its mouth, reckoning the meanderings 
of the river; were also met with in the interior of 
Louisiana by Colonel Pike ; and extend their range as 
far south as the Gulf of Mexico ; occasionally visiting 
or breeding in almost every quarter of the United States. 
But the most remarkable characteristic of these birds 
is their associating together, both in their migrations, 
and also during the period of incubation, in such prodi- 
gious numbers, as almost to surpass belief ; and which 
has no parallel among any other of the feathered 
tribes, on the face of the earth, with which naturalists 
are acquainted. 
