WILD PIGEON. AA 
olivaceous above, below dull grayish, with a tawny tinge anteriorly, or quite gray ; 
very young have the feathers skirted with whitish; length, 15-17; wing, 7-8; tail 
about the same. 
Habitat, the greater portion of North America, but scarcely west of the Rocky Moun- 
tains. Pacific coast near latitude 499°. Nevada. Cuba. Accidental in Europe. 
Formerly an extremely abundant summer resident and migrant, 
appearing in all seasons. Now, much less abundant and irregular. Not 
known to breed at present, though it probably does so. Until about 
1855, Pigeons were extremely abundant in Central Ohio, having at and 
before this time a roost and breeding place near Kirkersville, Licking 
county. Then, for weeks at a time, they might be observed flying over 
this city or around itssuburbs. In the morning soon after sunrise until 
9 o'clock or after, their flight was westward, from the roost. In the after- 
noon, from four o’clock till sundown they were returning. During these 
periods, they were never out of sight, and often dozens of flocks were in 
view at once. These flocks were not of large size, but may be estimated 
to consist of from five hundred to fifty thousand birds, and it was their 
daily habit to leave their roost in search of food, in thismanner. Whether 
those leaving in the morning invariably returned the same evening, or 
how far their journeys for food extended is not known. At such times 
they fed both in beech and oak woods and cornfields. When feeding 
upon acorns they were rather quietly dispersed among the branches of 
the trees, but beech nuts were generally collected from the ground. In 
their flight over the city, they were usually at long gun-shot range or 
higher, but in the country they flew nearer the ground, and following the 
plane of any inequalities. Vast numbers were shot, killed with poles 
on their roosts, or captured in nets. Dr. Kirtland states that near Circle- 
ville, in 1850, 1,285 were caught in a single net in one day. And even 
this number was not exceptional if the price at which they weresold is any 
indication. Many thousands were offered for sale in the market of this 
city. Most of them were brought alive in coops, and the purchaser had 
the choice of carrying them home alive or having them killed on the spot. 
If he chose the latter, the seller by a dexterous movement fractured or 
dislocated the bird’s neck between his teeth. The average price at this 
time was five or six cents a dozen. 
Mr. Read states that in the spring of 1851, they appeared “in vast 
numbers in the flelds feeding upon the dead grasshoppers, the remains 
of the countless hordes, which well nigh devoured ‘ every green thing’ 
during the preceeding summer and fall,” a statement which will surprise 
ornithologists who have been accustomed to consider birds of this family 
as exclusively vegetarian. 
