This elegant and gentle species is generally spread over the old continent, occurring in Europe, Asia, and some parts of Africa ; but it migrates from the colder and more temperate latitudes on the approach of winter, quitting even Italy and Greece at that season. In this isla,nd it occurs chiefly in the south of England, arriving late in the spring, and departing about the latter end of August, frequenting the thickest and most sheltered parts of woods, and building a flat nest of sticks on the highest trees, and sometimes among brush-wood. The female seldom lays more than two eggs, and in this country has only one brood in the year. During their stay of four or five months with us, they pair, build their nests, breed, and rear their young, which are strong enough to join them in their retreat. In Kent they are said to be more common than in any ether county ; and flocks of twenty or more will frequently injure the pea fields. In August, small groups of them are sometimes observed about Romney Marsh. They are generally very shy and retired, and yet easily tamed when captured. From their plaintive and tender note, and their winning attitudes, they have become the proverbial emblems of fond and connubial love, though it has also been alleged that they are more ardent than con stant in their attachments. During breeding time, both parents assist in feeding their young. For this purpose the goats of the crop put on a glandular appearance and ; ; for the first eight ur nine days, secrete a substance much resembling the curd of milk. This is at first thrown up pure, and supplied to the young in that state ; and it is afterwards mixed with the common food, in less propor tions, until its secretion ceases.
117th the tail wedge-shaped.
C. migratoria,Lin. Ece. Passenger Pigeon, Migratory Pigeon, or Canada Turtle. Tail cinereous, neck green golden purple, wings with ovate spots in the middle, breast rufous, and abdomen white. Length from four teen to fifteen inches. The female, which is scarcely so large, has the body of a grey-brown-whitish beneath, and the breast whitish-yellow.
Of all the pigeons of North America, this is the most numerous, traversing, in spring and autumn, the coun tries which are situated between the 20th and 60th de gree of latitude. Their migratory legions will sometimes obscure the light of the sun, and cover a space of two miles in length, and a quarter of a mile in breadth. They travel in the morning and evening, and repose, about midday, in the forests, especially in those which abound in oaks, of the acorns of which they are very covetous. They pre ferably perch on dry and withered branches, and in such dense masses, that they may be shot in great numbers. Although they always shape their course in the same ge neral direction, they seldom observe the same line of march for two seasons in succession, proceeding some times by the maritime, and sometimes by the more inland regions. Once in eight years they steer their way across
Lake Ontario, and are so fatigued, when they alight on its shores, that hundreds of them may be knocked down with sticks. Some of their crowded squadrons are com posed only of young, some only of females, and a few males ; and others, again, almost entirely of the latter. Their passage, whether in spring or autumn, lasts frum fifteen to twenty days, after which they are met with in the centre of the United States. When in the southern districts, they keep always in flocks, but when in the north, they pair, disperse, and nidihcate in the vast forests of Nova Scotia, Canada, Exc. where they commit serious ha voc': on the newly-sonn fields. When La Boman was in Canada, they swarmed to such a degree, that the bishop, he says, had been compelled, more than once, to exorcise them, on account of their extensive depredations. The Indians often watch their roosting places, and, knocking them on the head in the night, bring them away by.thou sands. They preserve the oil, or fat, which they use in stead of butter ; and formerly there was scarcely a little Indian village where a hundred gallons of that commodity might not, at any time, be purchased. By the colonists these birds are generally caught in a net extended on the ground, into which they are allured by tame pigeons of their own species, blind-folded, and connected to the nets by a long string. The short flights and repeated calls of the shackled birds never fail to excite either their curiosi ty or their pity, and to bring them down to the spot, when they are immediately inclosed. Every farmer has a tamed pigeon at his door, to be ready against the season of flight. In Louisiana, they catch them by taking a flat vessel, and, placing some sulphur in it, set it a-light under the trees on which the birds roost, when the smoke so stupifies them that they fall down, and then the hunters pack them up in bags with as little loss of time as possi ble. Their flavour nearly approaches to that of the wild pigeon. Their nest consists of some sticks, arranged, apparently, without much care, on a large branch, about the middle of a lofty tree. They have two or three hatches in the each consisting of two white like those of the domestic pigeon. When they alight, the ground is speedily cleared of all esculent fruits, to the great injury of the hog, and other masticating animals. After having consumed every thing that has fallen on the ground, they form themselves into a great perpendicular column, and fly round the boughs of trees from top to bottom, beating down the acorns with their wings, when they again, in succession, alight on the surface, and again fall to feeding.