Besides the fancy varieties raised in' the United States, great numbers of the common sorts are bred for use at shooting-matches and for table consumption in the form of squabs. Most of the supply comes from the small lofts owned by numerous farmers and stablemen, but in a few places the business has been entered upon on a more extensive scale: Besides many species known as doves, four species popularly designated as pigeons occur in the United States. Three of these belong to the typical genus Columba, to which the rock pigeon belongs. These are the band-tailed pigeon (C. fasciata) of the Rocky Mountain and Pacific region, with a distinct sub-species in Lower California; the red-billed pigeon (C. flavirostus) from Arizona southward, and the white-crowned pigeon (C. leucocephala) of Florida and the West Indies. They all differ greatly from the rock-pigeon in habits, being wood-pigeons, which build their nests in trees and bushes, among whose branches they largely live, though they feed upon the ground on acorns, nuts, seeds, etc. They lay two eggs, like most pigeons, and are gregarious, the first es-+ pecially often collecting in great flocks. From all of these the famous passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratprius) is clistinguishable at a glance by its long tail composed of 12 slender, tapering feathers. It is a large bird, having a total length of 16 to 18 inches, and, with its grateful form and beautiful metallic tints, is a bird of impressive appearance. This bird has
no fixed abode, 'but wanders widely in great flocks in search of food. Formerly it ranged throughout North America east of the Rocky Mountains and occasionally pushed even to the shores of the Pacific. It was most abundant, however, east of the Great Plains and in tem perate regions. At the present time it has practically disappeared from most of this re gion and is now found in any numbers only in the upper Mississippi Valley and the borderland between the United States and Canada. See PASSENGER PIGEON ; HOMING PIGEONS, and the names of various groups and species.
Consult Darwin, C.,