A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 3

It was taken at New Leon, Mexico, in March, 1853, by Lieutenant Couch, and on the Rio Grande by Mr. A. Schott. It was first seen by the former in the thick woody bottoms of the San Juan, New Leon. The birds were quite common, but remained very secluded. They are said to be of very rapid flight.

Mr. G. C. Taylor (Ibis, 1860, p. 226) mentions finding these birds not uncommon on Tigre Island, in Honduras, but did not meet with them in the interior. He speaks of them as very handsome birds, but gives no account of their habits.

Mr. Henry E. Dresser found the Red-billed Dove quite common near Matamoras, and breeding there. During the autumn great quantities, as well as of the leucoptera and the carolinensis, are brought to the market for sale. At Brownsville, also, these birds were not uncommon, but were found for only a short distance towards the interior of Texas, and none were seen higher up the Rio Grande than Roma. A Mexican, who shot doves for the market, informed Mr. Dresser that he had found this species breeding near the town of Matamoras, and that it builds a nest somewhat similar to that of Z. carolinensis, but that its two eggs are somewhat larger. Their stomachs were found filled with a kind of blueberry.

Eggs in the Berlandier collection are oval in shape, equal and slightly tapering at either end, and of a creamy-white color. They measure 1.18 inches in length by .90 of an inch in breadth.

Genus ECTOPISTES, Swainson

Ectopistes, Swainson, Zoöl. Jour. III, 1827, 362. (Type, Columba migratoria, L.)

Gen. Char. Head very small. Bill short, black; culmen one third the rest of the head; feathers of the chin running very far forward; gonys very short. Tarsi very short, half covered anteriorly by feathers. Inner lateral claw much larger than outer, reaching to the base of the middle one. Tail very long and excessively cuneate; above as long as the wings. First primary longest. Black spots on scapulars; a black and a rufous spot on inner webs of tail-feathers.

This genus is readily distinguished from the other Columbinæ by the excessively lengthened and acute middle feathers. It formerly included the Columba carolinensis, but this, with more propriety, has been erected into a different genus, and will be found in the next section.

17046 ♂ ½ ½

Ectopistes migratoria.

The Ectopistes migratoria is blue above, the male purplish-red beneath, the female brownish-ashy, passing into whitish behind. The wing above and scapulars are spotted with bluish-black, the sides of the neck with metallic gloss of solferino-purple; the inner webs of tail-feathers have each a rufous and a black spot.

Ectopistes migratoria, SwainsonWILD PIGEON; PASSENGER-PIGEON

Columba migratoria, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 285.—Gm. I, 389.—Forster, Phil. Trans. LXII, 1772, 398.—Wilson, Am. Orn. I, 1808, 102, pl. xliv.—Wagler, Syst. Av. 1827, No. 91.—Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 319; V, 561, pl. lxii. Ectopistes migratoria, Swainson, Zoöl. Jour. III, 1827, 355.—Ib. F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 363.—Bon. Consp. Av. II, 1854, 59.—Aud. Syn. 1839, 194.—Ib. Birds Amer. V, 1842, 25, pl. cclxxxv.—“Reich. Icones Av. tab. 249, figs. 1377, 1379.”—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 600.—Max. Cab. J. VI, 1858, 424.—Lord, Pr. R. A. I. IV, 122 (British Columbia, from coast; nest on ground).—Cooper & Suckley, 218.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 509. Columba canadensis, Linnæus, Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 284.—Gm. I, 1788, 785. Female or young. (Prior name ?) Columba americana, “Kalm, It. II, 527.” Passenger Pigeon, Pennant, II, 322.—Lath. Syn. II, ii, 661.

Sp. Char. Tail with twelve feathers. Upper parts generally, including sides of body, head, and neck, and the chin, blue. Beneath, purple brownish-red, fading behind into a violet tint. Anal region and under tail-coverts bluish-white. Scapulars, inner tertials, and middle of back with an olive-brown tinge; the wing-coverts, scapulars, and inner tertials with large oval spots of blue-black on the outer webs, mostly concealed, except on the latter. Primaries blackish, with a border of pale bluish tinged internally with red. Middle tail-feather brown; the rest pale blue on the outer web, white internally; each with a patch of reddish-brown at the base of the inner web, followed by another of black. Sides and back of neck richly glossed with metallic golden-violet or reddish-purple. Tibiæ bluish-violet. Bill black. Feet lake-red. The female is smaller, much duller in color, more olivaceous above; beneath, pale ash instead of red, except a tinge on the neck; the jugulum tinged with olive, the throat whitish. Length of male, 17.00; wing, 8.50; tail, 8.40.

Hab. North America to high Central Plains; West Humboldt Mountains, Nevada (September; Ridgway). Cuba (Gundl. Rep. I, 1866, 302; Cab. J. IX, 112).

The blue of the side of the head extends to the throat and chin. The upper part of the back and lesser coverts are of a darker blue than the head and rump. The inner primaries are more broadly margined with light blue, which tapers off to the end. The axillars and under surface of the wing are light blue. The longest scapulars have the black on both webs. There is no blue on the outer web of the first tail-feather, which is white, as is the inferior surface of the tail generally.

Ectopistes migratoria.

In some specimens the entire head all round is blue.

The immature male varies in having most of the feathers of the head and body margined with whitish.

Habits. The common Passenger Pigeon of North America is found throughout the continent in great abundance, from the Atlantic to the great Central Plains, and from the Southern States, in which it only occasionally occurs, to at least the 62d parallel of northern latitude, in the interior.

Richardson states that this Pigeon arrives in the fur countries in the latter part of May and leaves in October. On the coast of Hudson’s Bay it reaches no farther than the 58th parallel, and only in very fine summers, but in the interior or in the warmer central districts it attains to the 62d degree. Mr. Hutchins mentions, as a remarkable occurrence, that a flock of these Pigeons visited York Factory and remained two days.

It is not found on the Pacific coast. Dr. Suckley only met with a single bird in immature plumage on a branch of Milk River, in Nebraska, about one hundred and seventy-five miles east of the Rocky Mountains; he thinks the eastern base may be considered their western limit. Dr. Cooper has seen it at Fort Laramie, but has never seen nor heard of it in Oregon, though Townsend mentions it as found there.

Dr. Woodhouse found these Pigeons common throughout the Indian Territory in the spring and fall, during their migrations.

Captain Blakiston noticed the first arrival of the Passenger Pigeons at Fort Carlton, on the 23d of May. By the middle of June numerous flocks were moving northward. These could, at a long distance, be readily distinguished from flocks of water-fowl or waders, by their flight being in no particular order. On the Mackenzie, Mr. Ross observed these birds as far north as Fort Norman in latitude 65°, while on the coast of Hudson’s Bay they are only found as far as 58°, even in warm summers.

The Wild Pigeon appears to be almost entirely influenced in its migrations by the abundance of its food, excepting in those parts of the country in which it has not been known to remain during winter. Even in these movements it is largely influenced by instinctive considerations of food. Evidently the temperature has but little to do with their migrations, as they not unfrequently move northward in large columns as early as the 7th of March, with a thermometer twenty degrees below the freezing-point. In the spring of 1872 a large accumulation of these birds took place early in March, in the eastern portion of New York. They were present in the forests about Albany, and were taken in such immense numbers that the markets of New York and Boston were very largely supplied with them.

As early as the 10th of March they were ascertained to have in their ovaries full-grown eggs, ready for exclusion. In Kentucky they have been known, according to Audubon, to remain summer and winter in the same districts for several successive years, in consequence of the great abundance of food, while in other parts of the State none were to be met with. They suddenly disappeared as soon as the beech-mast had become exhausted, and did not return for a long period.

The Wild Pigeons are capable of propelling themselves in long-continued flights, and are known to move with an almost incredible rapidity, passing over a great extent of country in a very short time. It is quite a common and well-ascertained fact that Pigeons are captured in the State of New York with their crops still filled with the undigested grains of rice that must have been taken in the distant fields of Georgia or South Carolina, apparently proving that they must have passed over the intervening space within a very few hours. Audubon estimates the rapidity of their flight as at least a mile a minute.

The Wild Pigeons are said to move, in their flight, by quickly repeated flaps of the wings, which are brought more or less near to the body, according to the degree of velocity required. During the love-season they often fly in a circling manner, supporting themselves with both wings angularly elevated. Before alighting, they break the force of their flight by repeated flappings.

Their great powers of flight, and the ability thus given to change at will their residence, and their means of renewing a supply of food, are also thought to be seconded by a remarkable power of vision, enabling them to discover their food with great readiness. Mr. Audubon states that he has observed flocks of these birds, in passing over a sterile part of the country, fly high in the air, with an extended front, enabling them to survey hundreds of acres at once. When the land is richly covered with food, or the trees well supplied with mast, they fly low in order to discover the part most plentifully supplied.

Several writers, who have witnessed the occasionally enormous flights of these Pigeons, have given very full and graphic accounts of their immense numbers that seem hardly credible to those who have not seen them. Mr. Audubon relates that in 1813, on his way from Henderson to Louisville, in crossing the barrens near Hardensburg, he observed these birds flying to the southwest in greater numbers than he had ever known before. He attempted to count the different flocks as they successively passed, but after counting one hundred and sixty-three in twenty-one minutes he gave it up as impracticable. As he journeyed on, their numbers seemed to increase. The air seemed filled with Pigeons, and the light of noonday to be obscured as by an eclipse. Not a single bird alighted, as the woods were destitute of mast, and all flew so high that he failed to reach any with a rifle. He speaks of their aerial evolutions as beautiful in the extreme, especially when a Hawk pressed upon the rear of a flock. All at once, like a torrent, and with a noise like that of thunder, they rushed together into a compact mass, and darted forward in undulating lines, descending and sweeping near the earth with marvellous velocity, then mounting almost perpendicularly in a vast column, wheeling and twisting so that their continued lines seemed to resemble the coils of a gigantic serpent. During the whole of his journey from Hardensburg to Louisville, fifty-five miles, they continued to pass in undiminished numbers, and also did so during the three following days. At times they flew so low that multitudes were destroyed, and for many days the entire population seemed to eat nothing else but Pigeons.

When a flight of Pigeons discovers an abundant supply of food, sufficient to induce them to alight, they are said to pass around in circles over the place, making various evolutions, after a while passing lower over the woods, and at length alighting; then, as if suddenly alarmed, taking to flight, only to return immediately. These manœuvres are repeated with various indications of indecision in their movements, or as if apprehensive of unseen dangers. During these manœuvres the flapping of their many thousand wings causes a reverberation suggestive of distant thunder. When at last settled upon the ground, they industriously search among the fallen leaves for the acorns and the beech-mast, the rear flocks continually rising, passing over the main body, and realighting. These changes are so frequent that at times the whole collection appears to be in motion. A large extent of ground is thus cleared in a surprisingly short space of time, and cleared with a completeness that is described as incredible. They are usually satiated by the middle of the day, and ascend to the trees to rest and digest their food. On these occasions the Pigeons are destroyed in immense numbers, and their abundance in large extents of the country has been very sensibly reduced.

In its movements on the ground, as also when alighted on the branches of trees, the Wild Pigeon is remarkable for its ease and grace. It walks on the ground and also on the limbs of trees with an easy, graceful motion, frequently jerking its tail and moving its neck backward and forward.

Mr. Audubon states that in Kentucky he has repeatedly visited one of the remarkable roosting-places to which these birds resort at night. This one was on the banks of Green River, and to this place the birds came every night at sunset, arriving from all directions, some of them from the distance of several hundred miles, as was conjectured from certain observations. This roost was in a portion of the forest where the trees were of great magnitude. It was more than forty miles in length, and averaged three in breadth. It had been occupied as a roost about a fortnight when he visited it. Their dung was several inches deep on the ground, covering the whole extent of the roosting-place. Many trees, two feet in diameter, had been broken down by their weight, as well as many branches of the largest and tallest trees. The forest seemed as if it had been swept by a tornado. Everything gave evidence that the number of birds resorting to that part of the forest must be immense. A large number of persons collected before sunset to destroy them, provided with torches of pine-knots, and armed with long poles and guns. The Pigeons began to collect after sunset, their approach preceded, even when they were at a distance, by a noise like that of a hard gale at sea sounding in the rigging of a vessel. As the birds passed over him, they created a strong current of air. The birds arrived by thousands, fires were lighted, and the work of destruction commenced. Many were knocked down by the pole-men. In many cases they collected in such solid masses on the branches that several of their perches gave way and fell to the ground, in this way destroying hundreds of the birds beneath them. It was a scene of great confusion and continued until past midnight, the Pigeons still continuing to arrive. The sound made by the birds at the roost could be heard at the distance of three miles. As day approached, the noise in some measure subsided; and long before objects were distinguishable the Pigeons began to move off, and before daylight all that were able to fly had disappeared. The dead and wounded birds were then collected and piled into heaps by those who had assembled for the purpose.

Though for the most part living, moving, and feeding together in large companies, the Wild Pigeon mates in pairs for purposes of breeding. They have several broods in the season, and commence nesting very early in the spring, the time being considerably affected by the amount of food. In the spring of 1849 an immense number of these birds collected on Fayston Mountain, near Montpelier, Vt., although at the time of their coming the weather was very cold and the ground covered with snow. There they seemed to find a great abundance of food, berries of the mountain-ash and such other fruit as they could procure, and there they remained, breeding in great numbers, until late in the summer. They were still collected in June, although the whole neighborhood was warring upon them for many miles around, and the markets of Boston and other places were largely supplied with them.

In the extensive forests of Kentucky, Mr. Audubon found them usually collecting and breeding in trees of great height, and always at a convenient distance from water, resorting thither in countless myriads. Their note, during breeding, is described as a short coo-coo, much briefer than in the domestic Pigeon, while their usual call-note is a repetition of the monosyllables kee-kee-kee, the first note being louder and the last fainter than the rest. In the love-season the male puts on the pompous manners peculiar to all Pigeons, and follows the female with drooping wings and expanded tail, the body being held in an elevated attitude and the throat swollen. Occasionally they caress one another in the same manner in which they feed their young, by introducing the bill of one into that of the other and disgorging the contents of their crops.

Their nests are composed of a few dry twigs laid crosswise, and built upon the branches of trees. From fifty to a hundred were seen by Audubon in the same tree, and were said to be frequently at a considerable height. The few I have seen were in low trees, and not more than ten feet from the ground. The eggs are never more than two in number, pure white, and of a broadly elliptical form. During incubation the male bird feeds the mate and afterwards assists in supplying the young birds, and both birds are conspicuous in their demonstrations of affection, both to each other and to their offspring. The young brood, usually both sexes in one nest, leave their parents as soon as they are able to shift for themselves.

In the New England States and in the more cultivated part of the country these birds no longer breed in large communities. The instance near Montpelier, in 1849, is the only marked exception that has come within my knowledge. They now breed in isolated pairs, their nests being scattered through the woods and seldom near one another.

The Wild Pigeon has been successfully kept in aviaries, and has occasionally bred in confinement.

Wilson’s account of the habits of these Pigeons is substantially corroborative of that of Audubon. He witnessed their migrations in vast numbers, in various parts of the country,—in Western New York, in Pennsylvania, in various parts of Virginia, where he beheld their immense flocks with amazement, but where they were mere straggling parties compared with the congregated millions he saw in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky. He also noted their habit of frequenting the same roosting-place night after night, even when they were compelled to fly sixty or eighty miles each day to their feeding-places. His account of their roosting-places is similar to that of Audubon, corroborating the accumulation of the dung covering the surface of the ground and destroying all the grass and underbrush, the breaking down of large limbs, and even of small trees, by the weight of the birds clustering one above another, and the trees themselves at last killed as completely as if girdled by an axe.

One of the breeding-places visited by Wilson, not far from Shelbyville, Ky., stretched through the forest in nearly a north and south direction. This was several miles in breadth, and upwards of forty miles in extent. In this immense tract nearly every tree was furnished with nests wherever there were branches to accommodate them. He was informed by those who had sought to plunder the nests of the squabs, that the noise in the woods was so great as to terrify their horses, and that it was difficult for one person to hear another speak. The ground was strewed with broken limbs, eggs, and young Pigeons. Hawks were sailing about in great numbers, while from twenty feet upwards to the tops of the trees there was a perpetual tumult of crowding and fluttering multitudes of Pigeons, their wings resounding like thunder, and mingled with the frequent crash of falling trees. In one instance he counted ninety nests in a single tree.

When on his way from Shelbyville to Frankfort, Wilson witnessed an immense flight of these birds, and was astonished at their appearance. They were flying with great steadiness and rapidity in several strata deep and very close together. From right to left, as far as the eye could reach, this vast procession extended its immense breadth, seeming everywhere equally crowded. For more than an hour by the watch he stood and observed this prodigious procession, which, instead of diminishing, seemed rather to increase both in numbers and rapidity. Three hours later, as he was entering Frankfort, the living torrent above his head was as numerous and extended as when first observed. Wilson computed the number of Pigeons in this flight at over two thousand two hundred millions.

The most southern point at which this Pigeon is known to breed, as given by Wilson, was in the Choctaw country, in Mississippi, in latitude 32°.

Mr. Ridgway obtained a single specimen of this species in the West Humboldt Mountains, in September, 1867. It was a young bird, and had been feeding on the berries of a species of Cornus.

The eggs of the Wild Pigeon vary considerably in length, and also somewhat in breadth. They average about 1.45 inches in length and 1.05 in breadth. They are white in color, have an oval shape, and are equally rounded at both ends.

Subfamily ZENAIDINÆ

Char. Tarsi stout, lengthened; always longer than the lateral toes, and entirely without feathers; the tibial joint usually denuded. Tarsus sometimes with hexagonal scales anteriorly. Tail-feathers sometimes fourteen.

This subfamily is readily distinguished from the preceding by the longer and more denuded tarsi, the feet being much better fitted for a terrestrial life. The following sections belong to it:—

Zenaideæ. Size moderate. Wings lengthened, acute, the primaries much longer than the secondaries. Tarsus scutellate anteriorly. A blackish spot beneath the auriculars; tail-feathers tipped with white, and with a blackish subterminal bar. Sides of the neck with a metallic gloss.

Bill lengthened, much depressed. A white patch on the wing; no black spots on the scapulars; plumage ashy, lighter beneath. Tail of twelve feathers, rounded … Melopelia.

Bill smaller, more compressed. No white patch on the wing; scapulars with black spots. Above olivaceous, beneath vinaceous.

Tail of twelve feathers rounded … Zenaida.

Tail of fourteen feathers, graduated or cuneate … Zenaidura.

Chamæpelieæ. Size very small. Wings rounded, the primaries scarcely longer than the tertials. Tarsus scutellate anteriorly. No blackish spot beneath the auriculars; no metallic gloss on sides of the neck.

Tail of twelve feathers, lengthened (much longer than wings), doubly rounded, the lateral feathers much shorter; the three outer pairs with white terminally … Scardafella.

Tail of twelve feathers, short (much less than wings), simply rounded, the lateral feathers only slightly shorter; outer feathers without white terminally, or with only a slight edging. Wing-coverts with oblique black spots, and body without transverse blackish bars.

Outside of the tarsus with a narrow feathered strip; lining of the wing blackish … Talpacota.

Outside of the tarsus without a feathered strip; lining of the wing wholly rufous … Chamæpelia.

Starnœnadeæ. Size moderate (generally a little larger than Zenaida); form robust, or quail-like. Legs very stout; tarsi decidedly longer than the middle toe, variously scaled anteriorly. Wings short, very broad, and much rounded, but the primaries decidedly longer than the secondaries.

Legs very stout; tarsi covered with hexagonal scales; crown blue; a black gular patch, bordered below by white … Starnœnas.

Legs moderate; tarsi covered anteriorly with transverse scutellæ. Crown never blue, and throat without black or white markings … Geotrygon.