File:Reptiles and birds. A popular account of the various orders; with a description of the habits and economy of the most interesting. (1873) (14769549663).jpg

Identifier: reptilesbirdspo00figu (find matches)
Title: Reptiles and birds. A popular account of the various orders; with a description of the habits and economy of the most interesting.
Year: 1873 (1870s)
Authors: Figuier, Louis, 1819-1894 Gillmore, Parker
Subjects: Birds Reptiles
Publisher: New York : D. Appleton and Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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justified by thekind attention which the male shows the female, especially durmgthe period of incubation. The Migratory or Passenger Pigeon (Edopistes migratorms, Fig.163) is the Columba migratoria of many authors: it inhabits NorthAmerica. They are remarkable for the strength and rapidity of theirflight, and for the migrations which they accomplish. The American naturalist, Audubon, says, Pigeons have beenkilled in the neighbourhood of New York having their crops stillfull of rice, which they could not have obtained nearer than thefields of Georgia and Carolina —600 or 700 miles distant. Astheir digestion is sufficiently rapid to entirely decompose grain in 428 REPTILES AND BIRDS. the space of twelve hours, it follows that they must have travelledthe above space at the rate of a mile a minute. One of these birds,if able to keep up this velocity, could visit the European continent(from America) in less than three days. It is not for the purpose of seeking a warmer climate that they
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Fig. 163.—Migratory Pigeons. undertake their journeys, but to procure food when the acornsbecome scarce in the woods which they inhabit. Their migrations,consequently, are irregular as to date. Looking at the innumerableand closely packed masses of passenger Pigeons which take part inthese voyages confuses the mind. Audubon one day endeavouredto count the flocks which passed above him in one hour. He counted163 in twenty minutes, but he was soon obliged to give up, the PIGEONS IN FLIGHT. 429 flights succeeded each other so rapidly. He says: The more Iadvanced, the more pigeons I met. The air was hterally filledwith them. The dayUght in fi^iU mid-day was obscured as I yan echpse ; the dung fell like flakes in a tall of snow; the buzzingof their wings stunned me, and gave me a sleepy sensation. ThesePigeons are endowed with very strong sight. When flying at aconsiderable height they can perfectly distinguish the places whichwill furnish them with the means of subsistence. Having found

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