n the
Eastern States.

The following incident in relation to it is extracted from the "Cabinet
of Natural History:" "I once started a hen pheasant with a single young
one, seemingly only a few days old; there might have been more, but I
perceived only this one. The mother fluttered before me for a moment;
but, suddenly darting towards the young one, she seized it in her bill,
and flew off along the surface through the woods, with great steadiness
and rapidity, till she was beyond my sight. I made a very active and
close search for others, but did not find any."

THE PIGEON.

This genus includes a great variety of doves and pigeons, all of which
are remarkable for their tenderness and constancy.

The PASSENGER PIGEON.--Audubon gives us the following description of a
forest in Ohio, which was the resort of the passenger pigeon: "Every
thing proved to me that the number of birds resorting to this place
must be immense beyond conception. As the period of their arrival
approached, a great number of persons collected, and prepared to
receive them. Some were furnished with iron pots, containing brimstone;
others with torches of pine-knots; many with poles, and the rest with
guns. Two farmers had driven upwards of two hundred hogs more than a
hundred miles, to be fattened upon the devoted pigeons! The sun was
lost to our view, yet not a pigeon had arrived. Every thing was ready,
and all eyes were gazing on the clear sky, when suddenly there burst
forth a general cry of 'Here they come!' The noise that they made,
though far distant, reminded me of a hard gale at sea through the
rigging of a close-reefed vessel. As the birds arrived, and passed over
me, I felt a current of air that surprised me. Thousands were soon
knocked down by the pole-men. The birds continued to pour in. The fires
were lighted, and a magnificent as well as terrifying sight presented
itself. Pigeons, arriving in thousands, alighted every where, one over
another, until solid masses as large as hogsheads were formed on the
branches all around. It was a scene of uproar and confusion. I found it
quite useless to speak, or even to shout, to those persons nearest to
me. This uproar continued all night. Towards day the pigeons began to
move off, and at sunrise, all that could fly had disappeared: the dead
and the dying were then picked up and piled in heaps, while the hogs
were let loose to feed on the remainder."

MUSICAL PIGEON.--Bertoni, a famous instruct