Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-01
ARMIES OF PIGEONS
FlOcks of Pennsylvania Once NuI
bered a Thousand Million,
ACCORDING TO AUDUBON'S FIGURE
The Amount Of Food They Require and HC
Their Young Are Fed.
COMPARISONS In STAB DISTANCE
WRITTEN FOR THE pIsrArcH1

WRITTEN FOR THE DrsPArcHI
Keen appetite and perfect digestion
supposed to characterize the soldier. T
armies of the world probably aggregs
nearly %, ,000, 900 men, and it almost pr
duces indigestion to even think Of
enormous quantity of food necessary to fe
them every "a hours. But single flock
birds Will sometimes consume more food
day than all the armies on the face of t
earth combined. Not that the birds are su
awful gluttons. The species referred to a
perhaps the gentlest of all birds, and th,
are very dainty feeders. They are the col
mon pigeon, first cousin of the dove, th
scriptural type of innocence and purity.
The numbers constituting the flock, al
not the voracity OF individuals, accounts +
the amazing food supply necessary for the
sustenance. Audubon, the great Americs
ornithologist. saw focks OF pigeons in Mort
ern Pennsylvania which contained as mar
members as the whole population of Il
earth. He reached this conclusion BY es
mating the length and breadth of the flock
eAN sASA oAAO"AuE AOE LWO OlE0S W CNCi
square yard. No man was ever better quail
fed than he to make such an estimate vii
reasonable accuracy. In his great work
the birds of America (Which, if you can bt
copy for S., 900. you will get bargaln)
speaks specially of one flock which on
careful calculation as possible, he estimate
to contain more than a thousand milliC
birds Then, with his intimate knowled;
OF the subject, he figured that this feather,
host would consume in a single day near
nine million bushels of food, and this foe
was not the largest that Audubon saw.
More Than the Soldiers Eat.
But, now assuming that the average SC
dier consume half a peck of food in
hours, (and ii he can do that and live to te
the tale he is a maryel), the food supply.
that flock OF pigeons would in bulk feed K
600, 900 soldiers. In the forests of NortheI
Pennsylvania, half a century ago, it was d
uncommon to lind the woods for dozens
miles literally alive with pigeons in Il
nesting season. There would be nests
every tree, often 300 or 400 in a single ire
and the weight OF the birds when roostir
would cause a continual swapping al
breaking of branches. These enormous biz
colonies would in DAY time keep up such
clatter of sounds that they could be hear
long distances away like the roaring of
approaching tornado.
There is nothing Of land animal kline
even approaching the pigeon in size, thi
crowd together in such vast numbers. FC
multitude they are only equalled by IL
great shoals OF herrings which, descendin
from their Arctic breeding places, maL
miles of ocean look like a moving mass
animal life. The destruction of large fore.
L., l.
the pigeons to seek other resting places, an
soon they will probably disappear entirel
from their favorite haunts. In the pigeo
there is q remarkable example of the way
which nature equips all creatures for the
spheres In life. The pigeon, unlike 9th,
birds,
Has a Double Crop,
forming two pouches on each side of tt
gullet. This duplex craw is ordinaril
smooth on the inner side, but when the il
cubatIng season begins a curious change o
ours. Little Jumps form on the inside an
examination shows that these are glanG
which have become enlarged for very in
portant purpose. They secrete a milk
fluid which mingles with the hard foo
taken into the crop, softens it and rende.
| it fit for the delicate stomachs of the youu
| pigeons when they emerge from the sheI
The mother bird can draw on this store I,
body food at pleasure by sending supple
| from the crop up to the mouth, as man
| other birds do.
1t is evident that nature did not inten
that the father of the young pigeons snoul
loaf around after the manner of a majorit
of other males that wear feathers. Tb
pigeon husband is also provided with th
queer baby food crop, at nesting time, an
liEa tho uOad and faifbfr1l h-ahonl H.,
he is, be takes his turn as nurse, feeding an
caring for his little ones with all the solic
tude that characterizes the mother.
An Idea of Star Distances.
If you could take all the people in th
world, and set them out in space a mil
apart, like mile posts along railroad, an
then, at the farthest end use all the dog
and cats to extend the line of mile posts, 70
would run far short of material to mark tb
distance out to the earth's brother plane
Neptune. Again, If you could use all tb
material of men, women, children, dogs an
cats and put them out so that they would
as far from one another as Boston is froI
San Francisco, your line wouldn't be ha
long enough to reach to the nearest star.
On a clear night the average eve vii
readily see stars as low as the sixth magn
tude. Such a shining beauty as Sirin
winks at you so archly that it seems aImos
impossible that years are consumed in th
passage of its rays to the earth, when we II
member that light travels more than 180, 90
miles in second. Yes, if the nearest of tn
beautiful Iwinklers should be blotte
out at this moment we shoul
still see it, without the slightest change
appearance, two or three years after Chicag
cleans up the debris of the Worlds FAN
But even star so far away as that seem
nearly within touching distance when
find that other stars, visible with the tele
scope, were so far away that, for all W
know, they may have been blotted out be
fore Cain and Abel were born. That is t
say, if those far distant orbs had been utterl'
annihilated, as you would snuff out candle
when Adam and Eve were enjoying them
selves in the Garden of Eden, the rays theI
starting toward the earth, Notwithstanding
the awful speed of light, could not get her
In time to meet the closing OF the nineteenth
century. j. ii. WEBB.