21 
 
 
factor should not be overlooked. Trapping and shooting of the adults 
took place from the time of selection of the roost until it "broke."

Every adult killed meant probably the desertion of a nest. As noted 
above the female was away for a four hour period and in case of the 
death of the male the nest would be unprotected during this time. If 
the female were netted, the nest was without doubt deserted. Where 
as high as ioo nests were found on a single tree, competition for nest- 
ing sites must have been keen. It is accordingly not at all improbable 
that a female that needed a nest would appropriate an unoccupied one 
and deposit a second egg. 
    The contemporaneous accounts of the 1871 nesting say nothing 
at all regarding the number of eggs, and little as to the squabs. The 
Fond du Lac correspondent writes as though there was but one squab 
in a nest: "When the nest was within reach the squaws punched the 
young pigeon(s)* from its home, and caught it as it fell. When too 
high to reach, the skillful archer generally at the first shot drove the

large headed arrow plump to the center of the nest, and the young 
bird, shot first upward, then fell dead." 
    The writer on the Bloomer nesting says: "On every tree dozens 
of rude nests are visible, over the edges of which an occasional 'squab'

peeps his inquisitive head." 
    The description of the 1882 nesting at Kilbourn is very specific 
on this point: "  in each nest is a 'squab'-a little yellow pigeon 
about as big as one's thumb, and three-fourths mouth.-These birds 
have a rule which the pestiferous English sparrow might adopt with 
benefit to Milwaukee--one egg to a nest." 
    It is probable that two squabs were frequently found in one nest 
but one was without doubt an orphan. A description of a nesting in 
a beech forest in Pennsylvania mentions rows of nests on the limbs. 
Where there were several nests on the same branch, a hungry, orphaned 
bird, if able to do so, would naturally move into the nest of a squab 
being fed, and be adopted into the family. This takes place with tame 
pigeons. After the lapse of many years, fhe memory of an occasional 
pair of squabs, coupled with the powerful subconscious stimulant of 
 
    *Evidently the plural is a typographical error.