. Bird lore . y frightened him ifhe was at a distance. On the other hand, with the soft, clucking notes, whichexpressed gentler feelings, even to devotion, the talking bird sidled along theperch to the bird to whom he was talking, and sometimes put his neck overher in a way which clearly showed his tender emotion. The Passenger wasvery quick and nimble in moving sideways along a perch, and this movementwas so characteristic of his courting as to distinguish it from the courting ofany other species. Though all this chattering and kecking was so very expressive, it wasnever sweetly musical. The
. Bird lore . y frightened him ifhe was at a distance. On the other hand, with the soft, clucking notes, whichexpressed gentler feelings, even to devotion, the talking bird sidled along theperch to the bird to whom he was talking, and sometimes put his neck overher in a way which clearly showed his tender emotion. The Passenger wasvery quick and nimble in moving sideways along a perch, and this movementwas so characteristic of his courting as to distinguish it from the courting ofany other species. Though all this chattering and kecking was so very expressive, it wasnever sweetly musical. The loud notes were strident, and even the faintnotes were hard. The male, when courting, gave also a coo, which was musical,but so weak and faint that in my early memoranda I put it down simply asthe weak note; and this little coo, sounding more like keeho, was usuallygiven after the clucking or kecking notes, as a subordinate appendage tothem. The species gave also a nest-call, as do the other Pigeons; but this,. PASSENGER PIGEON, YOUNG like the coo, was weak and inconspicuous compared with the strong and ex-pressive notes described above. The female of this, as of all other Pigeons, was more quiet than the male inboth voice and movement, and distinguishable from him even when motion-less by a characteristic shyness in her attitude, especially in the pose of herhead. So distinct was this difference between the sexes that, in looking at the 98 Bird-Lore accompanying photographs (which came to Bird-Lore without data as tosex), I have ventured to state that four of the figures are of male birds and oneis an excellent illustration of the female. I have not hazarded a guess as tothe sex of the other four adult figures, for they are in postures less distinctiveof sex. (In the attitude of alarm, especially, the male and female become verymuch alike.) The courting behavior of this species, as is evident from what has beensaid about voice and gestures, was very different from the courting
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectorn
