rers flew like the winds in flocks of millions from
climate to climate in accord with the weather, finding their
food--acorns, beechnuts, pine-nuts, cranberries, strawberries,
huckleberries, juniper berries, hackberries, buckwheat, rice, wheat,
oats, corn--in fields and forests thousands of miles apart. I have
seen flocks streaming south in the fall so large that they were
flowing over from horizon to horizon in an almost continuous stream
all day long, at the rate of forty or fifty miles an hour, like a
mighty river in the sky, widening, contracting, descending like falls
and cataracts, and rising suddenly here and there in huge ragged
masses like high-plashing spray. How wonderful the distances they flew
in a day--in a year--in a lifetime! They arrived in Wisconsin in the
spring just after the sun had cleared away the snow, and alighted in
the woods to feed on the fallen acorns that they had missed the
previous autumn. A comparatively small flock swept thousands of acres
perfectly clean of acorns in a few minutes, by moving straight ahead
with a broad front. All got their share, for the rear constantly
became the van by flying over the flock and alighting in front, the
entire flock constantly changing from rear to front, revolving
something like a wheel with a low buzzing wing roar that could be
heard a long way off. In summer they feasted on wheat and oats and
were easily approached as they rested on the trees along the sides of
the field after a good full meal, displaying beautiful iridescent
colors as they moved their necks backward and forward when we went
very near them. Every shotgun was aimed at them and everybody feasted
on pigeon pies, and not a few of the settlers feasted also on the
beauty of the wonderful birds. The breast of the male is a fine rosy
red, the lower part of the neck behind and along the sides changing
from the red of the breast to gold, emerald green and rich crimson.
The general color of the upper parts is grayish blue, the under parts
white. The extreme length of the bird is about seventeen inches; the
finely modeled slender tail about eight inches, and extent of wings
twenty-four inches. The females are scarcely less beautiful. "Oh, what
bonnie, bonnie birds!" we exclaimed over the first that fell into our
hands. "Oh, what colors! Look at their breasts, bonnie as roses, and
at their necks aglow wi' every color juist like the wonderfu' wood
ducks. Oh, the bonnie, bonnie creatures, they beat