May, 1917 BIRDS O1? THI? HUMID COAST 99 Eagles to light on. Flanking the row of tall bare-trunked trees was a younger stand of conifers, handsomely branched to the ground. As I gazed up 'at the trees, suddenly a flock of about fifteen of the large virile Pigeons flew out of their dark depths. A few moments later a loud noise of wings in the direction of the pasture below was followed by the appearance or reappearance of a close flock of fifteen or twenty which quickly vanished in the cool dark timber. As I watched the tree tops in which they had disap- peared, through the.dense evergreen branches I now and then caught suggest- ive glimpses of a head and neck or, as one rose, the band of a square spread t?il, and heard the sound of whacking wings and movements among the branches, together with the characteristic hooting--hoot-ha-hoo, hoo'-ha-hoo; or hoot-oo-hoo, hoot-hoo-ugh, and oop'-oo-ugh, given with mouthed pouter dove qual- ity. While the Pigeons hooted high in the tree tops, from the undergrowth around me came the songs of Western Robins, California Purple Finches, Rusty Song Sparrows, and Russet.-backed Thrushes. Wherever a Pigeon was seen' or heard he became the center of interest, whether flying from a high tree-top across the sky with powerful arrowl/ke flight, hooting in low subdued tones from his hi,ling place in a dense evergreen top, or hooting loudly from the top of a lofty stub--one was seen on top of the two hundred foot stub that marked our clearing--hooting in Owl-like ca- dences-- Whoo-ah, hoo-hoo'; wh.oo-ah, hoo-hoo'; whoo-ah, hoo-hoo; or who-ah-hoo, who-ah-hoo. Two that I saw about the middle of 'June around an old dead spruce sug- gested courtship maneuvers. One, as if on exhibition, sailed on outspread wings completely around the top of the tree, after which it perched on a high branch beside its audience. This soaring before one witness was seen twice within a few days. Once hearing a wkirr through the air I looked up to find two Band-tails erossing overhead with their swift powerful flight. Another time I startled a flock along a wood road where there was an abundance of sal- monberries, and they kept flying up, whacking ?vings, till it seemed as if there must have been fifty in the flock. In the afternoons, generally between three and four o'clock, the Band- tails left their tree-top headquarters and flew, in flocks of varying size, across to the mountains. One day at 3:20 a flock of about twenty-five straggled over; another day at 3:45 when I had about given them up the sound of wings at- traeted my attention and ten birds starled from.the big spruces. Still later, at 4 o'clock one afternoon I saw a flock round a spruce top, swing out dear of the trees, and come up through the sky towards the mountains. As both open water and berries of various kinds were to be found on the slopes, the birds probably went both to drink and to feed. Elderberries, huckleberries, and salmonberries were all on the bushes at 'the same time. So many elderberries are eaten by the Pigeons, I was told, that at times their meat is bitter from them, while the bear berries or cascara that also grow in the Coast Mountains are such a favorite food that the Pigeons will go to a tree of them when in the midst of other berries. Thinking that perhaps the Pigeons drank from the school reservoir up in the woods, in which direction they generally flew, I went up one afternoon to see if I could find any of them there. Though none were found at the time, berry bushes were in bearing just below, and the birds might well come to drink in the
