One day later in the season, when they were raising the second family, my attention was again attracted by the same cries. A pair of my tame Pigeons, looking for a place to build, had lighted on the cornice over the door not far from the nest, and both Peter and Phœbe were trying to drive them away. They would dart almost up to them, all the while snapping their bills vigorously, as though catching a succession of insects, but before the Pigeons could strike with their wings, would dart away, and like a flash be back again. They did not seem to be calling on me for assistance, but were themselves fighting for what they considered their rights, and evidently did not think Pigeons "as harmless as Doves." The warfare continued at intervals for several days, until the Pigeons decided it was an unpleasant locality for a future home, and retired to the barn.
Birds Through a Telescope
The season is approaching when the migration of birds may be studied to advantage through a telescope. A 2-inch hand glass may be used, though a higher power is preferable. It should be focused on the moon, across the surface of which the bird is seen passing.
September 3, 1887, at Tenafly, N. J., Mr. John Tatlock, Jr., and myself, using a 61/2-inch equatorial, saw 262 birds cross the moon's disc between the hours of eight and eleven (The Auk, V, p. 37), and we have since repeated the observation.
Studies of this nature should throw much light on the question of 'highways of migration,' and at the same time furnish an idea of the number of birds passing through a given space during a given time; and, more particularly, they should tell us the height at which birds perform their nocturnal journeys.