THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 315 



of America in such compact masses that they absolutely in- 

 tercept the rays of the sun, and cast a long track of shadows 

 on the ground. Their compact columns extend over such a 

 space that the eye cannot take in the full extent of it. It 

 has been calculated that it is often sixty leagues in length. 

 The passing of these columns sometimes lasts three hours, 

 and as these birds travel at the rate of nearly twenty 

 leagues an hour their army must necessarily extend over 

 fifty to sixty leagues of sky. 



This immense host never travels by night ; so soon as dark- 

 ness overtakes them, they precipitate themselves, breathless 

 and exhausted, upon the nearest forest, there to rest from 

 their fatigues. Their legions alight in such numbers upon 

 the trees that the great branches yield or break beneath 

 their weight. Soon, however, all the invaders are composed 

 to sleep. 



But scarcely are the pigeons installed there than all the 

 able-bodied people in the country hasten to the spot, and 

 make a complete carnage of them. The well-sustained 

 noise and firing do not in the least interrupt the sleep of 

 these harassed travellers. The victims fall ; the women and 

 children pick them up, or even kill with sticks those pigeons 

 which have perched within their reach. The yield is so 

 abundant that, not being able to consume in the locality all 

 the birds which are killed, they are often obliged to salt and 

 pack them in barrels, so that they may be kept or sent to a 

 distance. 



The cold of winter drives most animals from the Polar 

 regions, and compels them to withdraw to countries more 

 favored by the sun. The penguins of the Cape alone seem 



