582 AVES— PIGEON. 



trees, two feet in diameter, I observed, were broken at no great distance from 

 the ground, and the branches of many of the largest and tallest so much so, 

 that the desolations already exhibited, equalled that performed by a furious 

 tornado. As the time elapsed, I saw each of the anxious persons about to 

 prepare for action ; some with sulphur in iron pots, others with torches of 

 pine knots, many with poles, and the rest with guns, double and treble 

 charged. The sun was lost to our view, and not a pigeon had yet arrived; 

 but, all of a sudden, I heard a general cry of ' Here they come !' The noise 

 which they made, though distant, reminded me of a hard gale at sea, pass- 

 ing through the rigging of a close-reefed vessel. As the birds arrived, and 

 passed over me, I felt a current of air that surprised me. Thousands were 

 soon knocked down by the polemen. The current of birds, however, kept 

 increasing. The fires were lighted, and a most magnificent as well as won- 

 derful and terrifying sight was before me. The pigeons, coming in by mil- 

 lions, alighted every where, one on the top of another, until masses of them, 

 resembling hanging swarms of bees as large as hogsheads, were formed on 

 every tree in all directions. These heavy clusters were seen to give way, as 

 the supporting branches, breaking down with a crash, came to the ground, 

 killing hundreds of those which obstructed their fall, forcing down other 

 equally large and heavy groups, and rendering the whole a scene of uproar 

 and of distressing confusion. I found it quite useless to speak, or even to 

 shout to those persons nearest me. The reports even of the different guns 

 were seldom heard, and I knew only of their going off by seeing the owners 

 reload them. 



" No person dared venture within the line of devastation, and the hogs 

 had been penned up in due time, the picking of the dead and wounded suf- 

 ferers being left for the next morning's operation. Still the pigeons were 

 constantly coming, and it was past midnight before I perceived a decrease 

 in the number of those that arrived. The uproar continued, however, the 

 whole night ; and, as I was anxious to know to what distance the sound 

 reached, I sent off a man, who, by his habits in the woods, was able to tell 

 me, two hours afterwards, that at three miles he heard it distinctly. Towards 

 the approach of day, the noise rather subsided ; but, long ere the objects 

 were all distinguishable, the pigeons began to move off in a direction quite dif- 

 ferent from that in which they had arrived the day before, and at sunrise, 

 none that were able to fly remained. The howling of the wolves now 

 reached our ears, and the foxes, the lynxes, the cougars, bears, racoons, 

 opossums, and polecats, were seen sneaking off the spot, whilst the eagles 

 and hawks of different species, supported by a horde of buzzards and car- 

 rion crows, came to supplant them, and reap the benefits of this night of 

 destruction. 



" It was then that I, and all those present, began our entry amongst the 

 dead aid wounded sufferers. They were picked up in great numbers, until 



