632 PIGEON TRIBE. 



hours together the vast host, extending some miles in 

 breadth, still continues to pass in flocks without diminution. 

 The whole air is filled with them ; their muting resembles 

 a shower of sleet, and they shut out the light as if it 

 were an eclipse. At the approach of the Hawk, their 

 sublime and beautiful aerial evolutions are disturbed like 

 the ruffling squall extending over the placid ocean ; as a 

 thundering torrent they rush together in a concentrating 

 mass, and heaving in undulating and glittering sweeps 

 towards the earth, at length again proceed in lofty mean- 

 ders like the rushing of a mighty animated river. 



But the Hawk is not their only enemy, tens of thou- 

 sands are killed in various ways by all the inhabitants 

 far and near. The evolutions of the feeding Pigeons as 

 they circle round, are both beautiful and amusing. 

 Alighting, they industriously search through the wither- 

 ed leaves for their favorite mast ; those behind are con- 

 tinually rising and passing forward in front, in such rap- 

 id succession, that the whole flock, still circling over the 

 ground, seem yet on the wing. 



As the sun begins to decline, they depart in a body 

 for the general roost, which is often hundreds of miles 

 distant, and is generally chosen in the tallest and thickest 

 forests almost divested of underwood. Nothing can ex- 

 ceed the waste and desolation of these nocturnal resorts ; 

 the vegetation becomes buried by their excrements to the 

 depth of several inches. The tall trees, for thousands of 

 acres, are completely killed, and the ground strewed with 

 massy branches torn down by the clustering weight of 

 the birds which have rested upon them. The whole re- 

 gion for several years presents a continued scene of de- 

 vastation, as if swept by the resistless blast of a whirlwind. 

 The Honorable T. H. Perkins, informs me that he has 

 seen one of these desolated roosting-grounds on the bor- 



