48 Wild Bird Guests 



matters for the destroyers, and though the birds 

 were killed wherever they were seen, the great 

 slaughters occurred at the roosts and at the 

 nesting grounds. 



In the time of Wilson and Audubon, one single 

 colony of pigeons would sometimes occupy a 

 forest forty miles long and perhaps three to four 

 wide, every available tree of which would be 

 laden to the breaking point with the nests. Wil- 

 son counted upwards of ninety nests in a single 

 tree, and some trees contained more than a hun- 

 dred. Each nest soon contained one or two fat 

 squabs. Every morning the parent birds started 

 for their feeding grounds, vast forests of beech or 

 oak trees perhaps, possibly two or three hundred 

 miles away; and from noon until late in the 

 afternoon they came pouring in with well-laden 

 crops. Then the pigeon harvest was ripe, and 

 armies of people, men, women, and children from 

 the surrounding country, came in to gather it. 

 Some brought tents, that they might camp upon 

 the scene, and others came with sacks, baskets, 

 and barrels, in which to collect the spoils, and 

 horses and wagons with which to remove them. 

 Then began a fearful massacre, in which no one 

 thought of anything save how he could secure the 

 greatest number of pigeons in the shortest space 

 of time. Some used guns, others clubs or long 



