380 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



chief food of the Wild Pigeon. In seasons when these nuts 

 are abundant, corresponding multitudes of Pigeons maj?^ be 

 confident!}' expected. It sometimes happens that having con- 

 sumed the whole produce of the beech trees in an extensive 

 district, they discover another at a distance perhaps of sixty 

 or eighty miles, to which they regularly repair every morning, 

 and return as regularly in the course of the da}', or in the 

 evening, to their general place of rendezvous, or as it is usually 

 called, the roosting place. These roosting places are always in 

 the woods, and sometimes occupy a large extent of forest. 

 When they have frequented one of these places for some time 

 the appearance it exhibits is surprising. The ground is covered 

 to the depth of several inches with their dung ; all the tender 

 grass and underwood destroyed ; the surface strewed with large 

 limbs of trees broken down by the weight of the birds cluster- 

 ing one above another ; and the trees themselves, for thousands 

 of acres, killed as completely as if girdled with an axe. The 

 marks of this desolation remain for many j'cars on the spot ; 

 and numerous places could be pointed out where for several 

 years after scarce a single vegetable made its appearance." 



In speaking of their breeding-places, AVilson says : "In the 

 western countries above mentioned, these are generally in beech 

 woods, and often extend in nearly a straight line across the 

 country for a great way. Not far from Shelbyville in the state 

 of Kentucky, about five years ago, there was one of these 

 breeding places, which stretched through the woods in nearly 

 a north and south direction ; was several miles in breadth, and 

 was said to be upwards of forty miles in extent ! In this tract 

 almost every tree was furnished with nests, wherever the 

 branches could accommodate them. The Pigeons made their 

 first appearance there about the tenth of April, and left it alto- 

 gether, with their young, before the twenty-fifth of May. 



"As soon as the young were fully grown, and before they left 

 their nests, numerous parties of the inhabitants, from all parts of 

 the adjacent countr}', came with waggons, axes, beds, cooking 

 utensils, many of them accompanied by the greater part of 

 their families, and encamped for several days at this immense 



