170 On tlic Common Pis^con, 



" These migrations appear to be undertaken rather in quest of food, fban 

 merely to avoid the cold of the climate ; since we find them lingering in the 

 northern regions, around Hudson's Bay, so late as December ; and, since 

 their appearance is so casual and irregular, sometimes not visiting certain 

 districts for several years in any considerable numbers, while at other times 

 they are innumerable. I have witnessed these migi'ations in the Genesee 

 country, often in Pennsylvania, and also in various parts of Virginia, with 

 amazement ; but all that I had then seen some of them were mere straggling 

 parties, when compared with the congregated millions which I have since 

 beheld in om* western forests, in the states of Ohio, Kentucky, and the Indiana 

 territory. These fertile and extensive regions abound with the nutritious 

 beech nut, which constitutes the chief food of the 'Wild Pigeon. In seasons 

 when these nuts are abundant, corresponding multitudes of Pigeons may be 

 •confidently expected. It sometimes happens that, having consumed the 

 v>^hole produce of the beech trees, in an extensive district, they discover 

 another, at the distance perhay)s of sixty or eighty miles, to which they 

 regularly repair every morulijg, and return as regularly in the course of the 

 day, or in the evening, to their place of gener.al 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. 'Wlien 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 sm^face strewed with large 

 limbs of trees, broken down by the weight of the birds clustering one above 

 another ; and trees themselves, for thousands of acres, killed as completely 

 as if girdled with an axe. The marks of this desolation remain for many 

 jears on the spot ; arid numerous places could be pointed out, where, for 

 several years after, scarcely a single vegetable made its appearance. 



" When these roosts are first discovered, the inhabitants, from considerable 

 -distances, visit them in the night with guns, clubs, long poles, pots of sulphur, 

 and various other engines of destruction. In a few hours, they fill many 

 eacks, and load their horses w^ith them. By the Indians, a Pigeon roost, or 

 breeding place, is considered an important source of national profit and 

 dependence for that season ; and all their active ingenuity is exercised on the 

 occasion. The breeding place differs from the former in its greater extent. 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 10th of April, and 

 ieft it altogether, with their young, before the 2jth of May. 



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

 ainmerous iiartlcs of the mhabitants, from all parts of the adjacent country^, 



