THE PASSENGER PIGEON IN PENNSYLVANIA 35 



fluttering multitudes of the old pigeons, their wings 

 roaring like thunder, mingled with vhe frequent crash 

 of falling timber. For now the axe-men were at work 

 cutting down those trees which seemed to be most 

 crowded with nests of the young birds, and contriv- 

 ing to fell the trees in such manner that in their de- 

 scent they might bring down several other trees. The 

 felling of one large tree sometimes orcduced two hun- 

 dred squabs, little inferior in size to old birds, and 

 almost one mass of fat. 



"On some single trees upwards of a hundred nests 

 were found, each containing one young only, a circum.- 

 stance in the history of this bird not generally known 

 to naturalists. It was dangerous to walk under these 

 flying and fluttering millions of birds, from the fre- 

 quent fall of large branches, broken down by the 

 weight of the multitudes above, and which, in their 

 descent, often destroyed numbers of the birds them- 

 selves. I had left the public road to visit the remains 

 of a breeding place near Shelbyvillc, on my way to 

 Frankfort, when about 1 o'clock the pigeons which I 

 had observed flying northerly the greater part of the 

 morning, began to return in such immense numbers as 

 I never before had witnessed. At an opening by the 

 side of Benson creek, I was astonished at their appear- 

 ance. 



"They were flying with great steadiness and rapidity, 

 at a height beyond gunshot, in several strata deep, and 

 so close together that could shot have reached them, 

 one discharge would not have failed of bringing down 



